21 Sep 2015 07:00
ABZENA PLC
("Abzena", the "Company" or the "Group")
Business Update
Cambridge, UK - 21 September 2015: Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA), the life sciences company providing services and technologies to enable better biopharmaceutical products, provides a business update ahead of its Annual General Meeting, which will be held today at 10:30am at Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge CB22 3AT.
· Two further Composite Human Antibodies, created for Abzena's partners, have progressed into clinical development. The companies developing these two products are US pharma and biotech companies, respectively, although the specific products and partners' names remain confidential. Ten Composite Human Antibodies created by Abzena are now in clinical development.
· On 11 September, Abzena Inc (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company) acquired the entire issued share capital of PacificGMP (San Diego, CA, USA) expanding the Group's offering to include GMP biomanufacturing and establishing an operating presence in the US. Since announcing the deal, Abzena has generated significant interest from many of its existing partners about accessing the GMP manufacturing capability and thus benefiting from Abzena's broader portfolio of complementary services and technologies.
· Within UK operations, capacity within the cell line development group has been expanded in response to demand and the additional capacity will also enable Abzena's partners to progress programmes from development candidate selection to clinical development following the addition of GMP manufacturing capability with the acquisition of PacificGMP.
· Service revenues for the six months to end of September are expected to be significantly higher than the equivalent period last year, maintaining the momentum seen in the second half of FY2015.
Ken Cunningham, chairman of the board of directors of Abzena plc, adds, "On the day of our first Annual General Meeting since Abzena's IPO, I am pleased to record the great progress achieved by John and the team in establishing Abzena as a leading provider of its innovative services and technologies for the development and now manufacturing of better biopharmaceutical products. The recent acquisition of PacificGMP creates significant synergies with the existing business and demonstrates Abzena's commitment to growth."
-Ends-
For more information, please contact:
John Burt (Chief Executive Officer)
Julian Smith (Chief Financial Officer)
Abzena plc
Tel: +44 1223 903498
Email: john.burt@abzena.com or julian.smith@abzena.com
Christopher Golden and Ivonne Cantu
Cenkos Securities (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Tel: +44 20 7397 8900
Mark Swallow and David Dible
Citigate Dewe Rogerson (Corporate and Financial PR)
Tel: +44 20 7638 9571
Email: abzena@citigatedr.co.uk
About Abzena
Abzena provides proprietary technologies and complementary services in the UK and US to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals.
The Group comprises Antitope, PacificGMP and PolyTherics, which between them have built a global customer base including the majority of the top 20 biopharmaceutical companies as well as many large and small biotech companies and leading academic research institutions.
Antitope provides immunogenicity assessment, protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins, and cell line development for manufacture.
PacificGMP provides contract process development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines, and gene therapy and cell therapy products, for preclinical and clinical studies.
PolyTherics specializes in proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies for antibody drug conjugate development and solutions for optimizing the therapeutic properties of biopharmaceuticals.
Abzena has its main operations in Cambridge, UK and in San Diego, CA, USA. The shares of Abzena plc are quoted on the AIM segment of the London Stock Exchange under the symbol ABZA.
www.abzena.com