Update on Lyon manufacturing facility

UPDATE ON LYON MANUFACTURING FACILITY

LONDON, UK, 18 December, 2013 - Skyepharma PLC (LSE SKP), the expert oral and inhalation drug delivery company, today announces that it has served a renewal notice on Aenova France SAS ("Aenova") to extend the lease of its manufacturing business and premises in Lyon (together "the Facility") to Aenova until 30 June 2016 at a rental of €2 million (£1.7 million at current rates) per annum. This follows the outcome of an independent expert determination process in Skyepharma's favour.

During the remaining period of the lease, Aenova is obliged to manage and be responsible for the financial performance of the Facility on a day-to-day basis. Skyepharma's existing contractual arrangements with its own partners are unaffected and during the remaining period of the lease Aenova will continue to manufacture and supply the Skyepharma products currently produced at the Facility. 

Unless both parties agree otherwise, the lease will normally expire on 30 June 2016 and, subject to obtaining appropriate consents and consultations, the Facility would revert to Skyepharma following termination of the lease. In anticipation of this, and with Aenova's agreement, Skyepharma has initiated a process to identify whether any third party would be interested in making use of surplus capacity at the Facility.

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About Skyepharma

Skyepharma combines proven scientific expertise with validated proprietary drug delivery technologies to develop innovative oral and inhalation pharmaceutical products. The Group is eligible for revenues from 14 approved products in the areas of inhalation, oral, topical and injectable drug delivery as well as generating income from the development of further products and technology licenses. The products developed by the Group are marketed throughout the world by big pharma as well as speciality pharmaceutical companies. For more information, visit www.skyepharma.com 

About the Lyon Manufacturing Facility

Skyepharma's manufacturing facility in Saint Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon, France, is leased to the Aenova Group which manages the Facility on a day to day basis. The Facility manufactures six products which use the Geomatrix™ family of technologies and one other oral product based on Skyepharma's solubilisation technology. The Facility has current good manufacturing ("cGMP") status, with approvals, amongst others, to supply to both Europe and the United States. The facility has recently been inspected by the FDA, and no inspectional observations were raised.