Oxford Biomedica (OXB.L) — Company Research

Last Updated: 23 September 2026

OXB plc — legally still Oxford Biomedica plc — is a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) for cell and gene therapies. It makes the viral vectors, principally lentiviral and adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, that biotech and pharma clients use to deliver genetic material into patients' cells, and it earns fees for developing processes and manufacturing batches under contract. 2026 has been a year of sharp swings: the board rejected four take-private proposals from EQT in January and February, then on 7 August cut full-year revenue guidance to £180–200m from £220–240m. The H1 2026 results on 22 September showed revenue up 9% but a wider loss, and the aggregated short position in the shares has risen to 7.67%. This report sets out the figures from the company's own results announcements, with no analyst opinions and no price targets.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Legal name	Oxford Biomedica plc, trading as OXB since September 2024
Exchange / ticker	London Stock Exchange Main Market, OXB (OXB.L)
Sector	Healthcare — cell and gene therapy CDMO (viral vector development and manufacturing)
Sites	Oxfordshire, UK; Lyon and Strasbourg, France; Bedford, Massachusetts and Durham, North Carolina, US
CEO / Leadership	Dr Frank Mathias, Chief Executive Officer. CFO Dr Lucinda Crabtree; Chair Dr Roch Doliveux; COO Eric Schmidhäuser (joined August 2026)
Employees	1,017 at 30 June 2026 (986 at 31 December 2025)
Revenue (FY2025)	£168.7m, up 31% reported
Net income (FY2025)	Loss after tax £30.6m; basic EPS (26.92)p
Market cap	~£582m at 481.0p on 23 September 2026
Shares in issue	121,049,785 at 31 August 2026, none in treasury
Client book	50 clients and 59 programmes as at September 2026, including 3 commercial agreements
Reporting currency / year end	Pounds sterling; 31 December. Half-yearly results with trading updates

OXB earns most of its revenue in US dollars from US clients but reports in sterling, so the constant-currency figures it quotes alongside reported numbers differ slightly. The company pays no dividend.

2. Bull Case and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Revenue is growing again: revenue rose 31% to £168.7m in FY2025 and a further 9% to £79.8m in H1 2026. About £168m of the guided FY2026 revenue was covered by contracts as at September 2026.
• A broadening client base: OXB added 17 new clients in H1 2026 and 4 more after the period end, taking the book to 50 clients and 59 programmes, up from 40 clients and 48 programmes in March 2026. Its non-risk-adjusted pipeline is about $713m, up roughly 30% year on year.
• Multi-site, multi-vector capacity now in place: Durham's GMP facility is online with its first GMP run complete, the French AAV and lentiviral suites are GMP-qualified, and Oxfordshire's capacity expansion was completed in H1 2026. The company offers both lentiviral and AAV work on two continents.
• Management's stated medium-term trajectory: revenue growth of 25–30% in both FY2027 and FY2028, at least double-digit EBITDA margin in FY2027, and an ambition of about £500m of revenue in 2030.
• Strategic value was tested by a bidder: EQT made four take-private proposals in January and February 2026, all rejected by the board as undervaluing the company, before walking away on 25 February.

Bear Case

• Guidance has already been cut once: on 7 August 2026 FY2026 revenue guidance fell from £220–240m to £180–200m, and the EBITDA margin target dropped from about 10% to mid-single digits excluding one-offs, citing client deferrals, staged ordering and a six-month delay at Durham.
• Heavy client concentration: the two largest clients provided about 71% of H1 2026 revenue (£42.0m and £14.2m), up from about 62% in FY2025. A single client's procurement change was one of the reasons for the guidance cut.
• Still loss-making and burning cash: the H1 2026 loss after tax was £37.0m and net cash used in operating activities was £17.4m. Cash fell from £96.9m at the year end to £66.8m at 31 August 2026.
• Short sellers are building positions: the FCA aggregated net short position rose from 2.02% on 9 July to 7.67% on 21 September 2026.

3. Revenue Segments

OXB reports revenue by type of service. The FY2025 split is below; in H1 2026 manufacturing rose to 54% of revenue, development was 34%, procurement 10.6% and licences 1.5%.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Manufacturing — £81.1m	48.1%	GMP production of viral vector batches for clinical trials and commercial supply, including commercial lentiviral vector supply under a multi-year agreement with BMS signed in February 2026
Development — £60.1m	35.6%	Process and analytical development work that takes a client's vector from research towards a manufacturable, regulator-ready process
Procurement and storage — £22.3m	13.2%	Raw materials procured and recharged to clients, plus storage of client material
Licences, milestones and royalties — £5.2m	3.1%	Income from licensing OXB's vector technology and intellectual property to partners

By client location in FY2025, the US accounted for 83.9% of revenue (£141.6m), Europe 14.2%, the UK 1.8% and the rest of the world 0.1%.

4. Business Model & Moat

How it makes money. OXB is a service business. Clients pay for development work, for manufacturing runs, and for materials procured on their behalf. Revenue is recognised as work progresses, so it rises and falls with clients' clinical timetables. Early-stage programmes bring development fees; programmes that reach late-stage trials and commercial approval bring recurring manufacturing revenue. Of the 59 programmes in the book in September 2026, 50 were pre-clinical to early clinical, 6 late-stage clinical and 3 commercial.

What protects it. Viral vector manufacturing is technically demanding and heavily regulated. OXB's platforms include LentiVector and the TetraVecta fourth-generation lentiviral system, the inAAVate dual-plasmid AAV platform and stable producer cell lines, plus an FDA-approved commercial-scale site in Durham. Once a client has run a trial on vector from a particular process and site, switching manufacturer means re-validating, which creates stickiness for programmes that progress.

Operating leverage cuts both ways. The cost base — people, cleanrooms and leases — is largely fixed. Gross margin fell to 37% in H1 2026 from 43% a year earlier as new capacity in Durham and France carried costs ahead of revenue. Management targets an EBITDA margin approaching 30% by FY2030/31 if utilisation rises as planned.

Where the model is weakest. Revenue depends on a small number of large clients and on biotech funding conditions that determine whether clinical programmes proceed. The August 2026 guidance cut showed how quickly deferrals translate into lower revenue.

5. Financial Health

All figures below come from OXB's own preliminary and interim results announcements. Revenue is in pounds sterling; EPS in pence.

Fiscal Year	Revenue (£m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	142.8	+62.8%	22.77p	22.77p†	Nil	Nil
FY2022	140.0	-2.0%	(41.29)p	(41.29)p†	Nil	£39.8m
FY2023	89.5	-36.1%	(163.11)p	(163.11)p†	Nil	£38.5m
FY2024	128.8	+43.9%	(41.75)p	(41.75)p†	Nil	£39.8m
FY2025	168.7	+31.0%	(26.92)p	(26.92)p†	Nil	£41.5m

† OXB does not report adjusted EPS; the Adjusted EPS column repeats basic IFRS EPS. The FY2021 YoY figure is against FY2020 revenue of £87.7m; FY2021 revenue was lifted by manufacturing of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Long-term debt is non-current loans (the Oaktree facility) and excludes lease liabilities, which were £100.6m non-current at 31 December 2025.

OXB reports half-yearly. The table below runs most recent period first, with the FY2025 total in bold.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
H1 2026 (to 30 Jun 2026)	£79.8m	(30.39)p†	(30.39)p
H2 2025 (derived)‡	£95.5m	~(1.57)p†	~(1.57)p
H1 2025 (to 30 Jun 2025)	£73.2m	(25.35)p†	(25.35)p
H2 2024 (derived)‡	£78.0m	~(10.87)p†	~(10.87)p
FY2025 total	£168.7m	(26.92)p†	(26.92)p

† No adjusted EPS is reported; basic EPS is repeated. ‡ Second-half figures are derived by subtracting the reported first half from the full year. Derived EPS is approximate because the share count rose after the August 2025 placing.

Profitability. FY2025 operating EBITDA, on OXB's own definition, was £2.3m reported (£8.1m at constant currency), including a one-off £9.9m gain on the Durham acquisition; the operating loss was £22.5m. In H1 2026 operating EBITDA was a loss of £7.8m (adjusted £(2.5)m, excluding Durham pre-revenue and integration costs, Bedford redundancies and one-offs) and the operating loss widened to £29.1m, including a £7.6m impairment of French property, plant and equipment.

Cash flow, FY2025. Net cash generated from operating activities was £0.5m after a £5.1m R&D tax credit receipt. Purchases of property, plant and equipment were £4.8m, so free cash flow was about negative £4.3m. Depreciation was £17.6m and amortisation £2.3m, a combined £19.8m. Lease payments were a further £12.4m, and the August 2025 placing at 431p raised £58.1m net.

Cash flow, H1 2026. Net cash used in operating activities was £17.4m and capex £6.9m. OXB's own net cash outflow measure, which also includes interest and leases, was £34.3m.

Balance sheet. Cash was £96.9m at 31 December 2025, £75.3m at 30 June 2026 and £66.8m at 31 August 2026. Non-current loans under the Oaktree facility were £53.8m at 30 June 2026 ($75m drawn of a facility of up to $125m maturing August 2029), with no current borrowings. Lease liabilities totalled £104.8m. Net assets fell to £58.1m from £91.3m. The board states that the group would continue to comply with its Oaktree covenants beyond December 2027 even if all downside scenarios crystallised, and that if base-case cash flows do not materialise it will begin mitigating actions by the end of Q4 2026.

Guidance (reiterated 22 September 2026). FY2026 revenue £180–200m at constant currency; EBITDA margin mid-single-digit % excluding one-off costs and low-single-digit % reported; FY2027 and FY2028 revenue growth of 25–30%; FY2027 EBITDA margin at least double-digit; about £50m of capex across 2026–27, then £20–25m a year.

You can track the share price against these fundamentals on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, September 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	481.0p on 23 September 2026 (previous close 493.0p)
Market cap	~£582m (481.0p × 121.05m shares in issue)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	n/m — loss-making. Trailing twelve-month basic EPS is (31.96)p (FY2025 (26.92)p less H1 2025 (25.35)p plus H1 2026 (30.39)p)
P/E (forward)	n/m — OXB gives no EPS guidance, and its FY2026 guidance of a low-single-digit reported EBITDA margin is below the level needed to cover depreciation and interest
P/S (TTM)	~3.3x (£582m / TTM revenue £175.3m, being FY2025 £168.7m less H1 2025 £73.2m plus H1 2026 £79.8m)
Enterprise value	~£561m (market cap ~£582m + total debt £53.8m − cash £75.3m per the 30 June 2026 balance sheet; no current borrowings). Including £104.8m of lease liabilities, about £666m
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	n/m — EBITDA is negative. FY2025 derived EBITDA was about £(2.7)m (operating loss £22.5m + D&A £19.8m from the cash flow statement), and H1 2026 was about £(17.8)m. On OXB's own TTM operating EBITDA of about £2.8m the multiple would exceed 190x
P/FCF	n/m — free cash flow is negative. FY2025 FCF was about £(4.3)m (operating cash flow £0.5m − capex £4.8m); TTM FCF to June 2026 was about £(30.7)m
52-week high	962p (intraday), 16 January 2026, during the EQT offer period
52-week low	420p, 4 September 2026
Short interest (% of float)	7.67% of issued share capital, FCA aggregated net short position at 21 September 2026, up from 2.02% on 9 July 2026. The FCA reports against issued share capital, not free float
Days to cover	~12.6 days (derived: 7.67% of 121.05m shares is about 9.3m shares, against a three-month average volume of about 735,000 shares a day)
Dividend / yield	Nil — OXB does not pay dividends

7. What Are They Building

A four-country manufacturing network. OXB has spent 2025–26 turning a UK lentiviral specialist into a multi-site, multi-vector CDMO. Durham, North Carolina — bought from a Resilience subsidiary for $4.5m in October 2025 — is an FDA-approved commercial-scale site; GMP is now online there and the first GMP run is complete, with commercial AAV manufacturing and fill-finish to follow, about six months later than originally planned. In France, AAV and 200-litre lentiviral suites are GMP-qualified, with the first full-scale GMP runs due in H2 2026. Oxfordshire completed a GMP capacity expansion in H1 2026. Bedford, Massachusetts has been refocused on process and analytical development only.

Platforms. The technology stack includes LentiVector and the TetraVecta fourth-generation lentiviral system, the inAAVate dual-plasmid AAV platform with a multi-serotype purification toolbox, AdenoVate, stable producer and packaging cell lines, and process work for in vivo CAR-T lentiviral vectors. A fast-track offering launched on 13 April 2026 promises AAV to GMP in as little as seven months and lentiviral vectors in as little as nine.

Commercial pipeline. OXB signed a multi-year commercial lentiviral supply agreement with BMS on 4 February 2026, a licensing and option agreement with VVMF in Australia on 18 March, and an AAV process development and GMP agreement with Plowshare Therapies on 16 July, to be run at Durham. The client book stood at 50 clients and 59 programmes in September 2026. The June 2026 Capital Markets Event set out an ambition of about £500m of revenue in 2030 and an EBITDA margin approaching 30% by FY2030/31, with capex of about £50m across 2026–27.

8. Peer Comparison

Peer	Market cap (September 2026)	Key 2025 metric
OXB (OXB.L)	~£582m (~US$0.78bn), 23 Sep 2026	FY2025 revenue £168.7m, +31%; operating EBITDA £2.3m (company results, 26 Mar 2026)
Lonza (LONN.SW)	~US$47.6bn at CHF 561.8 (companiesmarketcap, Sep 2026)	FY2025 sales CHF 6.5bn, +21.7% at constant exchange rates; CORE EBITDA margin 31.6% (company release, 28 Jan 2026)
Samsung Biologics (207940.KS)	~US$46.3bn (companiesmarketcap, Sep 2026)	FY2025 revenue KRW 4,557bn; operating profit KRW 2.07tn (company release)
Fujifilm Holdings (4901.T), parent of Fujifilm Diosynth	~US$25.1bn (companiesmarketcap, Sep 2026)	Group revenue ¥3,357.0bn for the year to March 2026; biologics CDMO revenue is not separately disclosed in the release reviewed
Charles River Laboratories (CRL)	~US$13.4bn at $277.52 (companiesmarketcap, Sep 2026)	FY2025 revenue $4.02bn, down 0.9% (company release)

OXB is a fraction of the size of the diversified CDMOs above, each of which spans far more modalities. Its direct viral-vector competitors are mostly private or divisions of larger groups: AGC Biologics is a subsidiary of AGC Inc and Genezen is privately held. That scarcity of listed pure-play vector manufacturers is one reason OXB attracted private-equity interest in early 2026.

9. Insider Activity

CEO Dr Frank Mathias and CFO Dr Lucinda Crabtree received long-term incentive and deferred bonus awards in April 2026; neither has made an open-market purchase or sale in 2026. The market sales below were by other senior managers (PDMRs) on exercising options and vested awards. Figures are from OXB's PDMR dealing RNS announcements; values are derived from shares multiplied by price.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Lisa Doman (CPO)	22 May 2026	Exercise + sale	3,564	614.5p	~£21,900	Deferred bonus plan
Natalie Walter (CLO)	22 May 2026	Exercise + sale	3,816	614.5p	~£23,400	Deferred bonus plan
Kathleen Miller (Head of HR)	18 May 2026	Vest + sale	4,486 vested; 1,578 sold	609.1p	~£9,600	Restricted stock units
Lisa Doman (CPO)	12 May 2026	Exercise + sale	13,300	635.0p	~£84,500	Deferred bonus plan and ESOS options
Natalie Walter (CLO)	12 May 2026	Exercise + sale	3,057	639.39p	~£19,500	SAYE options (exercise price 294.4p)
Dr Frank Mathias (CEO)	07 Apr 2026	Award	478,119 LTIP + 71,891 DBP	Nil cost	Nil	2026 LTIP and deferred bonus plan; 2024 and 2025 LTIP awards of 43,790 and 46,195 also reinstated
Dr Lucinda Crabtree (CFO)	07 Apr 2026	Award	156,884 LTIP + 47,179 DBP	Nil cost	Nil	2026 LTIP and deferred bonus plan

Substantial-holder movements have been more significant than director dealings. Vulpes Investment Management cut its holding to 5.78% from 6.56% (RNS 3 September 2026), and Irenic Capital Management disclosed a 5.41% interest on 17 September 2026, of which 5.35% is held through financial instruments rather than shares.

10. Key Risks

• Client concentration (Commercial): the two largest clients provided about 71% of H1 2026 revenue. A change in procurement or approval pathway at one larger client contributed directly to the August 2026 guidance cut.
• Programme deferrals and staged ordering (Commercial): clients deferring programmes or ordering work in smaller stages reduce near-term revenue visibility; OXB names failure to convert opportunities and rapid technological change among its principal risks.
• Execution of the site network (Operational): Durham's GMP readiness slipped by six months and the French operation required a £7.6m impairment in H1 2026. Both the US and French cost centres missed budget.
• Cash burn and covenant headroom (Financial): cash fell from £96.9m to £66.8m between December 2025 and August 2026. The board says covenants remain met in its downside case but has flagged possible investment cuts, site rationalisation and workforce reductions from the end of Q4 2026 if base-case cash flows do not materialise.
• Quality and regulatory (Regulatory): as a GMP manufacturer of material for patients, OXB is exposed to batch failures, inspection findings and product-quality claims; outdated GMP documentation and quality records are listed among its risks.
• Currency (Financial): about 84% of revenue comes from US clients and the Oaktree loan is dollar-denominated, while the company reports in sterling.

11. Recent Developments

• 22 Sep 2026 — H1 2026 interim results. Revenue £79.8m, up 9% (10% at constant currency). Operating EBITDA £(7.8)m; adjusted £(2.5)m. Loss after tax £37.0m, including a £7.6m impairment of French assets. Cash £75.3m at 30 June. FY2026 guidance of £180–200m revenue reiterated; 17 new clients in the half and 4 since.
• 21 Sep 2026 — Short position reaches 7.67%. The FCA's aggregated net short position for OXB rose to 7.67% at 21 September, from 3.71% on 7 August.
• 17 Sep 2026 — Irenic Capital discloses 5.41%. The interest is almost entirely held through financial instruments (5.35%), announced by RNS on 21 September.
• 03 Sep 2026 — Vulpes reduces stake. Vulpes Investment Management's holding fell to 5.78% from 6.56% in July.
• 07 Aug 2026 — Half-year trading update and guidance cut. FY2026 revenue guidance lowered to £180–200m from £220–240m and EBITDA margin guidance to mid-single digits excluding one-offs, citing client programme deferrals, staged ordering, a procurement change at a larger client and a six-month Durham delay. The shares fell about 19% on the day.
• 16 Jul 2026 — Plowshare Therapies agreement. AAV process development and GMP manufacturing agreement, to be carried out at Durham.
• 02 Jun 2026 — Capital Markets Event. OXB set an ambition of about £500m of revenue in 2030 and an EBITDA margin approaching 30% by FY2030/31.
• 26 Mar 2026 — FY2025 results. Revenue £168.7m, up 31%; operating EBITDA £2.3m; loss after tax £30.6m; cash £96.9m at 31 December 2025.
• 25 Feb 2026 — EQT walks away. EQT confirmed it would not make an offer after the board rejected four take-private proposals as undervaluing OXB.

For the macro and rate backdrop that drives biotech funding, see the ChartsView Economic Calendar.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 24 Sep 2026 — management presentation to retail investors on the Investor Meet Company platform, following the interim results
• Expected Q4 2026 — business update per the company's investor calendar; also the point by which the board has said it would start mitigating actions if base-case cash flows do not materialise. No date published
• Expected Feb 2027 — FY2026 trading update, the first read on whether revenue landed within the £180–200m guidance. No date published
• Expected Mar 2027 — FY2026 preliminary results. FY2025 results were published on 26 March 2026; no FY2026 date has been announced
• Expected May 2027 — Annual General Meeting; the 2026 AGM was held on 7 May 2026
• Expected Aug 2029 — maturity of the Oaktree senior secured facility of up to $125m

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