Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

20 Jun 2007 11:21

Imperial Innovations Group plc20 June 2007 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") Investment in PolyTherics Imperial Innovations Group plc, the technology commercialisation and investmentcompany (AIM: IVO), Longbow Capital, which focuses on healthcare and technologyinvestments and The Capital Fund, the £50 million Regional Venture Capital Fundfor London, today announce that they have completed an investment round of £2.3million in PolyTherics Limited ('PolyTherics'), an innovative biopharmaceuticalcompany. Longbow Capital's private client base invested £1.3m, and ImperialInnovations and The Capital Fund invested £750,000 and £250,000 respectively. PolyTherics has developed patent-protected proprietary technologies andexpertise in the modification of drugs to improve their performance. Inparticular, PolyTherics has developed a novel PEGylation technology, known asTheraPEGTM, which can extend the half-life of novel and existing protein drugs.The TheraPEGTM approach produces an improvement in biological activity and ahigher yield when compared with existing PEGylation technologies. This meansthat drugs, such as Interferon, stay active in the body for longer, enablinglonger periods between doses. Patients can therefore be treated less often, withfewer side-effects and at lower cost. The market for traditional PEGylation has expanded considerably and theTheraPEGTM technology is positioned both to address existing markets and to opennew markets, particularly in the antibody field. PolyTherics already hasrevenue-generating development contracts in place with several companies and isin discussions with a number of other parties. PolyTherics is led by Dr Keith Powell and was established in 2002 by ProfessorSteve Brocchini of the School of Pharmacy, Professor Sunil Shaunak of ImperialCollege, also Professor of Infectious Diseases at Hammersmith Hospital, and DrAntony Godwin, the company's Head of Chemistry. Ji-Won Choi joined shortly afterformation to establish the biology side of the work. Dr Debbie Allen joined theCompany as Business Development Manager at completion; Debbie has over 10 yearsexperience in building business alliances and securing licensing deals forbiotech companies. Keith Powell, CEO, PolyTherics, said, "PolyTherics has made dramatic progress in the last two years - having productsin pre-clinical trials before first round fundraising and a demonstrated coretechnology makes the company an exciting prospect. PolyTherics has been lookingfor investors who share our vision and who have brought more than just money tothe company. We have been able to access high net worth entrepreneurs andindustrialists who are bringing new opportunities and they are advising andsupporting us proactively. We now have three partnerships with product-focusedpharma companies underway and are already generating revenue from this." Susan Searle, CEO, Imperial Innovations, said, "Polytherics has made significant commercial and technical progress over thelast couple of years. We look forward to supporting the team as the companyembarks on its next phase of growth." Julian Hickman, Partner, Longbow Capital, said, "We are delighted to have the opportunity to support PolyTherics. The Company iswell placed with highly developed and established technology and the fundingwill provide the resources to commercialise. Much of our investment is sourcedfrom Longbow's EIS Portfolio Service which illustrates how effective theEnterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) can be in attracting support from privateinvestors for growing businesses like PolyTherics." Helen Reynolds, Investment Manager at The Capital Fund, said, 'The Capital Fund is pleased to support Polytherics by providing some of thevital funding they need to proceed with the next stage of development of theirinnovative PEGylation technology. The Company's technology has huge potential toplay a key role in the successful development of a range of new and existingdrugs that can be more beneficial for patients as well as potentially morecost-effective for the NHS. We congratulate Keith Powell and the management teamon the significant progress they have already made in bringing products topre-clinical trials and securing a number of contracts, and wish them everysuccess with their plans." -Ends- For more information contact: Imperial InnovationsSusan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591Charlotte Stone, Marketing Communications +44 (0)20 7594 1268Executive M:CommunicationsPatrick d'Ancona / Eleanor Williamson +44 (0)20 7153 1539 The Capital Fund and PolyThericsMargaret Henry, PR Manager +44(0)1865 811199Email: m.henry@oxin.co.uk Longbow Capital LLPJulian Hickman, Partner +44 (0)207 332 5663 JPMorgan Cazenove (Broker to ImperialInnovations)Steve Baldwin +44(0)20 7588 2828 Notes to Editors 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 in70 technology businesses and has completed 116 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, BioCeramic Therapeutics Limited, Cardiak Limited,Circassia Holdings Limited, deltaDOT Limited, Equinox Pharma Limited, FutureWaves PTE Limited, HeliSwirl Technologies Limited, InforSense Limited, LontraLimited, Midaz Lasers Limited, NanoBioDesign Limited, Nexeon Limited, NovaTheraLimited, 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.www.imperialinnovations.co.uk About PolyTherics Founded in 2002, PolyTherics is a spin-out company from Imperial College Londonthat has developed an innovative patented PEGylation technology to prolong thehalf-life of molecule fragments for use in drug development. The Companyreceived initial funding of £850,000 from the Wellcome Trust (now CatalystBiomedia) and the Bloomsbury BioSeed Fund. PolyTherics' management team is led by Dr Keith Powell, CEO, who has extensiveexperience of managing large and small biotech companies. He led SPEAR into an$8.5M series B financing round and was also formerly Senior Vice President ofMaxygen, a protein modification company, where he was responsible for thegeneration of research partnerships worth over $30m. Other management teammembers include Dr Debbie Allen, Business Development Director, who hassubstantial experience in the field of therapeutic antibodies and was mostrecently responsible for business development at Cambridge Antibody Technology. PEGylation is the process by which Polyethylene Glycol chains are attached toprotein and peptide drugs. PEGylating molecules or molecule fragments increasesthe time that a substance remains in the bloodstream before being metabolized orexcreted by the body ie it improves the half-life of the drug and thereforepotentially reduces the frequency of treatments required, decreasing the impactof side effects and improving patient compliance. For example, PEGylatedinterferon treatments for Hepatitis C can be injected once rather than threetimes per week. For further information: www.polytherics.co.uk About Longbow Capital LLP Longbow Capital was established in 2004 by a group of experiencedindustrialists, corporate financiers and wealth management professionals. Itspurpose is to bring to early stage unquoted companies the skills and capitalrequired in order to generate significant returns for investors over a 3 to 5year period. The partners of Longbow include individuals with a range of experience that hasover the years enabled them to build and operate successful private companiesfor the mutual benefit of investors and management. For its investors, Longbowidentifies investment opportunities with the potential for considerable andsustainable growth. This class of investment can also offer private investorsincome tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax reliefs. Longbow's primaryobjective is to deliver substantial returns for its investors. Longbow has offices in the City of London and central Edinburgh, is regulated bythe FSA and is a member of the British Venture Capital Association. For furtherinformation: www.longbow.co.uk About The Capital Fund Launched in 2002, The Capital Fund is a £50 million venture capital fund whichbacks fast-growing, small and medium-sized enterprises in Greater London. Todate, the Fund has made over 50 investments in London-based companies and wasnamed Regional Venture Capital Fund of the Year at the Investor Allstars Awards2005. Initial investments can be up to £250,000 and the Fund can invest a further£250,000 after six months or more. In some circumstances, alongside other newinvestors, the Fund can follow on its investments with up to £5m in total in asingle company. The Capital Fund is the largest of the nine Regional VentureCapital Funds and has a mixture of public and private sector investors. Forfurther information: www.thecapitalfund.co.uk The Capital Fund is managed by YFM Venture Finance Limited, which is authorisedand regulated by the Financial Services Authority and part of the YFM Group. TheYFM Group provides investment capital and business development services to SMEsthroughout the UK. It currently has £250m in funds and consultancy contractsunder management, with over 70 employees. For further information:www.yfmgroup.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange