Company: IMCR
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001671927-25-000006
Chunk: 227

Company: Immunocore Holdings plc
Filing Date: 2025-02-26
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 7
Chunk 227
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 approval is costly and time-consuming. We maintain our headcount at a level required to support our continued research activities and development of our product candidates. Clinical trials generally become larger and more costly to conduct as they advance into later stages. We cannot determine with certainty the timing of initiation, the duration or the completion costs of current or future preclinical studies and clinical trials of our product candidates due to the inherently unpredictable nature of preclinical and clinical development. Clinical and preclinical development timelines, the probability of success and development costs can differ materially from expectations. At this time, we cannot reasonably estimate or know the nature, timing and estimated costs of the efforts that will be necessary to complete the development of any product candidates that we develop from our programs. As a result, our R&D expenses may vary substantially from period to period based on the timing of our R&D activities.

Research and development tax credits

As a company that carries out extensive R&D activities, we benefit from the U.K. R&D tax regime. For the periods ending December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022 we claimed credits under the Research and Development Expenditure Credit ("RDEC") program and these credits are presented as a reduction to R&D expenses. For the period ending December 31, 2022, we also benefited from the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise, ("SME") R&D tax relief program. 

Under the SME program, the trading losses that arise from our qualifying R&D activities can be surrendered for a cash rebate of up to 33.35% of qualifying expenditure incurred prior to April 1, 2023, and up to 18.6% of qualifying expenditure incurred thereafter. We exceeded the size limit thresholds to qualify as a “small or medium-sized enterprise” as defined for the purposes of the SME program in 2023, and may therefore, unless we once again fall within such thresholds, cease to be eligible to claim U.K. R&D tax credits under the SME program with effect from 2023.

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Under the RDEC program, tax credits for qualifying R&D expenses incurred prior to April 1, 2023 are granted at a headline rate of 13% and can generate cash rebates of up to 10.5% of qualifying R&D expenses. The headline rate under the RDEC program increased from 13% to 20% on April 1, 2023 and can generate cash rebates of up to 15% (increased from