23rd Jan 2007 07:00
Henderson Morley PLC23 January 2007 23 JANUARY 2007 HENDERSON MORLEY PLC (AIM:HML) SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME UPDATE The Board of Henderson Morley plc ("Henderson Morley" or "the Company"), the AIMlisted drug discovery company, is pleased to provide the market and theirshareholders with an update detailing the current status of the Company'sactivities and its scientific pipeline. HIGHLIGHTS •Three licensing agreements have been signed for human use ICVT; •The Company is currently exploring the high-value companion animal market, with a view to beginning field trials when suitable candidate viruses have been identified; •Henderson Morley owns outright the global rights to a vaccine platform technology known as PREPS and L-particles and will be actively developing this technology as a; • Cancer vaccine (immunotherapeutic to treat patients who are already suffering with various forms of cancer) • Vaccine against viruses (initially herpes virus infections) • In-vitro reagent (for use in laboratory studies) •The Company's pipeline offers at least 10 significant pharmaceutical products in various stages of development, backed up by a robust suite of intellectual property; and •There are significant opportunities for short and long term growth and revenue. Executive Chairman Andrew Knight said: "We are currently looking for ways ofmaximising shareholder value and whilst we continue with the out-licensing andthe scientific development programme, the Board is actively assessing otherstrategic options." ICVT- Human use Several key milestones have now been reached with regards to Henderson Morley'stechnology pipeline, and so far three licensing agreements have been signed forICVT. Previous international collaborations, which have included work withDoctors Birley and Conant and Professors Fiander and Hill in a wide range ofdisease areas, have enabled the Company to gain a broad based experience and abetter understanding of both the clinical and commercial potential of ICVT. Thishas so far resulted in the Company granting three licence agreements to date: •Croma Pharma - an Austrian ophthalmic speciality company, has taken a licence for EU and South American territories for the treatment of viral eye infections. Croma has completed successful Phase l trials and is currently in discussions with licensing authorities with regard to the further clinical development, with a view to extending existing trial protocols. Croma remains committed to the further clinical and commercial development of ICVT in eye applications. Other virus infections of the eye are also being considered as opportunities for development (eg herpes simplex infections in the eye). •Amistad Pharma - a private French pharmaceutical company signed a licence agreement in July 2006, which commits to the further clinical and commercial development of ICVT for the treatment of Herpes simplex infections (cold sores and genital herpes) as well as dysplasias of the genital tract (abnormal tissues changes caused by HPV), on a global basis. The working arrangement with Amistad has proven to be very sound, with a keen desire by both parties to accelerate the clinical development of specific formulations. •Cutanea Life Sciences is a US based speciality pharmaceutical company focussed entirely on the development of dermatology products. Cutanea signed a licence with Henderson Morley in September 2006 that will pay over $6.75 million on the successful completion of key milestones, and royalties to Henderson Morley once marketing approval has been gained for certain dermatological applications of ICVT. The licence covers the North American trading block only, and the intellectual property rights for the remainder of the world are retained by Henderson Morley. These agreements leave several key applications and territories still availablefor licence, including the North American and Japanese territories forophthalmic indications, and the EU and Japan for several dermatologyindications. There are also other virus infections that fall outside of thecurrently licenced applications, and these present opportunities for furtherdevelopment and licensing. Henderson Morley is currently undertaking the pre-clinical development ofinjectable formulations of ICVT, working in collaboration with Aston Universitydepartment of Pharmaceutics. It is anticipated that these studies will enablethe further development of injectable ICVT for the treatment of certain genitalinfections and Orphan diseases in children. These remain exciting marketopportunities for ICVT. ICVT - animal health Henderson Morley is exploring possible veterinarian applications of ICVT. Due tothe broad acting nature of ICVT, coupled with its use of established tried andtested drugs, it has the potential for use as a treatment of a wide range ofvirus infections, in both humans and animals. The Company is currently exploringthe high-value companion animal market, with a view to beginning field trialswhen suitable candidate viruses have been identified. Vaccine against Koi Herpes virus In October 2006, the Company announced that it was working with Professor RonaldHardy of the University of Idaho USA, to develop a vaccine against KHV, and thatit had also appointed Professor Ronald Roberts to its scientific advisory board.Professor Roberts is a global authority on the pathology of fish diseases andhas proven to be an invaluable contributor to the KHV vaccine developmentprogramme. This research is intended to demonstrate the immunogenicity of thevaccine candidate as well as test its prophylactic properties against live viruschallenges. The vaccine candidate uses a proprietary technology, containing KHVantigens; however the vaccine does not contain any live virus, so does not posea threat to the vaccinated fish. The market for a successful vaccine against KHV is considerable, as there iscurrently no licenced vaccine available in the EU - with heightened interestconsequent to the virus becoming a World Organisation of Animal Health (OIE)notifiable disease and the likely adoption of notifiable disease status byDepartment for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). In addition the Company is now actively recruiting for a business developmentconsultant specialising in the global fish health market, to take the technologythrough to out-license to a third party. Development of Henderson Morley pipeline - PREPS and L-particles Henderson Morley owns outright the global rights to a vaccine platformtechnology known as PREPS and L-particles. This technology was discovered by thehighly prestigious UK Government Medical Research Council's Glasgow virologyunit. The technology is based on the discovery that when herpes viruses grow inculture, not only do they produce copies of live viruses, they also produce"empty viruses"- viruses that have a normal outer layer, but contain no DNA orgenetic material. This means that they are unable to replicate and causeinfection, but they retain their ability to enter into cells and thus stimulatethe immune system. In addition, it is possible to grow these viruses so that they contain foreignproteins - for example a bacterial protein could be incorporated into the shellof the virus, enabling the virus to deliver this bacterial protein to thepatients' immune system. This offers the prospect of using these particles as potential vaccines againsta wide range of diseases - not just human herpes viruses - as the variousforeign proteins could be incorporated into the shell of L-particles and act asa stimulus to the immune system. This technique could also be used to incorporate proteins such as cancerproteins; consequently, the Company is actively pursing the development ofcancer vaccines using L-particles and PREPS particles. To this end, the Companyis expanding its research facility and staff to facilitate this developmentproject and will be seeking licensing strategies that will exploit thisapplication. As the PREPS and L-particles are both able to express foreign proteins, andenter inside cells as if they were viruses, these particles also offer theprospect of becoming an invaluable reagent in the fast growing biological markermarket (for use in laboratories). Again this market opportunity is beingactively pursued by Henderson Morley's management team. This presents theopportunity of nearer term revenues, as the development timelines of reagents ismuch shorter than for pharmaceutical products. Summary The Company's pipeline offers at least 10 significant pharmaceutical products invarious stages of development, backed up by a robust suite of intellectualproperty. This presents significant opportunities for short and long term growthand revenue. In order to maximise the commercial potential of theseopportunities and to maximise shareholder value, the Board is actively assessingappropriate strategic options. ---ENDS--- ENQUIRIES: HENDERSON MORLEY PLC 0121 442 4600Andrew Knight, Chairman BISHOPSGATE COMMUNICATIONS LTD 0207 562 3350Maxine BarnesNick Rome BREWIN DOLPHIN SECURITIES LTD 0113 241 0126Neil Baldwin Notes to Editors: Henderson Morley was founded in 1996 with the objective of developing its anti-viral application (Ionic Contra Viral Therapy (ICVT). ICVT is the Lead Platform and has been developed in-house and Henderson Morley wholly owns the patent IPR. Further information on Henderson Morley plc can be accessed through the Company's website at www.henderson-morley.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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