The boss of a laboratory business that made millions conducting PCR tests during the pandemic is now investing in helping the NHS clear a huge backlog of cancer cases.
SourceBio International saw revenues grow from 拢50.7 million to 拢92.4 million last year after repurposing to provide Covid testing to the 海角视频 government, private medical sector and travel companies.
As a result the Nottingham-headquartered business, which is listed in the AIM stock exchange, saw its gross profits rise from 拢20.5 million to 拢36.2 million.
With 海角视频 Covid testing scaling down, the business is moving back into the established pathology work it was previously doing for the NHS and private healthcare sector, in particular cancer testing.
It recently spent 拢18.5 million (plus a further 拢5 million based on results) acquiring London and Chichester-based LDPath which is a pioneer in digital scanning technology. There are plans to double the size of the Chichester lab in the coming months.
LDPath is being used to help SourceBio expand its work turning traditional cell samples into digital formats which can be shared instantly with labs and hospitals around the world 鈥 a technological change which is a key part in the next generation of AI diagnostics.
SourceBio has a genomics operation in Cambridge and an environmental storage business in Rochdale with cell pathology based in Nottingham. There are also operations in Northern Ireland and Dublin, and a lab in San Diego, USA.
In all the business employs around 200 people, the bulk in Nottingham, with more jobs expected to be created in the coming months.
Executive chairman Jay LeCoque said much of the profits from the PCR contracts had been ploughed back into the business and last month鈥檚 acquisition.
He said the start of the pandemic in 2020 had been a crunch time for SourceBio.
He told BusinessLive: 鈥淲e realised the impact it would have on elective surgeries and what that would do to our business 鈥 which was basically almost mothball it 鈥 so we decided to pivot into Covid and created one of the largest private healthcare labs offering government Covid testing services.
鈥淚t was a hedge against a business that was going to be impacted, but it was a very successful hedge.
鈥淎nd because of that we鈥檝e been able to generate some cash so now we can buy things like LDPath and get into digital pathology, which again benefits the Nottingham facility.
鈥淣ottingham has been critical. I have to say what we accomplished there, growing to a 拢100 million business in about a year, and seeing everybody rally together, was very impressive.
鈥淏efore Covid we were doing cellular pathology, cancer screening, taking tissue samples from an NHS hospital or a private hospital and analysing them to determine if there鈥檚 cancer and give the diagnosis back.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we had been doing and that鈥檚 what we are doing now. There鈥檚 a huge backlog of elective surgery because of Covid. That backlog is coming into the market again and we are seeing growth expand exponentially. It鈥檚 an explosion of growth.
鈥淲e talk about it being a tsunami 鈥 well the tsunami is here.鈥
Mr LeCoque said when PCR testing began in earnest they worked hard to get the equipment, staff and training in place to deal with, at one point, 20,000 tests a day.
It was a 鈥渙nce-in-a-career鈥 event which saw them take on government contracts and work with some of the biggest pharmacy firms in the 海角视频 as well as travel companies sending SourceBio tests to people getting ready to fly abroad.
Back in February the Which? consumer website said its 拢35 Source Bioscience travel PCR test 鈥 which had previously cost 拢60 鈥 was 鈥渞eliable鈥 with 鈥渓argely good reviews鈥 and a 鈥渓ack of complaints online鈥, backed up by 鈥渆xcellent鈥 results in a mystery shop.
Mr LeCoque said: 鈥淲e certainly went beyond just government contracts. Initially it was almost all public work, and by the height it was probably 60-40 private.
鈥淲e also had mobile labs. We had a lab up in Liverpool airport, so we really did get involved in that type of activity.
鈥淏ut, as you know, they didn鈥檛 turn out to be as successful as the Government had hoped so they scaled back on the programme and we scaled back with them.
鈥淚t鈥檚 still a nice business for us but it鈥檚 not as big as it was 鈥揳round a 拢10 million business 鈥 so it鈥檚 adding income and revenues and earnings for us and we will continue to support the Covid testing capability as long as long as there鈥檚 demand.
鈥淐ellular pathology is very much back now and I think now we鈥檝e acquired LDPath we鈥檙e one of the leaders. In fact we were prior to the LDPath acquisition, but post LDPath we鈥檙e bigger and have a bigger digital capability.
鈥淲e really do believe we鈥檙e going to change the face of digital pathology and change the way people diagnose cancer.
鈥淲ith digital pathology we can take a digitised image of a tissue sample and we can send that all over the world if we want.
鈥淩ight now most labs send slides with tissue samples on. Just think of the logistics of managing human tissue slides and making sure they鈥檙e not broken by couriers and everything else and which takes three-to-five days or even seven-to-nine days.
鈥淥nce it鈥檚 digitised there鈥檚 no more slide. In an AI environment you can dissect that digitised image in many different ways, even flip it to 3D.
鈥淲e believe it鈥檚 actually going to help surgeons perform surgery using the 3D image because it鈥檒l show where tissue is cancerous in a way you maybe couldn鈥檛 by looking at it two-dimensionally under a microscope.
鈥淚n a weird way Covid actually forced the issue of going digital, and what鈥檚 been happening is making everybody think about how we can be more efficient in processing these samples.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to do what we can to make the best of a situation where, basically, there鈥檚 not enough capacity and we鈥檙e doing what we can to make sure we can meet it.鈥
Precision medicine is also a big part of the business, including personalised tests based on tissue samples which will show which chemotherapy might be most appropriate to an individual.
He said: 鈥淐linics and hospitals are getting very proactive about how they manage cancer and precision medicine is going to be very patient-specific in treating cancer and other diseases.
鈥淭he overall mentality is that there are really no limits to what we can accomplish in the way we鈥檙e going to diagnose cancer in the 海角视频.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge desire to do that and I think this is the right time to do it.鈥
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