Oxford Nanopore lifts gross margin and improves EBITDA in H1 2026

Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc (LON:ONT), the company behind a new generation of molecular sensing technology based on nanopores, has announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026.

Francis Van Parys, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Nanopore, commented:

“Since joining the business, I have spent time listening to colleagues across the organisation and engaging with customers, partners and broader stakeholders. Together, we have refined our view of where our differentiated technology can create the greatest value. We are now translating that into a focused operational roadmap across four strategic priorities which will accelerate growth by concentrating our people, investment and innovation on a select group of high-potential applications across BioPharma, Clinical and Research end-markets.

“We delivered encouraging results across these end-markets during the period, alongside continued progress in product development, operational performance and readiness for regulated markets. We also delivered strong financial progress, with gross margin increasing by 400 basis points to 62.2% and the adjusted EBITDA loss more than halving year-on-year to £22.1 million. These results demonstrate the impact of improving gross profit and disciplined cost control and show that we are tracking well towards adjusted EBITDA breakeven in FY27.

“Our next chapter is about harnessing the collective strength of Oxford Nanopore to deploy our differentiated technology seamlessly and at scale across an ever-expanding customer base. Our focus is clear: to accelerate adoption in our fastest-growing end markets and realise our longer-term ambition to build Oxford Nanopore into a $1 billion-and-growing annual revenue business, delivering significant and sustainable value for all stakeholders.”

Summary financial performance^[1]

H1 Financial highlights

·      Group revenue was £116.7 million, which grew by 12.3% on a constant currency basis (CC), and 10.5% on a reported basis driven by strong adoption in EMEAI and across Applied end-markets offset by headwinds as previously disclosed in the H1 trading update.

·      Regional performance was underpinned by strong growth in EMEAI and AMR, up by 23.8% CC and 12.5% CC respectively year-on-year. This was partly offset by an 8.4% reduction in APAC, which reflected a 15.7% decline in China.

·      Growth was broad-based across customer end markets; with Clinical revenue increasing 35.4%, BioPharma 25.0%, Industrial 6.2% and Research 5.4%.

·      Revenue performance was led by the PromethION product range^[4], which increased by 15.7% year-on-year and driven by strong demand for P2i. The MinION product range^[5] increased by 4.3% and Other revenue, comprising kits, services and other devices, grew by 7.4%.

·      Gross margin increased by 400bps to 62.2% (H1 2025: 58.2%). The improvement reflected yield improvements across Flow Cells, scale and increased adoption of the new pricing model, together contributing to 305bps of underlying improvement. This was supplemented by the non-recurrence of the £3.3 million non-cash inventory charge recognised in H1 2025 (+315bps), partly offset by adverse product mix (-160bps) and foreign exchange movements (-60bps).

·      Adjusted EBITDA improved year-on-year and sequentially to £(22.1) million, compared with £(48.3) million in H1 2025 and £(38.4) million in H2 2025, reflecting continued progress towards profitability. The improvement was driven by gross profit growth and disciplined control of the cost base, with adjusted operating costs down 6.9% year-on-year and down 9.6% versus H2 2025.

·      Loss for the period reduced year-on-year to £(48.0) million (H1 2025: £(71.8) million), reflecting the improvement in EBITDA.

·      The Group maintains a strong liquidity position, with cash, cash equivalents and other liquid investments of £234.5 million^[6] as at 30 June 2026, compared to £302.8 million as of 31 December 2025. The reduction primarily reflected the operating cash outflow, including a seasonal first-half working capital outflow of £24.2 million, which incorporated £25.7 million of bonus payments related to FY25. As expected, cash conversion is expected to improve materially in H2, supported by higher revenue, further EBITDA improvement and the unwinding of working capital.

H1 Strategic update

Following the initial review of the business, the Group has established four strategic priorities to accelerate customer adoption, strengthen execution and support sustainable, profitable growth:

·      Customer-centric growth: Prioritise high-value applications, across BioPharma, Clinical and Research end markets, where Oxford Nanopore can win, demonstrate clear customer value and deepen customer relationships to accelerate adoption.

·      Focused innovation: Translate technology leadership into product leadership and workflows that customers can adopt at scale. Focus resources into a market-led roadmap which marries innovation with customer value.

·      Disciplined execution: Simplify the portfolio, strengthen the operating model and introduce clearer ownership, standardised processes and more consistent performance measures, to improve execution and build a business that can scale efficiently.

·      High-performance culture: Build leadership depth and critical capabilities, including the regulatory and GMP-ready capabilities required to scale, while creating energised, accountable and collaborative teams and retaining the ambition, agility and innovation that make Oxford Nanopore distinctive.

The strategy introduces greater discipline in where and how Oxford Nanopore participates. For each application, the Group assesses the differentiated value of its technology alongside the ease with which that opportunity can be realised. Investment will be prioritised where Oxford Nanopore can create distinctive customer value and generate attractive returns, with collaborations used where they can accelerate access or reduce barriers to adoption.

High-potential target applications have been selected, and customer requirements are understood The Group is now operationalising the strategy, translating these priorities into portfolio choices, product roadmaps, go-to-market approaches, operating plans and appropriate governance processes.

Focused path to 2030: Research will remain a significant contributor, while faster growth in BioPharma and Clinical is expected to increase their weighting in Group revenue over time. This changing mix underpins the Group’s target of greater than $700 million of revenue by 2030, an important milestone towards its longer-term ambition to build Oxford Nanopore into a $1 billion-plus revenue business.

Updates post period end

·      Global cross-licensing agreement: The Group entered into a new agreement with a global diagnostics company, a $20 million licensing fee will be recognised during the second half of FY26 with an additional $15 million in committed product purchases to be recognised over FY27 and FY28. Oxford Nanopore will also receive a net royalty, calculated as a low-to-mid-single-digit percentage of revenues generated by certain life sciences and diagnostics products incorporating the licensed intellectual property, for the life of the licensed patents.

·      The Group signed an agreement with MyOme to incorporate Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing technology into its Zenith™ rare disease platform, part of Natera’s portfolio.

·      Continued to strengthen the executive team with Davide Manissero joining as Chief Medical Officer in August 2026 and the appointment of Conor McKechnie as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (previously VP of Marketing at Cytiva, a Danaher company), who will join in October 2026. Further additions are expected to support commercial execution and market development as the Group builds the capabilities required for its next phase of growth.

Outlook

FY27 and FY28 (no change): Adjusted EBITDA breakeven in FY27 and positive free cash flow in FY28.

Unless otherwise stated, all guidance below excludes the $20 million non-recurring revenue from the global cross-licensing agreement announced today, which is expected to be recognised in FY26 at 100% gross margin, together with any associated royalty revenue in FY26 and subsequent years. It also excludes any potential upside from additional business development opportunities. Where relevant, the impact of the $20 million non-recurring revenue is shown separately.

·      FY26 revenue (no change): Constant-currency growth of 16-20%, excluding the $20 million non-recurring revenue from the global cross-licensing agreement. Including this revenue, FY26 constant-currency growth is expected to be approximately 23-27%.

·      FY26 gross margin (no change): Approximately 62%, excluding the $20 million non-recurring revenue. Including this revenue, gross margin expected to be approximately 64%.

·      FY26 adjusted operating costs (updated): Year-on-year growth is now expected to be (2)% to 0%, compared with the previous guidance of 0% to 5%.

·      2030 revenue target of greater than $700m (new): Organic constant-currency revenue growth of approximately mid-teens per annum and accelerating, measured from a FY26 revenue base which excludes the $20 million non-recurring revenue from the cross-licensing agreement. Growth to 2030 is expected to be materially weighted towards BioPharma and Clinical. Research is expected to remain a significant contributor through 2030, with slower growth than Clinical and BioPharma, but from a much larger base. Industrial is expected to continue to provide steady single digit growth.

·      2030 Adjusted EBITDA margin (new): Expected to be greater than 15% by 2030, and to continue to progressively improve thereafter over the longer term.

·      Positive and growing free cash flow from 2028.

Capital allocation framework to support strategy:

·      Organic Core Investment: Invest in innovation engine and capacity expansion

·      Partnership Enablement: Evaluate based on Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) expansion, workflow enablement and high Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) >15%

·      Maintain a Strong Balance Sheet: Ensure flexibility and reduce risk through maintaining strong balance sheet

·      Selective M&A: Selective M&A to drive higher rates of adoption and solidify position in key target applications

Presentation of results

Management will host a conference call and webcast today, 19 August at 12.00 BST/ 7am EDT, to review financial results and Francis Van Parys, CEO, will provide a strategy update. For details, and to register, please visit https://nanoporetech.com/about-us/investors/reports. The webcast will be recorded, and a replay will be available via the same link shortly after the presentation. For further details please contact [email protected]