Investment in portfolio company

Imperial Innovations Group plc

Innovations leads £5.6m investment in Myotec to fund treatments for muscle wasting disease

London, 1 March 2010. Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO, 'Innovations'), a leading technology commercialisation and investment company, has led a £5.6m funding round in Myotec Therapeutics, with an investment of £2.8m to fund the development of novel treatments in the field of wasting diseases. Co-investor Invesco Perpetual also provided £2.8m.

Myotec is developing a pipeline of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of the wasting diseases, cachexia and sarcopenia. This investment, led by Innovations, will enable Myotec to progress its lead product, MT-102, into two Phase II clinical studies in 2010. The first clinical study will be for the treatment of cancer cachexia, which, according to the US National Cancer Institute, is the direct cause of death in 20 to 40% of all cancer patients. The second clinical study will be for the treatment of sarcopenia, the age-related muscle wasting disease that affects over 20% of people by the time they reach the age of 60.

The Company was founded around the work of Professors Stefan Anker (Professor of Cardiology and Cachexia Research, Charité Hospital Berlin) and Professor Andrew Coats (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Sydney) whilst they were both at Imperial College London.

Innovations has played a pivotal role in the recruitment of Myotec's senior team: Chief Executive John Beadle, helped form Myotec whilst an Entrepreneur in Residence at Innovations; Michael Moore, formerly CEO of Piramed was headhunted by Innovations to become Chairman. Innovations has also supported Myotec to secure patents for its technologies and assisted with a commercial transaction to acquire a licence to key clinical data for MT-102. Innovations was instrumental in attracting £2.8m co-funding from Invesco, itself a shareholder in Innovations. Following the investment, Innovations will hold a 47.2% stake in Myotec. Simon Kerr, Director Bioscience Ventures at Imperial Innovations has joined the board of Myotec.

Susan Searle,Imperial Innovations Chief Executive, said:

"Cachexia is a significant health problem affecting nearly eight million people in Europe and the US. Tackling problems of this kind of scale requires world-class science backed by the necessary funding to progress treatments through the clinic.

"Myotec is an important emerging company in our life sciences portfolio and we believe it has the potential to address important unmet medical needs. We are pleased to be able to provide the funding and strategic support to enable it to progress its pipeline."

John Beadle, CEO of Myotec Therapeutics, said:

"Innovations has given Myotec significant support in its early stages and with this substantial new investment we are now able to accelerate the clinical development of our promising treatments for life-threatening wasting diseases."

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Notes to editors

Imperial Innovations - www.imperialinnovations.co.uk 

Innovations creates, builds and invests in pioneering technologies addressing global problems in healthcare, energy and engineering. It combines deep understanding of science and technology with commercial acumen and strong investment expertise. 

Innovations supports scientist-entrepreneurs in the commercialisation of their ideas by:

·; leading the formation of new companies and providing facilities in the early stages

·; providing significant investment and encouraging co-investment to accelerate the transition from R&D to products

·; providing operational expertise

·; helping to recruit high-calibre industry figures and experienced entrepreneurs as executive management and Board members.

Innovations has exclusive access to scientific and technological developments coming out of Imperial College London, one of the world's leading research institutions. It has already achieved significant success with its early investments; for example its £1.5m investment in obesity drug developer Thiakis could return up to £22m, following its sale to Wyeth for £100m in 2008.

In the year to July 2009, Innovations invested £14.4m in 20 ventures, helping to launch six new companies. With a technology portfolio of more than 80 companies, Innovations' most advanced assets, in addition to Thiakis, include:

·; Ceres Power (now listed on AIM): Micro combined heat and power generators for domestic use

·; Circassia: Innovative vaccines for the treatment of a wide range of allergies

·; Nexeon: Advanced materials that extend the cycle life and significantly increase capacity of rechargeable batteries

·; Respivert: Discovering new treatments for respiratory diseases, including asthma

·; VeryanMed: Stents inspired by the human vascular system

Myotec Therapeutics

Myotec Therapeutics Ltd. is a Cambridge based speciality pharmaceutical company that is entirely focused on the development of novel treatments in the field of the wasting syndromes including cachexia and sarcopenia.

Myotec's lead proprietary product, MT-102, has a unique double mode of action that is well suited to treating the complex pathophysiology of cachexia and sarcopenia and will enter clinical trials for both indications in 2010.

Cachexia (from the Greek kakos meaning bad and hexis meaning condition) is the wasting syndrome associated with many chronic illnesses and diseases including cancer, chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, tuberculosis, cystic fibrosis, Crohn's disease, HIV-AIDS, liver cirrhosis, stroke, heart surgery and sepsis. The US National Cancer Institute estimates that 80% of all patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer and 60% of patients with lung cancer already meet the definition of cachexia at the time of diagnosis and that 20% to 40% of all cancer patient deaths are directly attributed to cachexia.

Sarcopenia (from the Greek sarc meaning flesh and penia meaning deficiency) is a muscle wasting disease that is common in the elderly. The prevalence of sarcopenia for those over 64 years of age has been shown to be 22.6% in women and 26.8% in men, rising to 31.0% and 52.9% respectively in those over 80 years of age. It can thus be estimated that over 3% of the total world population will be affected by sarcopenia by 2015. Currently there are no registered treatments for sarcopenia but the projected market size has sometimes been estimated to be similar to that of osteoporosis.