Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

12 Jan 2007 09:00

Imperial Innovations Group plc12 January 2007 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") Investment in Equinox Pharma Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO), the technology commercialisation andinvestment company, today announces that it has invested £250,000 in EquinoxPharma Limited ("Equinox"), a company providing advanced software products tothe pharma and biopharma industry. The investment in Equinox was part of a£500,000 seed funding round which also included a £250,000 investment fromNetScientific Ltd. Equinox was formed by Imperial Innovations based on the research conducted byProfessors Freemont, Muggleton and Sternberg, at Imperial College London tooffer an advanced solution to the problems of drug discovery, which is typicallya slow and expensive process. The company is developing an in-silico discoverypipeline, which utilises the knowledge of traditional drug discovery methods andstate-of-the-art computer-based analyses to target the key stages of TargetIdentification, Lead Validation, and Lead Optimisation. Equinox's proprietarysoftware uses artificial intelligence to create rules identifying those chemicalproperties of molecules that are responsible for their drug activity. Thesoftware then presents these rules in a form readily understood by chemists.This speeds up the drug design process, thereby increasing the chances of a leadcompound developing into a drug and may drastically reduce the expensive ofearly stage compounds and the time taken to reach clinical trials, all at afraction of the original cost. The investment will be used to complete further proof of principle developmentof its drug lead discovery software and to progress the sales of its softwarefor protein structure, as well as enabling it to set up commercial offices inthe Incubator at Imperial. Susan Searle, CEO, Imperial Innovations, said, "Equinox has shown tremendous growth in the last twelve months, with a rapidlygrowing customer base. We are delighted to be able to support them as theycontinue that growth." David Gough, Equinox CEO, said, I am excited to be leading this initiative, as well as being at the forefront ofthe bio- & chemo - informatics field I believe that Equinox has the potential tocreate a new paradigm in drug discovery based upon its 'virtual white powder'strategy that involves out-licensing in silico drug leads in return formilestone payments as the compounds progress through development. -Ends- For more information contact: Imperial InnovationsSusan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Communications Executive +44 (0)20 7594 6644 M:Communications +44 (0)20 7153 1539Patrick d'Ancona / Eleanor Williamson Notes to Editors About Equinox Pharma Ltd Equinox Pharma has developed informatics and data mining software to meet theneeds of pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the discovery and development of new drugs. Equinox's technology platform employs bio-and chemo-informatics software, logic-based ADME/Tox using machine learning, and protein structure modelling, which merge to form a powerful in-silico discovery engine. Together with expertise in the determination of three-dimensional structures of potential drugs binding to protein receptors, Equinox offers a new and advanced approach to the process of drug development. About Imperial Innovations Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology transfer andcommercialisation companies. The company was founded in 1986 and its ordinaryshares admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc inJuly 2006, raising £26 million. The company's integrated approach encompassesthe identification of ideas, protection of intellectual property, developmentand licensing of technology and formation, incubation and investment intechnology businesses. A wide range of technologies are commercialised withinthe areas of healthcare, energy, environment and emerging technology trends. Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in66 technology businesses and has completed 90 commercial agreements. ImperialInnovations also commercialises technologies originating from outside ImperialCollege through incubation contracts with the Carbon Trust and WRAP and hasrelationships with a number of multinational corporations including BAE Systems. Imperial Innovations has invested in a range of spin-out companies, includingThe Acrobot Company Limited, Cardiak Limited, deltaDOT Limited, Future Waves PTELimited, HeliSwirl Technologies Limited, InforSense Limited, Lontra Limited,Midaz Lasers Limited, NanoBioDesign Limited, Nexeon Limited, NovaThera Limited,Thiakis Limited and Veryan Medical Limited. Imperial Innovations currently holds shares in four technology businesses nowlisted on AIM including the fuel cell company, Ceres Power plc. About NetScientific NetScientific Limited is a recently formed investment fund providing early-stagefunding to technology businesses, with a particular interest in medicine,renewable energy, and enhancement of the environment This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange