Fusion Antibodies

The company states that it was founded in Belfast in 2001, originally as a spin-out from Queen’s University Belfast, starting with mouse hybridoma technology.⁠[1]

The company was founded by Paul Kerr, who went on to serve as chief executive and was its public face for two decades.⁠[2][3]

The venture capital firm Crescent Capital invested in Fusion Antibodies in 2006. Crescent Capital’s profile states that the company’s Fusion Expression Technology (FET) platform, which speeds target validation from DNA sequence to recombinant protein expression, had won several awards.⁠[4]

The company began as a drug developer and moved to contract research work in 2011.⁠[5]

On December 18, 2017, the company’s ordinary shares were admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market under the ticker FAB. It raised £5.5 million before expenses through a conditional placing of 6,707,317 new shares at 82 pence, while selling shareholders sold 1,310,976 existing shares for £1.1 million; the enlarged share capital was 22,091,192 shares, of which the new shares were about 30.4%, giving a market capitalisation of £18.1 million at the placing price. Allenby Capital Limited acted as nominated adviser and broker.⁠[5]

The proceeds were earmarked for laboratory expansion, sales and marketing, new service lines and working capital. The company had been profitable in its two previous trading years, with sales of £1.9 million in the year to March 2017 and an order book of £1.3 million at September 30, 2017; Paul Kerr was chief executive.⁠[6]

In April 2020 the company announced an oversubscribed placing of about 3.3 million new shares at 90 pence in two tranches, alongside the sale of 547,235 existing shares for selling shareholders at the placing price; the new shares represented about 13% of the issued share capital, and £1 million of the placing required approval at a general meeting on May 15. The funds were for further proof-of-concept work on its mammalian antibody library discovery platform for COVID-19, existing oncology work and working capital. The company also expected revenue for the year to March 2020 to be significantly ahead of market expectations and above the previous year’s £2.2 million.⁠[3]

In December 2020 Fusion Antibodies and Queen’s University Belfast received £453,000 from Invest Northern IrelandInvest Northern IrelandInvest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) is Northern Ireland’s regional economic development agency, a non-departmental public body and arm’s-length body of the Department for the Economy. It was established on April 1, 2002, under the Industrial Development Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 and is headquartered in Belfast.Open the full entry for the Northern Ireland Coronavirus Antibody Development Alliance (NICADA), to accelerate the discovery of therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies with anti-SARS-CoV-2 properties and to build a commercially competitive antibody development platform.⁠[7]

On February 16, 2021, the company appointed Richard Jones as chief executive; Paul Kerr left the board with immediate effect and remained as a consultant, and chairman Simon Douglas thanked him for about ten years of leadership. Jones had about 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience and had most recently led BrYet Limited. The company was then focused on commercialising OptiMAL, its mammalian antibody library, including COVID-19 and oncology targets.⁠[8]

In the year ended March 31, 2021, revenue rose 7% to £4.165 million from £3.895 million; the loss before tax was £1.264 million (prior year: £1.073 million), and the loss for the year was £2.899 million after a £1.764 million write-off of deferred tax assets; year-end cash was £2.686 million. A placing of 3,519,167 new shares during the year raised £3.019 million before costs. The company averaged 49 UK employees, and Invest Northern Ireland grants of £194,000 were recognised as other operating income.⁠[9]

When it published its annual results in August 2021, the company had demonstrated control models on the OptiMAL platform and expected initial revenue from it in 2022; its RAMP affinity maturation platform had been expanded and was being marketed under the OptiMAS brand; and it announced that Richard Buick would assume the role of chief scientific officer.⁠[9]

In February 2022 Richard Jones resigned as chief executive after about a year in the role, and the board began a formal search for a successor.⁠[2]

Jones stepped down on March 11, 2022; until a new chief executive was appointed, chairman Simon Douglas took responsibility for running the business, supported by chief financial officer James Fair, chief scientific officer Richard Buick and senior management.⁠[10]

On July 28, 2022, the company announced the appointment of Adrian Kinkaid as chief executive with effect from August 15, 2022. Kinkaid had 25 years of experience in life sciences and biotherapeutics; he had most recently been CEO of Vortex Liquid Biopsy Solutions and Vortex Biosciences, had led antibody diagnostics companies including BioFab and Lumabs, and had held roles at Promexus, the Aptamer Group and Abcam. He holds a PhD in biochemistry.⁠[11]

In the year ended March 31, 2023, revenue fell 40% to £2.901 million (prior year: £4.799 million), the loss before tax was £2.859 million (prior year: £1.333 million) and year-end cash was £195,000; average headcount was 54, with 48 at year end, reduced further to 29 after the year end. The auditors included an emphasis of matter on a material uncertainty over going concern.⁠[12]

In June 2023 the company issued 33,438,768 new shares at 5 pence through a placing, directors’ subscription and retail offer, raising about £1.67 million before expenses at a discount of about 84%; the restructuring that followed delivered savings of about £1.6 million, mainly through redundancies. Chief financial officer James Fair left the board on May 31, 2023, and Stephen Smyth became company secretary and interim chief financial officer.⁠[12][13]

The company launched its AI/ML-Ab platform in August 2023 and in November 2023 announced a two-year collaboration agreement with the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) for OptiMAL.⁠[13]

In March 2024 the company placed 34,375,000 shares at 4 pence, raising £1.375 million before expenses. In the year ended March 31, 2024, revenue was £1.14 million, with a gross loss of £45,000, a loss before tax of £2.29 million, year-end cash of £1.20 million and an order book of about £0.75 million; average monthly staff numbered 31, including four non-executive directors. In April 2024 it launched the OptiPhage platform.⁠[13]

In December 2024 the company announced an award under the Future Medicines Institute (FMI) grant to a consortium led by Queen’s University Belfast, which it said would bring it about £1 million of direct non-dilutive funding plus access to equipment, supporting platform development in diagnostics and therapeutics.⁠[14]

On March 18, 2025, the company announced a placing at 6.75 pence per share raising about £1.17 million before expenses, for additional R&D, general working capital and commercial activities.⁠[14]

In the year ended March 31, 2025, revenue rose 73% to £1.965 million, the loss before tax was £1.777 million and year-end cash was £359,000; average monthly headcount was 24, and there were no changes to the board during the year.⁠[14]

On April 24, 2025, the company announced an Innovate UK Launchpad grant, led by the company in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast, to humanise a DR5-targeting lead antibody; total funding was more than £808,000, of which up to £545,000 was expected to go to the company over about 18 months.⁠[14]

On August 5, 2025, the company announced the grant of its US patent for OptiMAL; in December 2025 it officially launched the OptiMAL platform at the Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics conference in San Diego.⁠[15]

In January 2026 the company issued 11,056,905 new shares at 13 pence through a non-pre-emptive placing and subscription, raising about £1.4 million before expenses for OptiMAL equipment, marketing and working capital.⁠[15]

In the year ended March 31, 2026, revenue was about £2.11 million (prior year: £1.97 million), including about £250,000 from a one-off sale of intellectual property to Finn Therapeutics, with underlying service revenue of £1.86 million; the gross margin was 58.3% (prior year: 22%), other operating income £872,000 (mainly from the FMI grant), R&D spending £861,000, the operating loss £1.13 million, the loss before tax £1.15 million and year-end cash £1.04 million. The directors made a full provision against the amount due from Finn Therapeutics because of its financial position, and stated that a material uncertainty existed over the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.⁠[15]

The results were published on September 14, 2026; the next day the company issued a replacement announcement correcting the gross margin from 53% to 58.3%, with all other details unchanged.⁠[15]

On October 15, 2026, the company announced unaudited revenue of about £457,000 for the six months to September 30, 2026 (prior-year period: £838,000), a gross margin of 10% (prior-year period: 30%) and cash of £135,000 at the period end; chairman Simon Douglas said difficult market conditions had affected first-half trading. The company had introduced cost reductions including a temporary recruitment freeze, and the board was reviewing working capital requirements.⁠[16]

The company also disclosed that the first in vivo study in its grant-supported DR5 therapeutic antibody programme showed two of four antibody formats significantly slowing tumour growth in mice implanted with human colorectal cancer cells; patents had been granted in Japan in May 2026 and in Canada in September 2026, with an Australian application receiving a notice of acceptance in August; and an agreement for the NCI to continue using OptiMAL as a front-line screening platform was under negotiation.⁠[16]

On October 22, 2026, the company announced a project from the US-based specialty division of a global pharmaceutical company covering transient gene expression of the client’s lead antibody followed by a cryo-electron microscopy study, expected to generate revenue of more than £85,000.⁠[17]

On November 6, 2026, the company announced a new affinity engineering project, using its RAMP technology, from a European-listed global pharmaceutical company, expected to generate revenue of more than £45,000.⁠[18]

The company describes itself as a contract research organisation focused on early preclinical development of therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies, offering antibody discovery, engineering and supply with in silico and wet-lab capabilities across ten laboratories totalling more than 2,000 square metres. It says it has completed more than 1,800 antibody development projects since 2001, partnered with more than 700 organisations and advanced 12 therapeutic antibodies to the clinic. Its head office is at Springbank Industrial Estate, Dunmurry, Belfast.⁠[1]

The company holds ISO 9001:2015 accreditation, has a proprietary CDRx antibody humanisation platform and has developed platforms for veterinary antibody discovery for companion animal and livestock health.⁠[1]

As of November 2026, the board members listed on the company website are Simon Douglas, Adrian Kinkaid, Richard Buick, Colin Walsh, Matthew Baker and Stephen Smyth; in the October 2026 announcement Simon Douglas is named as chairman, Adrian Kinkaid as chief executive and Stephen Smyth as chief financial officer.⁠[19][16]

Besides its spin-out origin and the jointly funded projects above, the company website lists a research alliance with Queen’s University Belfast and a knowledge transfer partnership on antibody library design software.⁠[20]

Fusion Antibodies plc is registered in Northern Ireland (company number NI039740); it was incorporated on November 29, 2000, as Fusion Antibodies Limited and has used its present name since December 11, 2017, with its registered office at 1 Springbank Road, Springbank Industrial Estate, Belfast, and registered activities including research and experimental development on biotechnology.⁠[21]

Fusion Antibodies: Official website: https://fusionantibodies.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fusion-antibodies-plc/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]