AOR.L Regulatory News (AOR)

AorTech International Plc

 License Agreement for the manufacture and distribution of AorTech's Patented Elast-Eon™ materials

The recently adopted strategy of AorTech is to exploit the value of the Company's IP, Patents and know-how without incurring the further substantial expenditure required to maintain and develop manufacturing facilities, product development expertise and sales and marketing resources

To this end, the Board is pleased to announce that AorTech has signed an agreement with Biomerics, LLC of Salt Lake City, UT ("Biomerics") to license the rights to manufacture and distribute the patented silicone/urethane copolymers Elast-Eon™ and ECSil™.

AorTech will assist Biomerics in transferring the manufacturing know-how and, once the products are validated, Biomerics will supply the polymer requirements of AorTech's current licensees.

In addition to supplying existing AorTech customers, Biomerics will promote the use of AorTech's Elast-Eon™ polymers in other fields of medical devices and will offer components manufactured from AorTech's Elast-Eon™ polymers to the medical device community.

This agreement will provide AorTech with future income streams from a combination of a share of gross margin achieved on Elast-Eon™ polymer supply and a revenue share on components manufactured with Elast-Eon™ polymers. It will also provide royalty fees and license fees under licenses issued by Biomerics to their existing or future customers for the use of Elast-Eon™ polymers in medical devices. AorTech will continue to be entitled to all royalty and license fees due under existing License agreements.

In the Chairman's Statement of 27 August 2013, it was stated that "Your Board has strived to implement a strategy which will enable the Group to achieve both growth and profitability to enhance shareholder value". The signing of this Agreement is viewed as a significant step in enabling this vision to be realized.

Frank Maguire, AorTech CEO said,

"The clinical performance of Elast-Eon™ and ECSil™ has been effectively demonstrated in a variety of applications, including pacing and neurostimulation lead insulation, non-vascular stents, implantable sensor coatings, a mitral valve implant and as the header material for encapsulating the electronics in neurostimulation or pacemaker implants. This agreement provides, through Biomerics manufacturing facilities, a high quality, commercial scale source of supply for AorTech's existing customers and provides both AorTech and Biomerics the opportunity to expand and accelerate the use of Elast-Eon™ material into a wider medical device field. 

 This relationship with Biomerics provides for large volume manufacturing economies of scale in the production of polymer and medical device components using these polymers, a deep pool of talented application engineering resources facilitating new business development and access to new customers and markets for AorTech polymers."

Travis Sessions, Biomerics President and CEO said

" Biomerics has been providing world class medical urethanes to our customers for years. We are excited to be able to offer the full line of Elast-Eon™ and ECSiL™ biomaterials to our portfolio. These urethane-silicone biomaterials expand our implantable offering and combined with our extrusion, dipping, and molding processes will enable the development and commercialization of new-to-market medical devices

Enquiries:

AorTech International plc

Bill Brown, Chairman

Tel: +44 (0) 7730 718296

finnCap

Stuart Andrews, James ThompsonfinnCap as Nominated AdviserTel: 020 7220 0500

Note to Editors

AorTech developed the biostable implantable polymers Elast-Eon™ and ECSil™ which are used for long-term human implants. Devices manufactured from our polymers have multiple US FDA PMA approvals, CE Marks, Australian TGA and Japanese Ministry of Health approval.

Elast-Eon™ and ECSil's™ biostability is comparable to silicone while exhibiting excellent mechanical, blood contacting and flex-fatigue properties. Our polymers can be processed using conventional thermoplastic extrusion and molding techniques. AorTech provides a range of materials in a variety of application-specific formulations for use in medical devices and components.

About Biomerics, LLC: Biomerics, LLC is a leading and innovative medical polymer solution provider to the medical device market. Biomerics specializes in biomedical materials, compounding, antimicrobials, injection molding, extrusion, coating, and medical device fabrication. Biomerics manufactures its materials in ISO 13485 registered facilities in Salt Lake City, UT and Ashaway, RI. Biomerics partners with its customers to increase their profitability via material technology, operational excellence, and customer service. More information is available at www.biomerics.com.