Announcement PDF RNS Number : 4995U Fusion Antibodies PLC 14 September 2026 The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse (amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019/310 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. Fusion Antibodies plc (“Fusion” or the “Company”) 14 September 2026 Final results Investor presentation Fusion Antibodies plc (AIM: FAB), specialists in pre-clinical antibody discovery, engineering and supply for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications, announces its final results for the year ended 31 March 2026. Commercial and operational highlights Audited revenues of £2.1m (FY2025: £1.97m) Underlying service revenue of £1.86m, with H2 revenue up 21% on H1 Gross margin increased to 53% (FY2025: 22%) Operating loss improved to £1.13m (FY2025 restated: £1.63m), despite increased R&D investment £872k of other operating revenue recognised, principally from the Future Medicines Institute grant programme OptiMAL® commercially launched in December 2025 following continued validation with the U.S. National Cancer Institute Continued customer diversification, including increased engagement with larger organisations Approximately £1.4m raised before expenses in January 2026 to support OptiMAL® commercialisation and working capital Cash at 31 March 2026 of £1.04m (31 March 2025: £0.36m) Post period end OptiMAL® patent protection progressed with grant in Japan and Canada and acceptance in Australia Continued progress with the grant funded DR5 therapeutic antibody programme with Queen’s University Belfast Adrian Kinkaid, CEO of Fusion Antibodies commented: “FY2026 was another year of important progress for the Company. We had revenue growth, a significant improvement in gross margin and a stronger cash position, despite the continued challenging market environment. I am particularly encouraged by the improvement in our service revenues during the second half and the increasing engagement we are seeing from larger organisations, which supports our strategy of building a broader and more resilient customer base. “Scientifically, we have continued to make excellent progress. The launch of OptiMAL® was a major milestone and the positive validation work with the NCI gives us increasing confidence in the platform and its commercial potential. We have also demonstrated our ability to create value from our expertise and intellectual property through the Finn Therapeutics agreement, while our grant funded programmes, including DR5, continue to generate valuable technologies, assets and supporting data. “Since the year end, we have made further progress with the DR5 programme and strengthened the international patent protection around our Opti library technology. While market conditions remain challenging, we believe Fusion now has a differentiated and increasingly comprehensive technology offering from which to build, with our focus firmly on converting our scientific progress and growing pipeline into sustainable commercial growth.” Investor presentation Fusion will host an online live presentation open to all investors on Tuesday, 15 September at 11.30am BST, delivered by Dr Adrian Kinkaid, CEO and Stephen Smyth, interim CFO. The Company is committed to providing an opportunity for all existing and potential investors to hear directly from management on these results. Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and add to meet Fusion Antibodies plc via the following link: https://www.investormeetcompany.com/fusion-antibodies-plc/register-investor. Enquiries: Fusion Antibodies plc www.fusionantibodies.com Adrian Kinkaid, Chief Executive Officer Stephen Smyth, Chief Financial Officer Via Walbrook PR Fusion Antibodies interactive investor hub https://investorhub.fusionantibodies.com/s/b8d633 Allenby Capital Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 3328 5656 James Reeve/Vivek Bhardwaj (Corporate Finance) Tony Quirke/Joscelin Pinnington (Sales and Corporate Broking) Shard Capital Partners LLP Damon Heath (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 207 186 9952 Walbrook PR Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or fusion@walbrookpr.com Anna Dunphy Mob: +44 (0)7876 741 001 About Fusion Antibodies plc Fusion is a Belfast based contract research organisation ("CRO") providing a range of antibody engineering services for the development of antibodies for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications. The Company's ordinary shares were admitted to trading on AIM on 18 December 2017. Fusion provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production, characterisation and optimisation. These services include antigen expression, antibody production, purification and sequencing, antibody humanisation using Fusion's proprietary CDRx TM platform and the production of antibody generating stable cell lines to provide material for use in clinical trials. Since 2012, the Company has successfully sequenced and expressed over 250 antibodies and successfully completed over 200 humanisation projects and has an international, blue-chip client base, which has included eight of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies by revenue. The Company was established in 2001 as a spin out from Queen's University Belfast. The Company's mission is to enable pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to develop innovative products in a timely and cost-effective manner for the benefit of the global healthcare industry. Fusion Antibodies provides a broad range of services in antibody generation, development, production, characterisation and optimisation. Fusion Antibodies growth strategy is based on combining the latest technological advances with cutting edge science to deliver new platforms that will enable Pharma and Biotech companies get to the clinic faster, with the optimal drug candidate and ultimately speed up the drug development process. The global monoclonal antibody therapeutics market was valued at $186 billion in 2021 and is forecast to surpass $445 billion in 2028, an increase at a CAGR of 13.2 per cent. for the period 2022 to 2028. Approximately 150 monoclonal antibody therapies are approved and marketed globally as of June 2022 with the top four antibody drugs each having sales of more than $3 bn in 2021. Chairman’s Statement Over the past several years, global financial instability has continued to pose significant challenges for the healthcare sector. This environment is particularly demanding for smaller growth companies like ours, which rely heavily on robust investment in drug and diagnostic development initiatives. With this in mind, the year began with subdued market conditions, compounded by recent global events that introduced additional commercial challenges for the Company. While we are unable to influence the larger global environment around us one distinct advantage of being a smaller business is the comprehensive visibility that our staff maintains across all operational aspects of the company, and through this we are able to build a culture at Fusion that fosters strength, resilience and a collaborative drive. Despite the current global difficulties, we remain confident in our ability to leverage the world-class expertise and skills at Fusion to deliver shareholder value. Although the market activity remains restrained, opportunities persist, particularly as healthcare organisations seek to manage fixed costs by outsourcing projects in-turn allowing them to manage expenditures more effectively. In this climate, biotechnology firms continue to pursue partnerships with service providers such as Fusion at early development stages, benefiting from external expertise throughout their programmes and enhancing the probability of successful outcomes. With venture capital and other investment flows into customers’ early-stage human therapeutic pipelines remaining slow, the Company's strategic focus on alternative antibody-related market segments such as the veterinary markets is yielding positive results. During the period, the Company also made important strategic progress in further diversifying its customer base. There has been a notable increase in engagement from larger companies, complementing the Company's established relationships with early-stage biotechnology clients. This shift in customer profile is a deliberate move aimed at enhancing the Company’s revenue visibility and stability. By broadening the Company’s base to include more substantial organisations, the Company seeks to mitigate the risks associated with funding volatility, which is often encountered in the smaller biotech segment. This transition is expected to strengthen the Company’s financial outlook and provide greater resilience against unpredictable market conditions. However, beyond economic factors, we remain cognisant that collaborating with clients at the forefront of scientific advancement can introduce the risk of programme delays or discontinuations due to scientific setbacks, which can potentially impede pipeline development and potentially impact revenue projections. Business performance Despite the broader macro-environment, the board of directors of Fusion (the “Board” or the “Directors”) remain cautiously optimistic about the Company’s future. The financial key performance indicators reviewed by the Board include, but are not limited to, total revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, and the period-end cash balance. Fusion’s revenue for the financial year ended 31 March 2026 (“FY26” or the “Period”) was £2.1m. This represents an increase of 7% from the previous year (FY25: £1.97m) with an uplift being delivered through an intellectual property (“IP”) transfer agreement of an antibody asset to Finn Therapeutics Ltd (“Finn Therapeutics”). Revenue from Fusion’s underlying service business for the Period was down circa 5% from last year at £1.86m (FY25: £1.96m) but through improvements in operations and a better mix of services, Fusion delivered an improved margin of 53% (FY25: 22%). Fusion’s service business has seen steady growth over the past three and a half years. In this respect, the second half of FY26 saw revenues at £1.02m. This represents a 21% increase from the first half of FY26 of £0.84m. This is further reinforced by both halves showing growth from the second half of the previous financial year (FY25 H2: £0.76m). Our successful Future Medicines Institute (“FMI”) grant proved beneficial both from the scientific side but also financially, with other operational revenue of £872k recognised in FY26 against £151k (restated) in the previous financial year. The administration costs for the Period have increased to £3.24m, up from £2.21m (FY25). This is mainly due to increased research and development (“R&D”) expenditure during the Period totalling £861k (FY25: £191k) which was incurred in order to generate further validation data for OptiMAL® prior to the launch of the platform in December 2025. Despite the increased R&D expenditure, the growth in margin has contributed to an improvement in operating loss of nearly £500k. This has resulted in Fusion reporting an operating loss of £1.13m for FY26, representing an improvement from FY25’s restated operating loss of £1.63m. Cash and cash equivalent as at the year-end was £1.04m (2025: £0.36m), strengthened by the fundraise announced in January 2026 and also indicative of Fusion’s controlled cash burn rate. Looking forward we are building on our services through the commercialisation of the OptiMAL® library. This new library adds a significant and complementary strength to our overall library-based service portfolio building on one of our strategic objectives which is to give the customer a range of library-based options. We believe that library-based screening is the best approach for efficient discovery programs and that they allow faster antibody discovery without relying on animal hosts. We utilise our patented library design that it is based on natural sequences in our OptiMAL® and OptiPhageTM libraries and the AI/ML-AbTM (AI/ML: artificial intelligence and machine learning) service, combined with our mammalian display platform, is also based on this approach. One of the benefits of our patented library approach is that the design is based on natural human antibody sequences. This is expected to improve the chance of the antibody being stable, having little or no immunogenic effects and could produce good yields, reducing the costs of the drugs. Despite a slow start, we maintain the belief that continued diversification into the veterinary market can also offer us some growth opportunities. While the veterinary market is smaller and less established, it has the advantage of having fewer competitors. Furthermore, we believe that the AI/ML software approaches will play a full and important role in the discovery and optimisation of antibodies and one that Fusion should be a part of. By offering the customer a choice of approaches to advance their discovery program, we believe that we can capture this untapped market share. Positioning Fusion as the company who offer the largest range of differentiated libraries for antibody discovery will set us apart from our competition, with our range of the OptiMAL®, and OptiPhageTM libraries, together with Mammalian display and AI/ML-AbTM being unique in the marketplace. With one of our commercial key points of differentiation being our scientific expertise and knowledge it’s pleasing to see that our scientific endeavours continue to deliver cutting edge results with significant progress being made in the development and data generation of the Company’s proprietary platforms. During the year Fusion’s collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (“NCI”) has continued to generate strong OptiMAL® data further validating the platform. In the NCI’s hands the OptMAL® platform has generated a number of antibody expressing cells which positively bind to their target of interest, something that Fusion confirmed in-house. The binding affinities are within the range expected for commercially viable antibodies and is a good selling point for the OptiMAL® platform. Furthermore, the NCI has validated that the subsequent recombinant antibodies produced by Fusion bound to the targets against a relevant human cell model. The next step at the NCI will be to use these in cancer specific cell-based assays to evaluate their potential as a therapeutic. The OptiMAL® platform was officially launched in December 2025 at the Antibody Engineering & Therapeutics conference in San Diego, with Dr. Richard Buick presenting. The launch generated substantial scientific interest, though the Company acknowledges that commercial agreements will take time to materialise. The Company was pleased that the NCI have confidence in the performance of the OptiMAL® platform and have a continued interest in continuing to use OptiMAL® as a frontline human antibody discovery platform for a range of targets. In this respect, a formal agreement is currently being negotiated with the NCI for the NCI to screen the OptiMAL® library against an agreed number of targets, with the expectation of joint rights to the jointly discovered inventions (i.e. antibodies). However, with the academic institution impacted by ongoing political challenges in the USA, there can be no certainty to the expected timings of any such agreement. The relationship will be further enhanced by the granting of the U.S. patent for OptiMAL®, announced on the 5 August 2025, which represents a significant milestone, strengthens the Company's intellectual property portfolio, and is key to Fusion's offering to provide "Opti" designed libraries for a range of applications including Antibody Discovery, Affinity Maturation, and Sequence Optimisation. The Patent entitled “Antibody Library and Method”, concerns the library of antibodies that is currently screened within Fusion’s OptiMAL® platform, as well as the method for the design of additional libraries and increases the commercial potential of the platform. Building on the previously announced Future Medicines Institute (“FMI”) grant to support the R&D activities and platform development Fusion has expanded its grant-funded R&D activities through a collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast focused on developing a therapeutic antibody targeting DR5, a death receptor that has critical role in initiating apoptosis (cell death). This programme is expected to deliver both scientific and potential commercial value through the creation of a potentially licensable therapeutic asset. New Funding To maximise value and to enhance OptiMAL's market visibility and attract new clients, dedicated sales and marketing is essential. Furthermore, process improvements derived from the NCI need to be integrated into Belfast facilities. With the Company continuing to maintain tight control of costs, the Board considered that it was in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders to raise further funds in January 2026 specifically for the purchase of associated equipment, to increase marketing activities and to improve the overall cash position of the business. The commercial plans will focus on increasing the Company’s presence in key geographic markets, such as North America. The net proceeds of the non-pre-emptive placing and subscription was approximately £1.3 million, achieved through the issue of 11,056,905 new ordinary shares at a price of 13 pence per new ordinary share. The Board and its staff very much appreciate the confidence that our shareholders continue to have in the company. In this respect, it is always our objective to keep all shareholders up to date with any significant progress via announcements made through the regulatory news service (RNS) in line with the Company’s obligations under the AIM Rules for Companies and the UK Market Abuse Regulation. Board and Employees The composition of the Board remained unchanged for the Period, and their commitment, diligence, and hard work throughout the Period is sincerely appreciated. A big thank you is also extended to all our staff who have consistently demonstrated dedication and creativity in providing services to clients, frequently under considerable pressure. With a small and focused team, employees have exhibited adaptability and perseverance enabling the Company to grow a strong pipeline and maintain its complete service offering. In April 2026, we learned of the passing of two valued former Directors. Dr Alan Mawson, a former non-executive director of the Company who served for over 17 years died on 24 March 2026. Alan, through the various venture capital funds that he managed, invested throughout the Fusion journey and was a strong supporter of the Company. His analytical expertise and scientific knowledge greatly benefited the company. Sonya Ferguson, who served on the Board for seven years until 2023, passed away at the age of 55 on 2 April 2026. She was young, intelligent and incisive, and put people at the forefront of her contribution at all times. Both will be missed by colleagues, and our condolences go out to their families and friends. At the end of last year Kreston Reeves LLP, our auditor, merged with AAB, a professional services firm that also owns FPM, our outsourced accountancy company. This created a conflict of interest, as auditors must remain independent from the finance team, and it was with regret that we had to accept their resignation as auditors and we would like to thank them for their work with the Company. Following a selection process, we are pleased to have announced the appointment of Cambridge based Price Bailey LLP, as the Company’s statutory auditor and we look forward to working with them in the coming years. Corporate governance The long-term success of the business and delivery on Fusion’s strategy depends on good corporate governance. The Company continues to adopt the Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance Code as explained more fully in the Governance Report. Post year end and outlook As noted, the 2026 financial year was marked by global financial instability and uncertainty, which has continued into the current financial period and remains a challenge for the healthcare sector. This is adversely impacting Fusion’s performance in H1 of FY27. While the Board is confident in our more diversified pipeline and the NCI-validated OptiMAL® technology, it recognises that difficult market conditions can slow growth and adoption of new approaches, particularly given the inherent variability of project-based revenues. Although the future remains uncertain, the Company is built on a strong and exciting foundation, underpinned by a clear strategy focused on our ‘Opti’ library approach and a more diversified customer base. New approaches often take time to gain acceptance, but with continued data generation, early adoption and patience, the ‘Opti’ library has the potential to become a cornerstone of the Company’s future success. We were excited to announce good progress on our patent entitled “Antibody Library and Method”, which covers two families of antibodies, and the method for the design of such antibody libraries was granted in Japan and a notice of allowance in Canada. The patent is expected to be complementary to Fusion’s offering to provide “Opti” designed antibody libraries for a range of applications. It was announced on 11 May 2026 that the patent was granted in Japan, on 22 June 2026 that the Canadian IP office had issued a notice of allowance and on 6 August 2026 that Australia had issued a notice of acceptance in respect of the patent. The ‘Opti’ library-design technology comprises of a unique and vast somatic DNA library. It can generate antibodies or antibody fragments with DNA sequences and protein structures already optimised through natural human selection. These patents protect the core library design, which, beyond OptiMAL, could be incorporated into other screening vehicles such as phage display platforms and AI-based approaches, providing a powerful foundation to develop over the coming years. We believe AI libraries will play an important role in discovery, and Fusion is well placed through its US collaboration as market acceptance of in-silico antibody design grows. The Board remains mindful of the competitive environment but believes the library approach can attract customers who may continue with the Company throughout their antibody development journey, across both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. In addition, support from non-dilutive funding sources provides further stability. Simon Douglas Chairman 11 September 2026 CEO’s report and operations review The market in which we operate started to show signs of recovery during FY26. This financial year we have reported a small growth over the previous financial year with Fusion posting recognised revenues of £2.1m for the year, broadly in line with market forecasts for the financial year and representing a 7% increase in revenue receipts. This is due to the dedication and ability of our team combined with several successful commercial initiatives including the sale of certain intellectual property relating to an early-stage asset undergoing pre-clinical evaluation. Such deals allow the Company to recognise much higher values than if the asset had been generated under a typical fee-for-service arrangement in the initial discovery phase. There were also additional successes in the diagnostics sector and the research antibodies field which also contributed to revenues despite the challenging macro-economic conditions. Antibodies are proteins with unique properties and have a diverse and varied application with demand in therapeutic, diagnostic and research sectors. With the growing uncertainty in the financial markets leading to more cautious investment strategies, the outlook is difficult to forecast, although it is clear that the recovery phase certainly has not completed. Like many in our sector, I remain somewhat cautious reflecting the disruption in geopolitical and economic circles, which continues to have an impact on our client base despite its diversity. On the R&D front, FY26 has been another excellent year. Our flagship OptiMAL® platform, which has huge potential, was formally launched in December 2025 with a podium presentation of the technology at the annual Antibody Engineering & Technologies conference in San Diego. Whilst this was ahead of the release of the validation data from the NCI’s use of the OptiMAL® platform, I felt that it was important to begin the process of advertising the availability of this groundbreaking technology at the earliest meaningful opportunity. Given that we are aiming to service a demanding scientific audience, which is trained to be highly sceptical and driven by peer reviewed data, it was always anticipated that the initial uptake would be slow. Accordingly, we were not expecting any orders for OptiMAL® in the months immediately following the launch of the platform. It is worth noting the other advantages of the collaboration agreement with the NCI, announced toward the end of November 2023. Due to the rescaling of the business in the previous financial year, costs had been drastically cut, and our internal R&D resources had been significantly reduced. It was therefore hugely advantageous to pursue the validation of the platform via the NCI at minimal cost to the Company. The work undertaken through the collaboration has demonstrated the utility of the OptiMAL® platform and that it can be used to identify cell-bound antibodies for a range of targets. Many of these antibodies were subsequently isolated and verified by Fusion and the NCI continues to demonstrate their functional utility as well as seeking patents for the most commercially viable antibodies. We look forward to further updates from the NCI and, once the patent applications are filed, lab-work completed and peer reviewed publications submitted, we anticipate that their independent statements will formally validate OptiMAL®. I expect this validatory commentary to have a significant impact on the traction of the platform in the marketplace and add impetus to OptiMAL®’s successful commercialisation. The validation project with the NCI also demonstrated that the OptiMAL® technology can be transferred effectively to another laboratory. This capability enables us to address a much broader market than would be possible if all screens were conducted within Fusion’s laboratories. This would require substantial investment in personnel, capital equipment and consumables. By moving towards a technology licensing model, we can overcome internal capacity constraints, reduce associated costs and support higher margins. Also with regard to R&D, the Future Medicines Institute (FMI) PhD studentships, which come fully funded as part of the FMI programme, started in earnest and have made progress with both the OptiPhageTM platform and a cutting- edge approach to B-cell cloning. The grant provides for support for a total of 20 PhD studentships across the consortium. These are expected to run in two or three cohorts each starting around a year apart. We continue to consider options for further PhD projects designed and nominated by Fusion creating important opportunities for our development, again at no direct cost to the Company. Market outlook: challenging times in a turbulent world Even in difficult market conditions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients continue to invest substantial resources in developing their pipelines. This need is likely to intensify as many leading pharmaceutical products lose patent protection by 2030, creating pressure to replace them with new patented assets. Much of this demand is expected to be met through the acquisition of products from biotechnology companies, which will then need to replenish their own discovery pipelines using proceeds from more mature asset sales. Against this backdrop, it is reasonable to expect continued growth in the antibody discovery market, including services such as those offered by Fusion. Market reports support this outlook: Precedence Research estimates the 2025 market at $9.06Bn1 , with a CAGR of 8.3%, while The Business Research Company estimates it at $9.78Bn, with a CAGR of 10.1%. Although forward-looking projections should be treated as estimates, the overall trend remains encouraging. (Source: 1 Precedence Research: July 2026, 2The Business Research Company: July 2026) OptiMAL® and Mammalian Display OptiMAL® is a disruptive antibody discovery platform which allows human sequences to be used, without the auto- immune filter of a host animal. I believe that this is the right time for a platform like OptiMAL® that delivers fully human, full-size antibody sequences which have been expressed by mammalian cells. This reduces the timeline to a lead human sequence and the risks associated with engineering of fragments and/or non-human antibodies. When more is known about the target antigen, a more focused approach can be taken using artificial intelligence (AI) and/or machine learning (ML). These emerging design methods aim to generate full-length antibody sequences that must then be synthesised and tested in the laboratory. Our AI/ML-AbTM platform supports this process by using the same mammalian display technology developed for OptiMAL®. Recent market reports identify AI/ML approaches as an important growth driver for the industry, and Fusion is well placed to benefit through its experience and technologies, including its world-leading Mammalian Display platform. That AI/ML driven in silico designs still offer such significant promise also signifies that they have not yet matured to be established front-line technologies. There will inevitably be a period of evaluation. It is possible