28th Jul 2005 06:31
SR Pharma plc ("SR Pharma" or "the Company")Placing, Change of BrokerLondon, UK and Berlin, Germany 28 July 2005 SR Pharma plc today announced thatit had raised ‚£8.3 million via a placing with institutional investors and, inaddition, had entered a strategic collaboration with Introgen Therapeutics Inc,Austin, Texas, USA whereby Introgen is making a US$3 million equity investmentin SR Pharma.As a result of these transactions, the Company will be issuing 43,513,044 newOrdinary Shares at 23p per share, ranking pari passu with existing OrdinaryShares.Application will shortly be made for the Ordinary Shares to be admitted totrading on AIM. Following admission of the new shares, the followingshareholders will hold more than 3 per cent. of the issued share capital of theCompany which now comprises 90,219,494 Ordinary Shares:Name Number of shares Percentage of Company Apax Europe IV-A LP 13,806,993 15.30% Insight Investment Ltd 8,695,652 9.64% The Oak Fund 8,652,174 9.59% Introgen Therapeutics Inc 7,478,261 8.29% Fidelity Investments International 4,508,696 5.00% Artemis Investment Management Ltd 4,347,826 4.82% MPM Asset Management 1998 LLC 3,440,959 3.81% Novartis Forschungsstiftung 2,962,505 3.28% Technologie-Beteilgungs-Gesellschaft mbH 2,869,400 3.18% Bank von Ernst & Cie 2,769,284 3.07% The company was advised by Mulier Capital Limited ("Mulier") on both the recentacquisition of Atugen AG and the placing. In consideration of its work on bothprojects, Mulier will be entitled to fees and warrants that have been disclosedin the Company's AIM admission document. In particular, Mulier and itsassociates will receive 5,463,478 warrants to subscribe for Ordinary Shares at1p and 925,926 warrants to subscribe for Ordinary Shares at 27p. All warrantshave a life of 5 years.As described in the AIM admission document, each of the directors will nowreceive fees and options to subscribe for Ordinary Shares at the placing priceof 23p, vesting over three years. That is, Iain Ross, the Company's chairmanwill receive 4,000,000 options, Melvyn Davies, the Company's Finance Directorwill receive 1,300,000 options, and each of Jeremy Curnock Cook, PeterReynolds, Iain Rugheimer, David U'Prichard and Bernd Wetzel will received250,000 options.The interests of the directors in the share capital of the Company will now beas follows:Name Number of Number of shares options Iain Gladstone Ross - 4,500,000 Jon Melvyn Davies 62,125 1,500,000 Hugh Ronald Peter Reynolds 172,408 450,000 Iain Nils Hessey Rugheimer - 450,000 Jeremy Laurence Curnock Cook - 250,000 David Charles U'Prichard - 250,000 Bernd Otto Wetzel - 250,000 Change of brokerThe Company is also pleased to announce that it has appointed Collins StewartLimited as its broker with immediate effect.For further information, please contactSR Pharma plc + 44 207 307 1620Iain Ross, Executive ChairmanMelvyn Davies, Finance DirectorMulier Capital Limited + 44 207 821 6111Pieter MulierZoe Appleyard LeyNorthbank Communications + 44 207 886 8150Emma PalmerRowan MinnonNotes to editorsAbout SR PharmaSR Pharma (AIM SPA.L) is a European biotechnology company, based in the UK andGermany, which is focused on the development of proprietary products for thetreatment of unmet medical needs in the oncology and inflammatory diseases.Located in London, the company, founded in 1992, has been developing innovativeimmunomodulating vaccines and adjuvants for therapeutic use in atopy, cancerand tuberculosis. The company's proprietary Mycobacterium vaccae-basedtechnology is the source of a number of product developments. SR Pharma iscurrently evaluating SRP299(TM) for the treatment of asthma and SRL172(TM) as atherapeutic in cancer and tuberculosis. SR Pharma has also isolated a novelmolecule from M. vaccae that is potently active in a pre-clinical model ofasthma. A synthetic version is active and code named SRP312(TM).In addition, SRPharma holds a portfolio of intellectual property on inositol phosphoglycans(IPGs).The Company plans to build its portfolio both organically and via acquisitionin order to develop a revenue-generating business in the near term. Followingthe recent acquisition of Atugen AG its key products and technologies nowinclude atuRNAi (chemically stabilised siRNA molecules) and atuPLEX, aliposomal system for the in vivo delivery of these molecules. The first RNAiproduct expected to enter the clinic in 2006. These technologies, which arecovered by a strong intellectual property portfolio, are expected to allowsystemic siRNA delivery and have been validated through partnerships withSanofi-Aventis and Quark Biotech. In addition, they generate contract researchrevenues of around EUR3m per annum. For more information, please go towww.srpharma.comRNA-mediated interference, or RNAi, is a powerful new approach for achievingtargeted gene silencing of pathological genes using complementary doublestranded RNA such as short interfering (si)RNA. siRNA has advantages, such asincreased potency, over other methods like antisense. It harnesses a naturallyoccurring cellular mechanism, in order to prevent the expression of targetgenes by inducing degradation of the target messenger RNA.About Introgen Therapeutics IncIntrogen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: INGN) is a biopharmaceutical company focused onthe discovery, development and commercialization of targeted moleculartherapies for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. We are developingproduct candidates to treat a wide range of cancers using non-integrating tumorsuppressors, cytokines and genes. These agents are designed to increaseproduction of normal cancer-fighting proteins that act to overpower cancerouscells, stimulate immune activity. Product candidates can be used alone and alsoto enhance conventional cancer therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy,radiation and monoclonal antibodies. The Company has treated hundreds ofpatients with thousands of doses of its tumor suppressor lead product candidateADVEXIN‚® in approximately 30 completed and ongoing Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase3 clinical trials worldwide. INGN 241 is in Phase 2 clinical development, INGN225, a therapeutic vaccine, is in Phase 1-2 clinical development. Also in Phase1-2 clinical development are INGN 234, a topical formulation for oral cancerprevention and treatment of oral pre-malignancies and INGN 401, a systemicnanoparticle tumor suppressor. Introgen's drug discovery and developmentprograms have resulted in innovative approaches by which physicians may usetargeted molecular agents to more precisely treat cancer. With the limitedefficacy and debilitating toxic effects of conventional cancer treatments,Introgen's low-toxicity approach to cancer treatment has drawn global interestfrom oncologists.Introgen also controls a broad intellectual property portfolio that includesmore than 250 pending and issued patents for a variety of molecular therapytechnologies and adenovirus production, purification and formulation. TheCompany has active collaborations with numerous academic centers of excellenceand biotechnology industry partnersENDSR PHARMA PLCRelated Shares:
SLN.L