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And the update:
Dear Shareholder,
This post is further to the above, in which I outlined that the business was facing 2 main difficulties:
• The global financial uncertainty making the environment for investment deals much more
challenging
• A scientific issue in relation to our biobank assets
We have now completed a restructuring which has seen us reduce headcount by around 1/3, and technically we now have sufficient cash runway to last us until May, although this is dependent on delivering work we won in the latter part of last year and new contracts we may enter into over the coming weeks.
We have also been working hard on solving some of the scientific issues I alluded to
previously. However, it is fair to say that it looks like these are proving to be more complex and
difficult to solve than we had previously anticipated.
During the coming weeks we will be pursuing a number of avenues to seek further funding for the business. We are engaged with one potential VC, and we will (via our Corporate Finance adviser) be going out to a range of other potential investors imminently.
However, the situation remains challenging, and has been made more so by the resignation last week of Chris Noakes, who had stepped up to the CEO position in December, in order to take on a role in his home city of San Diego. Richard Goldstein has also stood down from the Board on the basis that he does not feel that the business can benefit at present from what he can add (general commercial experience, strategic and legal input), whereas the current pressing issue is scientific in nature.
Whilst I and the other Board members (all of whom have invested significant sums into the
business) are working as hard as we can to try to secure the future of the business, I am afraid I cannot provide any assurance that we will be successful in this endeavour.
I will keep you posted as to progress.
Regards,
Jonathan Engler, Chairman