Proteome Regulatory News (PRM)

3 Jun 2005 07:04

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release 3rd June, 2005 RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st DECEMBER 2004 HIGHLIGHTS * Financial * Loss after tax reduced 23% to ‚£5.20m (2003 : ‚£6.78m) * Headline loss (excluding non-cash items and associates) ‚£4.02m (2003 : ‚£4.26m) * Cash balance ‚£2.43m at year end. On 31st March, 2005, a further ‚£4.93m raised from an institutional placing and the warrant exercise by the Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Pearce * Consistent low and predictable cash burn expected for the foreseeable future * Biomarkers * Stroke - Existing license arrangements for point of care moved to a non-exclusive basis * Advanced discussions in high throughput stroke with major diagnostics players * TSEs - Significant progress across all programmes, with focus on BSE in live cattle and blood screening for CJD/vCJD * Large sample sets for BSE and CJD/vCJD in process * Alzheimer's - Implementing fast track strategy to expand value of therapeutic applications * In discussions with licensing partners for AD diagnostics and therapeutics * New biomarkers discovered and patents filed in Alzheimer's , stroke, vCJD, * Huntington's disease and brain damage * Twelve patents granted including stroke, TSE, cancer, QC and reagents * Sample collections sourced in plasma for kidney transplantation, colorectal and breast cancer * Biomarkers in diabetes/obesity testing for therapeutic applications * ProteoSHOP‚® * Further strategic alliances expected following first ProteoSHOP‚® deal announced in March 2005 * Algorithms focus on addressing differential protein expression across panels of biomarkers rather than individual proteins * Reagents * Definitive license agreement for TMT‚® tags imminent in line with previous announcements * Excellent progress being made across family of Sensitizer‚® reagents, in particular with respect to qPST (quantitative Protein Sequence Tags‚®) * Veri-Q Inc. * Promising early results for DNA applications with Duke University * Outlicensing from QC reagents in RNAi and DNA microarrays * Intronn Inc. * In vivo proof of principle in dyslipidemia established * SMaRT‚® successfully increased `good protein components' of cholesterol * Good progress made in haemophilia and AAT * Funding in place through to clinical trials, with strategic partners to be brought in for clinical and commercial development. Commercial discussions are underway * Current Outlook * Proteome Sciences is well placed to exploit considerable opportunities facing the life sciences industry * Strong expansion of commercial activity from all three legs of the business is anticipated * Commercial transactions currently envisaged should generate significant revenue through upfront payments, milestones and royalties Commenting on these results, Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive of ProteomeSciences, said:"Considerable progress has been made scientifically in our biomarker discoveryprogrammes, in ProteoSHOP‚® and our Sensitizer‚® reagents activities andsubstantive advances with SMaRT‚® at Intronn Inc. in the USA, and this has beenreflected through the commercial deals and announcements to date.The focus of corporate strategy has been to shift the emphasis of ouractivities from cash consumption by our research activities, into sustainableand growing revenue, royalties and profit generation through commercialisationof our scientific programmes. That process has progressed considerably over thelast eighteen months and at all times with a consistent and highly predictablepattern of cash burn. The ongoing commercialisation process will see anexpanding pipeline of activity across all three legs of the business that willhave a significant further impact.We are delighted to have signed our first deal for ProteoSHOP‚®, and are veryclose to finalising the license agreement for TMT‚® tags with a major globalhealthcare player, for which we announced heads of agreement at the end ofMarch. We are very actively progressing commercialisation by way of strategicalliances and outlicensing in each of the three main areas of the business, andare confident of a fast growing and expanding commercial revenue.Proteome Sciences is right at the forefront of proteomics technology worldwideand we believe we are set to see substantial benefits arising as a result ofthe life sciences industry having to adopt a different approach to clinicalrisk management in response to a new regulatory paradigm. The commercialtransactions currently envisaged should generate significant upfront payments,milestones and royalties." ENDS Attached: Full text of Chairman's statement, consolidated profit and lossaccount, consolidated balance sheet, consolidated cashflow statement and notesto the financial information.For further information please contact:Proteome Sciences plc www.proteomics.com Christopher Pearce, Chief Executive Tel: +44 (0)1932 865065 Email: Christopher.pearce@proteomics.com Public Relations for Proteome Sciences IKON Associates Adrian Shaw Tel: +44 (0)1483 535102 Mobile: +44 (0)797 9900733 Email: Adrian@ikonassociates.com Notes to Editors:Proteome Sciences plc applies high sensitivity proteomics to identify andcharacterise differential protein expression in diseases for diagnostic,prognostic and therapeutic applications. It has to date developed sensitiveblood assays for stroke, vCJD, BSE, solid organ transplant rejection andAlzheimer's disease. The main focus of its research currently addressesneurological, neurodegenerative, diabetes/obesity, oncology and cardiovascularconditions.In addition to its own proprietary biomarkers, Proteome Sciences has developedProteoSHOP‚® (Proteome Sciences High Output Proteomics), a toolbox that offershigh sensitivity and high throughput gel and gel-free proprietary technologiesfor the identification of potential biomarkers and drug targets. These includespecialisation in membrane proteins and protein phosphorylation.The Company has developed a range of specialist reagents to improve theperformance and quantitation of protein separation and characterisation withmass spectrometry, bioinformatics, statistics and pattern recognition. Theseinclude Sensitizer‚®, PST‚®, qPST¢â€ž¢ and TMT‚®.Commercialisation is actively pursued across the portfolio of the Company'sprogrammes and technologies with licensing deals signed in biomarkers forStroke and TSEs and for ProteoSHOP‚®.Proteome Sciences is headquartered in Cobham, Surrey in the UK and haslaboratories at Kings College Hospital, London and in Frankfurt. It employs 40full time scientists in addition to its corporate and business developmentstaff, and has collaborative research agreements with leading academicinstitutes. The Company is listed on the Alternative Investment Market.Chairman's StatementFor the year ended 31st December 2004Dear Shareholder,I am pleased to report that the year ended 31st December, 2004 has been highlyproductive for Proteome Sciences and that this momentum has continued into2005.In summary, considerable progress has been made scientifically in our biomarkerdiscovery programmes, in ProteoSHOP‚® and our Sensitizer‚® reagents activities,and substantive advances with the SMaRT‚® RNA therapeutic technology at IntronnInc. in the USA, and this has been reflected through the commercial dealsannounced to date in 2005.The focus of corporate strategy has been to shift the emphasis of ouractivities from cash consumption by our research activities, into sustainableand growing revenue, royalties and profit generation through commercialisationof our scientific programmes. As you can see, that process has progressedconsiderably over the last eighteen months and at all times with a consistentand highly predictable pattern of cash burn. The ongoing commercialisationprocess will see an expanding pipeline of activity across all three legs of thebusiness that will have a significant further impact.On the patent front, over the year twelve patents have been granted includingstroke, TSE, cancer, oligonucleotides and chemical reagents and new patentapplications have been filed for discoveries made in Alzheimer's disease,stroke, vCJD, brain damage disorders and Sensitizer‚® mass tags.BiomarkersThe main goals of our research programmes are to discover and commercialisebiomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic applications in humandiseases. In order to achieve this objective, it is essential that we haveaccess to high quality samples that are age and sex matched and are obtainedfrom groups of disease and control patients. The supply of such samples hasbecome increasingly difficult to obtain and some of our programmes in the pasthave been hampered by the lack of sample availability. The impact of this wasmost apparent in TSE, both in samples for BSE in animals for the Idexxprogramme, and in samples for CJD/vCJD in humans.These issues have now been resolved with Proteome Sciences receiving, late inthe second half of 2004, a large set of BSE samples running into thousands andan increasing supply of CJD/vCJD samples. These sample sets are being activelyprocessed and should hopefully provide further validation of the differentiallyexpressed proteins already identified and covered by patent applications fromour earlier research and should facilitate the discovery of a number of newbiomarkers, with the benefit of advances made from our ProteoSHOP‚® toolbox.From the most recent results, we have filed further patent applications for newmarkers in CJD/vCJD and these also cover novel biomarkers discovered inHuntington's disease, an incurable genetic disease of the human nervous system.The main priorities of the programmes are directed towards the development andoutlicensing of a test for BSE in live cattle and for CJD/vCJD screening inblood banks. Significant research progress has been made across the TSEprogrammes, and shareholders will be updated with further commercialdevelopments as they materialise.A new agreement has recently been signed to provide the Company with asubstantive set of stroke samples in blood, including a time course series withfollow-ups. This will enable us to expand the scope of the existing biomarkersin stroke and to accelerate their application in high-throughput strokescreening (HTS).The existing license arrangements for Point of Care were moved to anon-exclusive basis. This will considerably simplify the commercial freedom tooperate in HTS applications and should also expedite the process to effect anumber of HTS non-exclusive licenses on more favourable terms with the majorglobal players, with whom negotiations are well advanced.In collaboration with external bioinformatics groups, we have developed andimplemented panel algorithms that measure the performance of differentcombinations of individual stroke biomarkers and these, coupled with thecontinuous expansion of our discovery and validation processes, place us at theforefront of stroke biomarker research. These panel algorithms can also beapplied in any other disease settings other than stroke.In Alzheimer's disease, a strong position has been established, initiallythrough a panel of CSF markers announced in March 2004, followed by thesubsequent discovery of serum biomarkers in the summer for the early detectionof Alzheimer's disease. These have been bolstered by the recent discovery ofadditional novel biomarkers, with further patent applications having been madeand in progress. In parallel, in a separate programme, we presented thediscovery of novel kinase activity in the early development of Alzheimer'sdisease as potential new drug targets to prevent and/or delay the progressionof Alzheimer's disease. A thorough scientific and commercial review has beenundertaken and we are implementing a fast track strategy to establish andfurther expand the proofs of principle and to more fully reveal the potentialvalue of therapeutic applications in Alzheimer's. Discussions with potentiallicensing partners are ongoing for both the diagnostic and therapeuticprogrammes.Last summer, we mentioned that we were negotiating a new collaboration toextend the organ transplant rejection programme into the renal area. That hasbeen concluded and we recently received a large retrospective plasma sample setspanning up to 3 years post kidney transplantation from the Oxford TransplantCentre, part of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. There is seriousunmet need for a diagnostic test for kidney transplant rejection and thisshould generate considerable medical application and commercial value.Further to the grant of certain cancer patents in 2004 for lung, breast, colon,neuroblastoma and glioma, additional disease and control samples have beenaggressively pursued. As a result, sample collections and supporting data fromcolorectal and breast cancer patients have been successfully sourced forprocessing in our Frankfurt research facility. Additional disease samples forother conditions in neurodegeneration and cancer are currently beingnegotiated. In the diabetes/obesity research project, a selected group ofbiomarkers that have been discovered are being tested to assess their potentialfor therapeutic applications.ProteoSHOP‚®At the Frankfurt R&D site, a research group has been established in the newlaboratories equipped with state-of-the-art Western blotting and ELISAcapabilities tailored towards the validation of candidate protein markersemerging from the internal discovery pipeline or from ProteoSHOP‚® strategicalliances. These take Proteome Sciences considerably higher up the value chain.Procedures have been implemented to extract high abundance proteins from bodyfluids to enable the analysis of lower abundance protein components. Inaddition to body fluids, Proteome Sciences has developed sub-cellularfractionation procedures for tissues and cells that allow for the enrichment ofproteins present in nuclear, membrane or cytosolic cell fractions. Equallyimportant, a method of enrichment of phospho-peptides for analysis in proteinphosphorylation has been effected.The developments above significantly improve our ability to addressdifferential protein expression in disease.As the understanding of the complexity of disease and its impact on diagnosisand treatment is growing following the final publication of the surprisinghuman genome sequence in October 2004, with a total of only 19599 genesdiscovered, it has become evident that the `single biomarker paradigm' is beingsuperseded and needs revision. Proteomics is playing a key role in thisprocess.Successful future disease diagnostic and prognostic assay systems have to relyincreasingly on panels of biomarkers rather than on individual proteins.Proteome Sciences recognised this trend early and developed and validated aunique set of statistical tools that assess and predict the diagnostic andprognostic utility of varying combinations of biomarkers which can be usedacross its research activities.The announcement of the first ProteoSHOP‚® deal at the end of March 2005 will befollowed by a growing pipeline of further strategic alliances. These are likelyto generate revenue in the `low hundreds of thousands' each depending on thesize and duration, rising to `low millions' over a time span of several years,and with Proteome Sciences retaining an interest in the programme in additionto a royalty participation.ReagentsProteome Sciences has made considerable progress in the development andvalidation of its proprietary next generation proteomics technologies whichpromise to accelerate the discovery of protein biomarkers and targets relevantto major human diseases.The Sensitizer‚® family of reagents has been developed at the Frankfurt R&Dfacility which includes CombiSMT¢â€ž¢, Protein Sequence Tags‚® (PST‚®), quantitativeProtein Sequence Tags‚® (qPST‚®) and Tandem Mass Tags‚® (TMT‚®). Each member of theSensitizer family has its unique application but inherent to all is a commonfeature which increases the numbers of peptides that can be identified fromcomplex protein mixtures and the quality and quantity of data generated.Impressive progress was made in the second half of last year for the ProteoSHOP‚® toolbox with the introduction of qPST‚® which has been deployed for routineuse in 2005. The robustness and reproducibility of qPST‚® has been presented ata number of international scientific meetings using the yeast biological modelsystem S.cerevisiae, published as a paper in Proteomics May 2005, and iscurrently being applied to the analysis of plasma from Alzheimer's Diseasepatients. With qPST‚®, Proteome Sciences has a highly competitive, proprietarytechnology to use across a wide range of applications, particularly in humandiseases.The development of CombiSMT¢â€ž¢ is advancing in line with our expectations and thefirst proof of concept studies are very encouraging.The documentation for an exclusive global license for the TMT‚® tags is in itsfinal stages and the definitive license is expected to be concluded imminentlyin line with previous announcements.The TMT‚® tags reduce sample complexity in a way that allows simultaneousaccurate and sensitive quantification and identification of protein biomarkersin complex biological materials such as tissue and body fluids for applicationsin mass spectrometry, bioinformatics, statistics and pattern recognition.The Board believes that the market potential for isobaric mass tag reagents inproteomics is likely to grow extremely rapidly and is projected to generatesales into many hundreds of million dollars over the TMT‚® patent life, fromwhich Proteome Sciences will receive substantial royalties.Veri-Q Inc.Data and results to date in the research programme confirmed that manycommercially manufactured oligonucleotides are not fully deprotected and thisconsequently leads to the generation of inaccurate and misleading results.The Veri-Q collaboration with NCSU returned to a normal pattern in late 2004when new antibodies were delivered and testing and development got backunderway.Early results from the collaboration with Duke University in Durham, NorthCarolina, USA for applications with DNA chips have shown some promisingindications with further work to be undertaken in 2005 to expand their utility.Veri-Q proposes to submit the results for publication in the relevantscientific journals and, against this backcloth, to expeditely outlicense theVeri-Q technology for application principally as QC reagents in RNAi and forDNA microarrays.Intronn Inc.The main objective for Intronn's SMaRT‚® technology following the successfuldevelopment of the high capacity screen, was to apply SMaRT‚® in RNAtherapeutics for the liver. The goal was to try and demonstrate in-vivo proofof principle for one of its three primary programmes in haemophilia,dyslipidemia (hypercholesterolemia) or AAT deficiency.We were delighted to report on 31st March, that Intronn had demonstrated,earlier than expected, in-vivo proof of principle for the dyslipidemiaprogramme. In simple terms with cholesterol, there is good cholesterol (HDL)and bad cholesterol (LDL). To have healthy individuals, the objective is toincrease the HDL levels and to lower the LDL levels or a combination of thetwo. Most encouragingly, early results from the current elements of theprogramme targeted to stimulating the production of the protein component ofHDL have shown a significant increase in the level of HDL, and it isanticipated that data and results relating to the project will be presented atthe appropriate scientific forums this year. The market for cholesterol drugsin the US in 2003 totalled close to $24bn, $10bn of which came from Lipitor,and considerable future growth is anticipated both in the US and for the globalmarket.Good progress continues to be made in the haemophilia and AAT projects, wherefurther results are anticipated over the summer and the prospects for Intronn,both scientifically and commercially, look very favourable. The fundingreceived in 2004 should enable Intronn to finance its progress into 2006through to clinical trials, by which time Intronn intends to enter intoexternal partnering where significant portions of clinical and commercialdevelopment, as well as upfront payments and sponsored research collaborations,will be provided by strategic partnersResultsThe unaudited financial results for the twelve month period ended 31st December2004, show a headline loss (being the loss for the financial year excludingnon-cash costs and share of associate company's losses) of ‚£4,016,637 comparedwith ‚£4,259,998 in 2003. Non-cash costs (amortisation of goodwill, amountswritten off fixed asset investment, depreciation and National Insurance onnotional share option gains, as extracted from the unaudited profit and lossaccount), were ‚£589,198 against ‚£1,948,137 in 2003. The period to 31st December2004 also contains a share of associates' losses at Intronn Inc. of ‚£593,366(2003 : ‚£573,024). The loss on ordinary activities after taxation for thetwelve month period ended 31st December 2004 was ‚£5,199,201 (2003 : ‚£6,781,159).At the year end, cash at bank and cash held on deposit stood at ‚£2,425,943(2003 : ‚£6,160,384). On 31st March 2005, the Company announced that it raisedapproximately ‚£4.7 million (net of expenses) by way of a cash placing of8,087,658 ordinary shares with an institutional investor. On the same date, theCompany raised a further ‚£225,000 through the exercise of warrants byChristopher Pearce, the Chief Executive.With the cash raised in 2005, added to the existing cash resources, ProteomeSciences is well placed to undertake its business activities for theforeseeable future.The commercial transactions currently envisaged should generate significantsignature payments, milestones and royalties. With a similar pattern of cashburn expected by the Board for 2005 to previous years, this will make aconsiderable impact on the cashflow and future financial requirements of theCompany.Current outlookThe recent major clinical problems experienced by major pharmaceutical groupsacross a broad range of existing drugs and drugs in development at the end of2004, require a different approach to clinical risk management in response tonew regulatory requirements.We firmly believe that proteomics technology will be one of the majorcontributors and beneficiaries, and that Proteome Sciences, with its spread ofactivities in biomarkers, the ProteoSHOP‚® toolbox and its Sensitizer‚® chemicalreagents is ideally placed to exploit the considerable opportunities facing thelife sciences industry, post the sequence of the human genome. We expect to seea strong expansion of commercial activity from the three main legs of ourbusiness.Against this background, the prospects look most promising.Steve HarrisChairman 3rd June, 2005Unaudited consolidated profit and loss accountFor the year ended 31st December 2004 2004 2003 ‚£ ‚£ Turnover - continuing operations 72,971 170,051 Cost of sales (40,801) (82,924) --------------- ---------------- Gross profit 32,170 87,127 Administrative expenses excluding (4,655,426) (5,021,346)non-cash items Amortisation of goodwill (648,960) (648,960) Depreciation (529,313) (585,234) National Insurance on notional share 701,953) (713,943)option gains Administrative expenses (5,131,746) (6,969,483) --------------- ---------------- Operating loss - continuing operations (5,099,576) (6,882,356) Share of associate's operating loss (593,366) (573,024) --------------- ---------------- Group operating loss - continuing (5,692,942) (7,455,380)operations Interest receivable and similar income 151,969 124,682 Interest payable and similar charges (1,942) (5,905) Amounts written off fixed asset (112,878) -investment --------------- ---------------- Loss on ordinary activities before (5,655,793) (7,336,603)taxation Tax credit on loss on ordinary 456,592 555,444activities --------------- ---------------- Loss for the financial year (5,199,201) (6,781,159) ======== ========== Headline loss (4,016,637) (4,259,998) ======== ========== Loss per share Basic and diluted loss per share (4.27p) (5.81p) Headline loss per share (3.30p)) (3.65p) ======== ==========Unaudited reconciliation of loss per share to headline loss per shareFor the year ended 31st December 2004The headline loss and headline loss per share is presented by the Directors asan additional measure of financial performance. 2004 2004 2003 2003 Loss per Loss per share share ‚£ Pence ‚£ pence Loss for the financial year (5,199,201) (4.27) (6,781,159) (5.81) Add back: Amortisation of goodwill 648,960 0.53 648,960 0.55 Amounts written off fixed asset 112,878 0.09 - -investment Depreciation 529,313 0.44 585,234 0.51 National Insurance on notional (701,953) (0.58) 713,943 0.61share option gains Share of associate's operating 593,366 0.49 573,024 0.49loss -------------- --------- -------------- --------- Headline loss (4,016,637) (3.30) (4,259,998) (3.65) ======== ===== ======== =====Unaudited consolidated cash flow statementFor the year ended 31st December 2004 2004 2003 ‚£ ‚£Fixed assets Intangible assets 4,867,201 5,516,161 Tangible assets 740,662 1,073,029 Investments in associates 1,514,792 282,026 Other investments 112,878 225,756 ------------- -------------- 7,235,533 7,096,972 ------------- -------------- Current assets Debtors 680,924 1,169,824 Cash held on deposit as short term investment 1,800,000 4,795,161 Cash at bank and in hand 625,943 1,365,223 ------------- -------------- 3,106,867 7,330,208 ------------- -------------- Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year (1,387,097) (1,742,403) ------------- -------------- Net current assets 1,719,770 5,587,805 ------------- -------------- Total assets less current liabilities 8,955,303 12,684,777 Creditors: Amounts falling due after more than (123,000) (110,000)one year Provisions for liabilities and charges (28,929) (730,882) ------------- -------------- Net assets 8,803,374 11,843,895 ======== ========= Capital and reserves Called-up share capital 1,225,418 1,205,522 Share premium account 24,207,928 22,049,294 Other reserve 10,755,000 10,755,000 Profit and loss account (27,384,972) (22,165,921) ------------- -------------- Equity shareholders' funds 8,803,374 11,843,895 ======== ========= Unaudited consolidated statement of total recognised gains and losses For the year ended 31st December, 2004 2004 2003 ‚£ ‚£ Loss for the financial year (5,199,201) (6,781,159) (Loss)/gain on foreign currency translation (19,850) 187,122 --------------- ----------------- Total recognised losses relating to the (5,219,051) (6,594,037)year ========= ========== 2004 2003 ‚£ ‚£ Net cash outflow from operating (4,542,774) (5,181,372)activities Returns on investments and servicing of 150,027 118,777finance Taxation 622,337 186,751 Capital expenditure and financial (2,121,149) 4,831investment ----------------- ----------------- Cash outflow before use of liquid (5,892,559) (4,871,013)resources and financing Management of liquid resources 2,995,161 (1,445,906) Financing 2,158,118 6,529,975 ----------------- ----------------- (Decrease)/increase in cash in the year (739,280) 213,056 ========== ==========Reconciliation of operating loss to operating cash flows 2004 2003 ‚£ ‚£ Operating loss (5,099,576) (6,882,356) Depreciation charges 529,313 585,234 Amortisation charges 648,960 648,960 (Decrease)/increase in provisions (701,953) 713,943 Loss on sale of tangible fixed assets 2,986 16,040 Decrease/(increase) in debtors 271,813 (68,364) Decrease in creditors (194,317) (194,829) --------------- --------------- Net cash outflow from operating (4,542,774) (5,181,372)activities ========= =========Notes to the financial information1. There has been no change to any of the accounting policies set out in the2003 statutory accounts.2. Following the loss of ‚£5,199,201 incurred in the period, the Directors donot recommend the payment of a dividend.3. a. The calculation of the loss per share for the year ended 31st December2004 is based on the loss for the financial period of ‚£5,199,201 and on121,648,577 Ordinary Shares, being the weighted average number of shares inissue and ranking for dividend during the period (year ended 31st December 2003- loss ‚£6,781,159, weighted average number of Ordinary Shares in issue andranking for dividend, 116,739,021). b. The losses used to calculate the headline loss per share are as follows: Year Ended Loss per Year Ended Loss per 31st December Share 31st December share 2004 2004 2003 2003 ‚£ pence ‚£ pence Loss for the financial (5,199,201) (4.27) (6,781,159) (5.81)period Add back: Amortisation of 648,960 0.53 648,960 0.55goodwill Amounts written off 112,878 0.09 - -fixed asset investment Depreciation 529,313 0.44 585,234 0.51 National Insurance on (701,953) (0.58) 713,943 0.61 notional share option gains Share of associate's 593,366 0.49 573,024 0.49 operating loss -------------- -------- --------------- -------- Headline loss (4,016,637) (3.30) (4,259,998) (3.65) ======== ===== ========= =====The headline loss per share is presented by the Directors as an additionalmeasure of financial performance. 4. The preceding financial information does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The financial information for the year to 31st December 2003 is based on the statutory accounts for that year. These accounts, upon which the auditors issued an unqualified opinion, and which did not contain any statement under Section 237(2) or (3) of the Companies Act 1985, have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies. The statutory accounts for the year ended 31st December 2004 will be finalisedon the basis of the financial information presented by the Directors in thispreliminary announcement and will be posted to shareholders this month. Afterthat time, they will also be available at the Company's registered office:Coveham House, Downside Bridge Road, Cobham, Surrey KT11 3EP.ENDPROTEOME SCIENCES PLC