LONDON – Viral challenge study service provider hVIVO is in “search mode” to buy small contract research organizations (CROs) to help reach its goal of £100 million ($130 million) in revenue by 2028, CEO Yamin Khan told Endpoints News.
The London-based company, which also offers laboratory services and consulting, is targeting small CROs with Phase 1 trial facilities, Khan said on the sidelines of its Capital Markets Day on Wednesday.
“We are looking at different add-ons to what we already have,” he said, adding that its ideal targets would be companies based in the UK. The company primarily stages human challenge trials, which are designed to purposely infect healthy volunteers with a virus or a pathogen to study vaccine efficacy and safety.
HVIVO’s present and future services will help it reach its 2028 target, Khan said. The company’s capacity has already grown in recent months, which led to a 30% revenue jump, he added. At the event, the company said it reached a record revenue of £35.6 million ($46 million) in the first half of 2024, which is up 30% compared to the £27.3 million ($36 million) in the same period last year.
The company’s facility in London now houses a containment level 3 laboratory, which can be used for trials that involve pathogens like dengue, on top of three other labs for cell culture, molecular development and virology processing. It said it has space for expansions, including a potential bacterial culture lab and an extra 20 quarantine beds for human challenge trials.
Sometime this year, hVIVO will launch a database of clinical trial volunteers that CRO partners can access, dubbed FluCamp Portal. As for its lab services, it will be expanding its assay portfolio and the types of pathogens it can study, such as yellow fever, dengue and Zika viruses.