Physiomics Regulatory News (PYC)

1 Oct 2009 15:02



Trading Update

Physiomics plc ("Physiomics" or "the Company")

Highlights:

Revenue for year ended 30 June 2009 is expected to exceed the forecast of £440k made in July 2008 

Good progress on Lilly collaboration, with license agreement signed in April 2009

Achievement of second year milestone on Tempo project

Looking to leverage Physiomics' technology for non-pharmaceutical application 

Trading Update 

Physiomics plc (AIM: PYC), the Oxford, UK based systems biology company, is pleased to update the market on its trading performance for the financial year ended 30 June 2009. Revenues for the year were stronger than anticipated in a previous trading statement issued on 28 July 2008 and we were able to build on the improvement set out in the Interim statement issued in February 2009.

Conversion of debt into equity announced in August 2009 totalling £24k has also helped to reduce the deficit in equity shareholders' funds which stood at £102k at 31 December 2008. 

Since the publication of its interim results for the period ended 31 December 2008, Physiomics has made good progress with its collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company ("Lilly"), and in particular has announced on 2 April 2009 a license agreement with Lilly for a customised version of its "ModelPlayer™" for in silico simulations of unspecified anticancer drugs. These are project specific licences. 

The Company is in discussion with a number of major players in the oncology sector and expects to be able to say more in the near future.

Furthermore, Physiomics has announced on 23 June 2009 a successful evaluation, by the European Commission, of the results from the second year of the research program "TEMPO". This is the most important phase of the project and Physiomics' partners will start imminently to verify in an in vivo pre-clinical model the optimal chronotherapeutic schedules produced by Physiomics. When validated, this will served as a base for a further grant application, with the aim to test these chronotherapeutic schedules in a clinic setting. 

If the TEMPO approach is validated then it has both the potential to evaluate existing oncology compounds to see whether a more efficient dosing regimen is possible as well as helping formulate optimal study protocols for drugs used in combination therapy. This would provide data on the ideal dosing sequence, time interval between doses and amounts to be dosed.

The biological models are supported by sophisticated simulation software environments developed by the team these include the Model Player™ and a version of the proprietary SystemCell® technology running on the IBM "Blue C" super computer at the Institute of Life Sciences at Swansea University. We intend to leverage this technology platform for non-pharmaceutical application and we are looking at diversification in other areas and in particular Synthetic Biology.

Commenting on the trading update, Physiomics' Chief Operating Officer, Dr Christophe Chassagnole, said: "We are really pleased to have exceeded our revenue forecast for the last year thanks to the good progress in our collaborations. Based on these achievements plus the recent technical development in the area of combination and scheduling and the potential to branch out into wholly new applications, we are confident that we can stimulate even greater interest in our technology."

For further information:

Physiomics plc

Dr Christophe Chassagnole, COO 

+44 (0)1865 784980

WH Ireland Limited

Katy Mitchell

+44 (0) 161 832 2174

About Physiomics plc

Physiomics (AIM:PYC) is a computational systems biology services company applying simulations of cell behaviour to drug development to reduce the high attrition rates of clinical trials. As 80-90 per cent of all clinical drug candidates fail to reach the market, estimates1 show that an overall ten per cent improvement in success rates could reduce the cost of one drug's development by as much as $242 million, from the current estimate of around $800 million.

Physiomics develops computational systems biology models to predict and understand cancer drug efficacy from pre-clinical research to clinical development. Physiomics has created detailed mathematical models incorporating the most important molecular events taking place during the human cell cycle and apoptosis processes. The company's SystemCell® technology enables the simulation of populations of "virtual cells". The models are used to optimise compound design, as well as to design drug schedules and combination therapies.

Physiomics, based in Oxford, UK, was founded in 2001, and floated on AIM in 2004. For further information, please visit www.physiomics-plc.com

SystemCell® is a registered trademark of Physiomics plc

1Tufts Centre Impact Report 2002