Imperial Innovations Group Regulatory News (IVO)

11 May 2007 10:00

Imperial Innovations Group plc11 May 2007 Imperial Innovations Group plc ("Imperial Innovations") Investment in Veryan Medical Limited Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO), the technology commercialisation andinvestment company, today announces that it has made a £620,000 second roundinvestment in Veryan Medical Limited (Veryan Medical), a developer of medicaldevices to improve the long-term effectiveness of medical care in patients withvascular disease. The investment which was co-led by existing investors ImperialInnovations and Oxford Capital Partners, was part of an overall £3.1 millionfundraising by the company which included existing investor NESTA. The investment will be used to finance the addition of a range of proprietarySwirlflowTM vascular stents to Veryan Medical's range of innovative products toaddress vascular disease. The company's patented technology reproduces thegeometry naturally found in the body's vascular system to introduce a swirlingmotion to blood flow. This swirling motion acts to reduce restenosis - theblocking of arteries - caused by unstable blood-flow through implantablevascular devices. The helical device geometry also provides a significantimprovement in structural durability, which further improves patient outcomes inthe rapidly growing US$5 billion stent market. The company's first product SwirlGraftTM, which has received regulatory approvalin the USA and Europe, offers a kidney dialysis access graft that demonstrablyreduces the vascular disease that currently causes many existing grafts to failprematurely and force many dialysis patients to undergo repeated correctivesurgery. Clinical trials in the Netherlands for the SwirlGraftTM Vascular AccessGraft have already shown the advantage of this device over conventional grafts,and larger-scale trials are now underway in the US. Philip Birch, CEO, Veryan Medical, said "This continuing support from ourprincipal shareholders will facilitate Veryan Medical's continued growth, andits development into the exciting and high value field of vascular stents." Susan Searle, CEO, Imperial Innovations, said, "Our follow-up investment inVeryan Medical is a clear sign of our confidence in the company and the team.Paul Gilson and Chas Taylor have much experience having previously built up astent business and subsequently orchestrated its sale to Abbott Laboratories.Together with Philip Birch, they have demonstrated excellent progress." "Veryan Medical's SwirlflowTM stent promises considerable physical and medicalbenefit to its users and Oxford Capital Partners is excited to be supporting thecompany in its efforts to commercialise this technology." said Dr VictorChristou, Investment Manager at Oxford Capital Partners. David Hunter, MD of NESTA Investments said: "We first invested in VeryanMedical in May 2004 when the company was at the very early stage and aredelighted to continue to support it as it grows from strength to strength." -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 Oxford Capital Partners Dr Victor Christou, Investment Manager +44 (0)1865 860 760Joanne Telford, Marketing Manager M:Communications Patrick d'Ancona / Eleanor Williamson +44 (0)20 7153 1539 JP Morgan CazenoveSteve Baldwin +44(0)20 7588 2828 Notes to Editors About Veryan Medical Veryan Medical was incorporated in June 2003 as a spin-out company from ImperialCollege, London. The company is an ISO9001 accredited designer and manufacturerof surgeon-choice implantable vascular devices. Vascular disease remains the main cause of premature death in industrializedsociety. Veryan Medical has used its unique understanding of the link betweenblood flow mechanics and vascular disease to develop a series of medical devicesfocused on specific unmet needs in vascular surgery. www.veryanmed.com 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, IXICOLimited, Lontra Limited, Midaz Lasers Limited, NanoBioDesign Limited, NexeonLimited, 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. www.imperialinnovations.co.uk About Oxford Capital Partners Oxford Capital Partners specialises in investing in science and technologycompanies. It supports companies from an early stage through to IPO and has aparticular focus on supporting their international expansion. Oxford CapitalPartners manages the Oxford Gateway Funds, Fund No.1 (1999), Fund No.2 (2003),Fund No.3 (2005) and Fund No.4 (2006) which together have made over 40investments in technology and life science companies. Oxford Capital Partnerswas Venture Capital House of the Year 2005 and Best EIS Fund Manager 2006. www.oxcp.com NESTA NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. With endowedfunds of over £300 million, our mission is to transform the UK's capacity forinnovation. We do this in three main ways: by working to build a more pervasiveculture of innovation in this country; by providing innovators with access toearly-stage capital; and by driving forward research into innovation, with aview to influencing policy. www.nesta.org.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange