AGM Business Update

Abzena plc

AGM business update

Cambridge, UK, 13 September 2016 - Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA, 'Abzena' or the 'Group'), a life sciences group providing services and technologies enabling the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, publishes a business update for the period to 13 September 2016, ahead of its AGM being held at 10am today at the Group's Cambridge office.

Abzena started the first half of the year with a strong order book and the positive momentum in trading has continued. The Group is seeing strong growth in revenues from cell line development and bioconjugation projects, with these business areas benefiting most from the synergies derived from the integration of the two US businesses acquired in late 2015.

Abzena has had a very positive response from its biopharmaceutical customer base to its enlarged service offering. The Group has seen the translation and expansion of a number of relationships with significant further repeat work from major customers. There has also been an increase in demand for development support services for 'Abzena inside' technology licensees.

Abzena's investment programme to increase capacity at its US sites is ongoing. By the end of the 2016, two new cleanrooms will be available at the San Diego facility and the facility for GMP manufacture of antibody drug conjugate (ADC) linker-payload reagents will be fully operational in Bristol PA (USA).

Highlights for the period:

· The 12th 'Abzena inside' product entered Phase I clinical development for a private US biotech company, up from 10 in September 2015

· Gilead Sciences Inc. has disclosed plans for further clinical studies for GS-5745

· Launch of Denceptor Therapeutics, joint venture between Abzena and Baylor Institute of Immunology Research (part of Baylor Scott & White Healthcare, Dallas, USA) to pursue development of novel 'Abzena inside' immunotherapies

· Manufacturing contract signed with Faron Pharmaceuticals for process development and GMP manufacturing to enable Faron to bring Clevegen into clinical development

· Abzena's businesses now integrated under Abzena name and brand, illustrating the Group's integrated offering

Over the next year, the Group expects further 'Abzena inside' products to enter clinical development as well as the announcement of clinical trial results by partners for some of those currently in clinical development.

Separately today, Abzena announced that non-executive director Anker Lundemose will step down from the board at the end of September. The board has initiated a process to recruit a replacement.

John Burt, CEO of Abzena said:

"Our increased capabilities and capacity are already resulting in an excellent response from customers. The number of projects involving teams from across our research, development and manufacturing offerings, for both 'Abzena inside' partners and service customers is growing healthily.

"Our strong current trading is a great endorsement of Abzena's strategy to become a preferred partner for biopharmaceutical services."

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About Abzena

Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, a growing area that requires specialist knowledge and expertise. The Group has a global customer base which includes the majority of the top 20 biopharmaceutical companies as well as large and small biotech companies and academic groups.

The term "Abzena inside" is used by Abzena to describe products that have been created using its proprietary technologies and are being developed by its partners, and include Composite Human Antibodies™ and ThioBridge™ Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone payments and/or royalties on "Abzena inside" products.

Abzena offers the following services and technologies across its principal sites in Cambridge (UK), San Diego, California (USA) and Bristol, Pennsylvania (USA).

· Immunogenicity assessment, protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins, and cell line development for manufacture.

· Contract process development and manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines, and gene therapy and cell therapy products, for preclinical and clinical studies.

· Proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies for antibody drug conjugate development and solutions for optimizing the therapeutic properties of biopharmaceuticals.

· Contract chemistry and bioconjugation business focused on ADCs and is establishing the capability to manufacture ADCs to GMP standards.

For more information, please see www.abzena.com