ClinPhone into the red

Clinical trials technology supplier ClinPhone is undergoing a costly restructuring after losing £1.7 million in the first half-year.

The fully listed company, which provides technology to cut the length and cost of clinical drug trials and to improve the accuracy of their results, increased revenues 11.5 per cent to £23 million in the six months to August. But administrative costs rose 35 per cent to £14.3 million and customers began to buy ClinPhone electronic data capture products as software services rather than licensed products and so the income can only be recognised in staged payments, rather than in single lump sums up front.

These developments and ‘adverse foreign exchange movements’ (such as a weak US dollar) helped turn a £1.8 million pre-tax profit into a loss of almost the same size. The company, which made a £4 million pre-tax profit in the year to last February, says a £465,000 programme of retraining the sales force and restructuring operations will cost £355,000 in the second half-year.

Senior managers, headed by chief executive Steve Kent, are taking an average 13 per cent salary cut for the rest of the year in the drive to restore profitability. ClinPhone, which had a £51 million order book at the end of August, more than doubled investment in new products to £2.8 million in the first six months and says the number of business proposals grew 40 per cent to 599.

ClinPhone’s shares have tumbled from 224p in June last year to 64p today, up from August’s 54.25p low and valuing the company at £42 million. Their recovery prospects are speculative.

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