27th Sep 2006 15:02
Henderson Morley PLC27 September 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 27 SEPTEMBER 2006 HENDERSON MORLEY PLC (AIM) Business: Drug Discovery Company HENDERSON MORLEY GRANTS LICENCE TO CUTANEA LIFE SCIENCES INC The Board of Henderson Morley plc, ("Henderson Morley" or "the Company") the AIMlisted drug discovery company, is pleased to announce that it has granted alicence ("Licence") in respect of Ionic Contra Viral Therapy ("ICVT") to CutaneaLife Sciences Inc ("Cutanea"), a specialist US based dermatology drugdevelopment company. Key Points: • This is an exclusive American, Mexican and Canadian wide licence to bring the products to market; • Henderson Morley will receive up to $6.675 million in development and commercialisation milestone payments; • If Henderson Morley achieves a market share rising to up to 20 per cent of the estimated addressable market, and based on several key assumptions*, potential royalties on sales could be $115 million in the first 10 years following marketing authorisation, in the USA alone. The Licence has been granted under a licence agreement ("Licence Agreement") toCutanea, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, specialising in the development ofdermatology products in the US market. The Licence Agreement is for new applications of ICVT for the treatment ofdermatological conditions in humans, including but not limited to skin warts,verrucae and molluscum contagiosum. The Licence is an exclusive American,Mexican and Canadian wide licence to bring products to market through aprogramme of pre-clinical and clinical development of treatments either byCutanea or through a sub-licence. Under the terms of the Agreement, HendersonMorley will receive up to $6.675m in development and commercialisation milestonepayments up to the point at which the application receives regulatory approval,and will receive royalties on net sales thereafter. Sales Estimates of ICVT (dermal warts) in the United States Under its business plan, based on certain assumptions, the Board of HendersonMorley believes that, following an approximate four to five year period tocomplete the clinical development and regulatory licence approval, sales of theproduct in excess of $1.5 billion could be achieved over the subsequent ten yearperiod. This would give a potential royalty to Henderson Morley in excess of$115 million over this term. These sales estimates are based on a number of keyassumptions concerning the size of the market and the possible penetration ofthe product in this market*. This estimate is not intended to be a forecast, buthas been produced to give shareholders an indication of the possible impact ofthe product reaching the point of commercialisation. In addition, non-royalty sublicensing income ("NRSI") shall be paid to HendersonMorley should Cutanea sub-license the technology to other parties. The President and CEO of Cutanea is Robert Bitterman. Dr. Bitterman has 14 yearsof leadership experience in the global dermatology market and over 28 years ofexperience in a variety of positions in the pharmaceutical industry. Under Dr.Bitterman's leadership as CEO of Dermik Inc, he was able to gain regulatoryapproval for, and launch, seven new drug and device products. Cutanea Life Sciences Inc. is a private US company, located in the Philadelphiaarea, focusing on the acquisition, development and commercialisation ofinnovative dermatology related products. Cutanea's stated mission is to developand commercialise novel, proprietary products to improve skin health, appearanceand overall well-being. Cutanea comprises an experienced team of scientific andcommercial professionals with over 60 years of combined experience in thesuccessful development and commercial launch of products in the healthcarespace. Commenting on the Agreement, Executive Chairman Andrew Knight said: "As a drugdiscovery company it is vital that we continue to grant licenses to furtherdevelop our technology portfolio. This is our third ICVT license agreement, andwe are very pleased to be working with Cutanea, whose management team has aproven track record of commercialising dermatology products." Robert Bitterman, President and CEO of Cutanea also commented: "We are excitedto have access to this innovative and proprietary technology. We seek to bringnovel, non-invasive therapy to what has been to date, an unsatisfied patientneed." --ENDS-- Enquiries:HENDERSON MORLEY PLC Tel: 0121 442 4600Andrew Knight, Chairman BREWIN DOLPHIN SECURITIES LTD Tel: 0113 241 0126Neil Baldwin BISHOPSGATE COMMUNICATIONS LTD Tel: 020 7430 1600Maxine Barnes Mobile: 07860 489571Nick Rome * Key Assumptions Key Assumptions upon which the Henderson Morley management team have calculatedpotential future royalty payments: Regulatory approval of ICVT products received within five years.Incidence of skin warts 4% p.a1 Incidence of verrucae 2% p.a2Population of USA currently 300 million, Growth rate 1% p.a3Royalty payments made as per contractMarket penetration of the new product : Year 1, 5% of Market, Year 2 10% ofMarket, year 3, 15 % Market, subsequent market penetration for the followingfive years 20% of Market, Decreasing in year 9 to 18% and 15% in year 10.Factory door price estimated to be $40 per treatment course, increasing byincrements over the licence term. References 1. Williams HC, Potter A, Strachan D. The descriptive epidemiology of warts inBritish schoolchildren. Br J Dermatol 1993; 128: 504+/-11. 2. Epidemiology and pathogenesis of plantar warts in HIV-infected patients. IntConf AIDS 1996 Jul 7-12; 11:97 (abstract no. Mo.B.1244) Barbosa P, Loveland L,Kilpatrick R, Kenyon E; California College of Podiatric Medicine, San Francisco,California. Fax: (415) 292-0439. 3 US National Census 2006 Editors NotesIonic Contra Viral Therapy (ICVT) is a new way of killing viruses discovered byHenderson Morley. Their scientific team made the important discovery that if thecellular ion Potassium is depleted from virus infected cells, the virus isunable to replicate. It appears to be a class effect for DNA viruses meaningthat products based on ICVT have been developed into several clinicalapplications to treat important human pathogens. This includes herpes simplex,human papilloma viruses and adenoviruses. Several other viruses in man andanimals are also suitable candidates for ICVT treatment. The technology utilises a combination of two cardiovascular drugs that havenever been considered as anti-viral treatments, namely Furosemide and Digoxin.Consequently new patents have been created for this new use, and because thedrugs have been tried and tested over many years, the speed and cost of gettingICVT products based on these compounds to market, will be much lower than drugsusing new chemical entities. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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