7th Apr 2006 07:00
IP2IPO Group PLC07 April 2006 For immediate release 7th April 2006 IP2IPO Group plc Investment in Theragenetics Limited A Personalised Medicine 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£390,000 for a 48% stake in Theragenetics Limited ("Theragenetics"), apharmacogenetic diagnostics spin-out company from the Institute of Psychiatry,King's College London. The investment is part of a seed capital round of£440,000, with co-investment of £50,000 from Kinetique Biomedical Seed Fund. Theragenetic's underlying science has been developed over many years byProfessor Rob Kerwin, Dr Maria Arranz and Dr Janet Munro from the Institute ofPsychiatry, King's College London. Theragenetics will develop and commercialisepharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to help guide and improve the treatment ofschizophrenia and other disorders. The founding academics have a successfultrack record of translating their personalised medicine research into thecommercial setting, and have also worked extensively with major pharmaceuticalcompanies in designing clinical studies for antipsychotics. Commenting on today's announcement, Alan Aubrey, IP2IPO's Chief Executive, said:"We believe that the high reputation enjoyed by the Institute of Psychiatry atKing's is well justified and are very pleased to be establishing what will beour first spin-out company from the School. Theragenetics is addressing a largeand important market and we consider that it has the potential to make asignificant impact." Alison Campbell, Managing Director of King's College London Enterprises, said: "Through the formation of Theragenetics we are able to bring together basic andclinical research and accelerate its development for direct patient benefit." Professor Rob Kerwin, one of the academic founders of Theragenetics, said: "Thisis a good example of translational medicine. It is very exciting to haveestablished Theragenetics to develop our research findings into clinicalutility." For more information please contact: IP2IPO Group plc 020 7489 5200 Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer Buchanan Communications 020 7466 5000 Tim Anderson, Mark Court, Mary-Jane Johnson Theragenetics Limited Professor Rob Kerwin 020 7848 0727 King's College London Enterprises 020 7848 6795 Alison 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 works 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 receives 20per cent of King's College London's equity in spin-out companies and technologylicenses. 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 per cent. equity stake inAmaethon Limited (the remaining equity being owned by the University of York)and will also invest in the spin-out companies based on CNAP's IP which AmaethonLimited creates. 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 per cent.) interest in spin-outcompanies created and technology licences negotiated, in return for theprovision of technology transfer services to the University. In May 2005, IP2IPO announced the launch of Modern Biosciences, which willin-license life science intellectual property created by medical researchers atuniversities with which IP2IPO already has partnerships, other universities inthe UK and similar academic and charitable research institutions. ModernBiosciences' objective is to further develop the intellectual property which itin-licenses with a view to creating substantial value either by subsequentlylicensing these development programmes to the pharmaceutical industry or via thecreation of new ventures. In December 2005, IP2IPO entered into its sixth long-term partnership with theUniversity of Bristol. IP2IPO will work with the University of Bristol to helpidentify and progress commercialisation opportunities as well as invest aninitial £5 million in seed capital in spin-out companies from the University ofBristol over a five year period in return for equity stakes in those companies.In return, IP2IPO will receive 13.3 per cent of equity spin-out companies fromthe University of Bristol at the time that the spin-out company is establishedprior to investment. The partnership has a term of 25 years. In February 2006, IP2IPO entered into its seventh long-term partnership with theUniversity of Surrey. IP2IPO will work with the University of Surrey to helpidentify and progress commercialisation opportunities as well as invest aninitial fund of up to £5 million in seed capital in spin-out companies from theUniversity of Surrey in return for equity stakes in those companies. Inaddition, IP2IPO will receive 13.3% per cent of in spin-out companies at thetime that the company is established prior to investment. The partnership has aterm of 25 years. In March 2006, IP2IPO entered into an exclusive long-term partnership with theUniversity of York. The partnership is in addition to IP2IPO's currentpartnership with the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products, IP2IPO will workwith the University of York to help identify and progress commercialisationopportunities as well as invest an initial fund of £5 million in seed capital inspin-out companies from the University of York in return for equity stakes inthose companies. In addition, IP2IPO will receive 25% of the equity in anyspin-out company from the University at the time that the company isestablished, prior to investment, if IP2IPO invests in the company from the fundand 15% of the equity if it does not invest from the Fund. IP2IPO will alsoreceive 10% of any income which the University of York receives from licencingduring the lifetime of the partnership. The partnership has a term of 25 years. To date, 6 spin-out companies from the IP2IPO portfolio have listed on the AIMMarket of London Stock Exchange plc: Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc, Synairgenplc, VASTox plc, Proximagen Neuroscience plc, GETECH Group plc and SyntopixGroup plc. There has been one trade sale: Toumaz Technology Limited was sold toNanoscience Inc. 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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