Fusion Antibodies refreshes platform after margin turnaround
Fusion Antibodies (AIM:FAB) has launched a redesigned, customer-focused website, with shares in the Belfast-based contract research organisation up 7.143% to 12.0p. The group provides antibody discovery, engineering and supply services across therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications, and said the new site presents its capabilities and proprietary technologies more clearly for existing and prospective customers.
Central to that pitch is the company's library-based discovery platform, OptiMAL, which was commercially launched in December after continued validation work with the U.S. National Cancer Institute. The antibody library has since secured patent grants in Japan and Canada and gained acceptance in Australia, giving Fusion a broader intellectual-property footprint to market alongside its services. The refresh also lands against a backdrop of improving financials: FY2026 revenue rose to £2.1m from £1.97m, gross margin jumped to 53% from 22%, and the operating loss narrowed to £1.13m from a restated £1.63m.
A sharper digital front door matters more for a business whose growth increasingly depends on licensing a proprietary platform rather than one-off service contracts. With OptiMAL's patent position now extending across multiple jurisdictions and margins more than doubling year-on-year, Fusion's commercial narrative has shifted from a cash-constrained CRO toward a platform business with defensible technology, a case the new website is designed to make plainly to customers evaluating discovery partners.
Vulcan Two Group rebrands as Molecule Group
Vulcan Two Group has changed its name to Molecule Group, completing a rebrand first flagged weeks earlier when the company said a naming agency had been appointed to unify the group's identity. Shares in the renamed group, now trading as Molecule, stood at 206.0p, up 0.49% on the day. The new Molecule brand will span the group's consumer, veterinary and professional healthcare channels, replacing what chief executive Michael Kraftman described as "a collection of acquired names."
The rebrand caps a buy-and-build phase in which the group assembled its ePharmacy platform through the acquisitions of CloudRx, Webmed and Hyperdrug in March, and has since worked to integrate them under a single operating model, a group-wide ERP system and a new central distribution facility in Leeds. A new consumer-facing site, molecule.co.uk, now brings together a Molecule clinic, an over-the-counter product range and the group's veterinary offering on one portal, which the company said gives its direct-to-consumer arm a single platform and a wider basket per customer. "We are delighted to launch the Molecule brand which marks an important milestone in the Group's development and provides a single identity across the Group's consumer, veterinary and professional channels in place of a collection of acquired names, and a common focus for marketing investment," said Michael Kraftman, chief executive officer of Molecule.
The name change is the visible endpoint of a less visible integration effort, and its real test will be whether a single brand and ERP system translate acquired pharmacy and veterinary units into shared customers and lower per-unit costs. A unified consumer portal with cross-selling across clinic, OTC and veterinary ranges gives Molecule a mechanism to lift basket size, the metric management has pointed to as the payoff for consolidating three separately built businesses into one operating company.