Vernalis PLC Regulatory News (VER)

13 Oct 2008 07:00



13 October 2008

Vernalis and Servier 

Reach Milestone in Oncology Drug Programme

WINNERSH, UK and NEUILLY sur SEINE, France, 13 October 2008 - Vernalis plc (LSE;VER) and Servier, France's largest privately-owned pharmaceutical company, today announce that they have achieved the first milestone in their three-year oncology drug discovery collaboration initiated in May 2007. The milestone gives rise to a payment of €500,000 from Servier to Vernalis and marks the solving of the novel crystal structure of an undisclosed oncology target.

The joint research programme, in which Servier provides funding for Vernalis' scientists, applies Vernalis' proprietary structure-based discovery capabilities to two promising oncology targets involved in protein-protein interactions. The research combines fragment-based discovery, NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallographic technologies to rapidly generate and advance novel small molecule inhibitors. The methods provide detailed information on how these compounds bind to the targets and provide a basis for structure-guided medicinal chemistry.

"This milestone provides further demonstration of the power of Vernalis' suite of discovery platforms to elucidate the structure of challenging drug targets", commented Peter Fellner, Vernalis' Executive Chairman. "We look forward to progressing the collaboration with Servier further to develop exciting new cancer therapies".

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About Servier

Servier is the leading independent French pharmaceutical company, established in 1954 by its founder, Jacques Servier, M.D., Pharm.D. The group is established in 140 countries and 82% of Servier products are prescribed out of France. Sales turnover in 2007 rose to 3.5 billion euros. Almost 25% of Servier's turnover is invested in Research and Development. The Servier Group counts 19 Internationals Centers of Therapeutic Research, and its principal therapeutic research orientations are cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, neuropsychiatric disorders, cancer, and osteoarticular diseases. More information is available at: www.servier.com.

About Vernalis

Vernalis is a pharmaceutical company with one marketed product, Frova®, and six products in clinical development and collaborations with leading, global pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, Biogen Idec, Endo, Menarini and Chiesi:

For further information about Vernalis, please visit www.vernalis.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events including the clinical development and regulatory clearance of the Company's products, the Company's ability to find partners for the development and commercialisation of its products, as well as the Company's future capital raising activities. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events could differ materially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors including the success of the Company's research strategies, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the ability of the Company to identify and agree beneficial terms with suitable partners for the commercialisation and/or development of its products, as well as the achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, the acceptance of Frova® and other products by consumers and medical professionals, the successful integration of completed mergers and acquisitions and achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, and the ability of the Company to identify and consummate suitable strategic and business combination transactions.