14th Sep 2005 07:00
IP2IPO Group PLC14 September 2005 For immediate release 14 September 2005 IP2IPO Group plc Investment in Cerogenix Limited A Neuroscience Spin-out Company from King's College London IP2IPO Group plc (AIM: IPO) ("IP2IPO" or "the Company"), the intellectualproperty commercialisation company, is pleased to announce that it has invested£370,000 for a 47% stake in Cerogenix Limited ("Cerogenix"), a drug discoveryand diagnostics spin-out company from King's College London. The investment ispart of a seed capital round of £420,000, with £50,000 being invested by aco-investor, Kinetique Biomedical Seed Fund. Cerogenix's underlying science has been developed over many years by Dr AdrianPini from the King's College London MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology.Cerogenix will develop novel therapeutics for neurological diseases such asAlzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury. In addition toits drug discovery and development activities, Cerogenix will also focus on anear-term opportunity to develop a diagnostic tool for the early detection ofneurodegenerative diseases, with the objective of enabling clinicians toidentify the correct treatment for patients at an earlier stage than iscurrently possible. Commenting on today's announcement, Dr Pini, the academic founder of Cerogenix,said: "Today, there is a global research effort to develop drugs that will treatindividual neurological diseases. What we are doing at Cerogenix has thepotential to address the full spectrum of neurological disorders, and is anenormously promising approach to one of the most intractable areas in medicine." Alison Campbell, Managing Director of King's College London Enterprises, said:"I am delighted at the formation of Cerogenix which will be our thirdcollaborative spin-out with IP2IPO in what is proving to be a very successfulpartnership. The outstanding research being undertaken within the MRC Centre forDevelopmental Neurobiology has provided Cerogenix with an excellent platform todevelop this research for the detection and treatment of neurologicaldisorders." For more information please contact:IP2IPO Group plc 020 7489 5200David Norwood, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000Tim Anderson, Mark Court, Mary-Jane Johnson Cerogenix LimitedDr Adrian Pini 020 7848 6427 King's College London Enterprises 020 7848 6795Alison Campbell, Managing Director Notes for editors IP2IPO is an intellectual property (IP) company that specialises incommercialising university technology. The Company was founded in 2001 andlisted on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange plc in October 2003.IP2IPO's first partnership was with the University of Oxford. In return for aninvestment of £20 million, IP2IPO has acquired 50 per cent of the University ofOxford's equity in spin-out companies and technology licenses based onintellectual property created at the Chemistry Department until 2015. InNovember 2003, IP2IPO created a £5 million seed capital fund for investing inspin-out companies across the University of Oxford, not just those originatingwithin the Chemistry Department. In March 2002, IP2IPO entered into a second long-term partnership with theUniversity of Southampton. Under the terms of this partnership, IP2IPO iscommitted to working with the University of Southampton in the identificationand facilitation of spin-out companies from across the University of Southamptonand to investing £5 million in early-stage University of Southampton spin-outcompanies over a four year period in return for equity stakes in thosecompanies. In addition, IP2IPO also received a 20 per cent stake in SouthamptonAsset Management Limited, a company that has been formed to hold theUniversity's equity stakes in its spin-out companies. The partnership has a termof at least 25 years. IP2IPO entered into its third long-term partnership in May 2003 with King'sCollege London. IP2IPO will work with King's College London to help identify andprogress commercialisation opportunities as well as invest £5 million in seedcapital in spin-out companies from King's College London over a five year periodin return for equity stakes in those companies. In addition, IP2IPO will receive20 per cent of King's College London's equity in spin-out companies andtechnology licenses. The partnership has a term of 25 years. In October 2003, IP2IPO announced a fourth partnership with the Centre for NovelAgricultural Products ("CNAP"), based at the University of York. CNAP is aflagship research centre that specialises in plant and microbial gene discovery.Under the terms of the partnership a new company, Amaethon Limited, has beencreated which has the right to commercialise CNAP's IP for 25 years. IP2IPO hasinvested £1.15m in Amaethon Limited in return for a 40% equity stake in AmaethonLimited (the remaining equity being owned by the University of York) and willalso invest in the spin-out companies based on CNAP's IP which Amaethon Limitedcreates. In June 2004, IP2IPO acquired Top Technology Ventures Limited, an investmentadviser to early stage technology funds. This combines IP2IPO's expertise in thecreation of new ventures based on world leading university IP with TopTechnology's focus on making early stage venture capital investments. In January 2005, IP2IPO acquired Techtran, a company set up in 2002 tocommercialise university intellectual property under a long-term technologycommercialisation contract with the University of Leeds. Under the terms of thecontract Techtran receives a significant (30%) interest in spin-out companiescreated and technology licences negotiated, in return for the provision oftechnology transfer services to the University. In May 2005, IP2IPO announced the launch of LifeUK, a new subsidiary company.LifeUK, which has since been renamed Modern Biosciences, will in-license lifescience intellectual property created by medical researchers at universitieswith which IP2IPO already has partnerships, other universities in the UK andsimilar academic and charitable research institutions. Modern Biosciences'objective is to further develop the intellectual property which it in-licenseswith a view to creating substantial value either by subsequently licensing thesedevelopment programmes to the pharmaceutical industry or via the creation of newventures. To date, 4 spin-out companies from the IP2IPO portfolio have listed on the AIMMarket of the London Stock Exchange plc: Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc,Synairgen plc, VASTox plc and Proximagen Neuroscience plc. For more information please visit www.ip2ipo.com King's College London is one of the two oldest and largest colleges of theUniversity of London with over 13,800 undergraduate students and nearly 5,700postgraduates in ten schools of study. It is a member of the Russell Group: acoalition of the UK's major research-based universities. The College has had 24of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for researchquality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recentlyreceived an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency.King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with incomefrom grants and contracts of £100 million, and has an annual turnover of morethan £348 million. In 2004 the College was once again awarded an AA- financialcredit rating from Standard & Poor's. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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