Vectura receives €15 million milestone and equity investment from Boehringer Ingelheim
26 November 2007
Chippenham, UK – 26 November 2007: Vectura Group plc (“Vectura”; LSE: VEC) today announced that a significant milestone payment will be received from leading pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, under the companies’ worldwide collaboration, development and licence agreement.
Vectura will receive a cash milestone payment of €10 million (£7 million), which follows an initial €5 million (£3.5 million) in cash paid to Vectura in May 2006. Boehringer Ingelheim will also invest €5 million (£3.5 million) in Vectura through the purchase of 3.6 million new ordinary shares at a price of £0.96 per share. This follows Boehringer Ingelheim’s purchase of 4.9 million shares (€10 million) in May 2006, and brings its total holding to 8.5 million shares or 2.7% of Vectura’s issued share capital.
Under the terms of the non-exclusive licence agreement signed in April 2006, Vectura is working with Boehringer Ingelheim on the continued development of a multi-dose, dry powder inhaler (DPI), one version of which may be sold as a Boehringer Ingelheim branded device for delivering a range of Boehringer Ingelheim proprietary respiratory products, mainly for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Additional milestones will be payable to Vectura for each product developed for delivery with the device. Vectura will also receive royalties on global sales of Boehringer Ingelheim products using the DPI device for pulmonary delivery.
The majority of treatments for asthma and COPD are currently delivered by inhalation. Global markets for inhaled products are today valued in excess of $16 billion and are forecast to grow to over $32 billion by 2011. Dry powder inhalers are increasingly the first choice for patients with these diseases and it is expected that DPIs will be used to deliver the majority of the drugs sold in these markets by 2011. Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world’s leading companies developing therapies to treat asthma and COPD.
Dr Chris Blackwell, Chief Executive of Vectura, added:
"This is a significant achievement for Vectura, which further
endorses our strength in respiratory product development.
Boehringer Ingelheim has a strong commitment to respiratory
medicine and a world-renowned development and marketing
infrastructure that has been proven with products like
Spiriva®. The non-exclusive nature of this agreement
provides us with an excellent opportunity to deliver further value
from our inhaled therapy technologies.”
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Enquiries:
| Vectura Group plc | + 44 (0) 1249 667 700 |
| Dr Chris Blackwell | |
| Anne Hyland | |
| Julia Wilson | |
| Financial Dynamics | +44 (0)20 7831 3113 |
| David Yates | |
| Sanjeev Pandya | |
| Susan Quigley |
Notes for Editors:
About Vectura
Vectura is a pulmonary
product development company focused principally on the development
of a range of inhaled therapies for the treatment of respiratory
and neurological diseases. The respiratory market is forecast to
achieve sales of $32 billion by 2011. Vectura develops products to
treat respiratory diseases such asthma, COPD and cystic fibrosis.
Vectura also develops products where optimised delivery via the
lungs into the blood stream can provide significant benefits, such
as a rapid onset of action, improved efficacy and improved
tolerability compared with current therapies.
Vectura has eight marketed products and a portfolio of drugs in clinical and pre-clinical development, some of which have been licensed to major pharmaceutical companies. The Company also seeks to develop certain programmes further through development to optimise value at a later licensing stage. Vectura also offers its formulation and inhalation technologies to other pharmaceutical companies on a licensing basis where this complements Vectura’s business strategy.
Vectura has development collaborations with a broad range of pharmaceutical companies including Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Chiesi. The acquisition of Innovata in January 2007 brought established alliances with a number of additional companies, such as Baxter, GSK, Merck Generics (part of Mylan Inc), UCB and Otsuka as well providing revenue streams, complementary products and critical mass.
For further information, please visit Vectura’s website at www.vectura.com
About Boehringer Ingelheim
For further
information about Boehringer Ingelheim please access
www.boehringer-ingelheim.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press
release contains “forward-looking statement”, including
statements about the discovery, development and commercialisation
of products. Various risks may cause Vectura’s actual results
to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements, including adverse results in clinical
development programmes; failure to obtain patent protection for
inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or
controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance
partners to develop and commercialise products and services;
difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market
products and services resulting from development efforts; the
requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and
development and to expand commercialisation activities; and product
initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors,
prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any
forward-looking statement. We disclaim any intention or obligation
to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
