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Phoqus raises £10 million on successful completionLondon, 31 October 2005 Phoqus Group plc (“Phoqus” or the “Company”), the oral drug delivery and development company, announces that it has published its Admission Document relating to the Company’s £10 million fundraising (the “Placing”) and to the admission of all of the Company’s Ordinary Shares to trading on AIM (“Admission”), which is expected to take place at 08:00 on Thursday 3 November 2005 under the ticker symbol PQS. The Placing is fully underwritten by Code Securities Limited. Pursuant to the Placing the Company is issuing 7,142,858 New Ordinary Shares at 140 pence per share raising gross proceeds for the Company of £10 million (£9 million net of expenses). A total of 32,143,097 million Ordinary Shares will be in issue on Admission, giving a market capitalisation immediately following Admission of £45 million. Phoqus is a drug delivery company using proprietary electrostatic powder coating technology, LeQtracoat®, to provide an extensive range of innovative systems targeting the oral drug delivery market. Phoqus has four collaboration agreements, three of which are with leading pharmaceutical companies. Phoqus is the only company using electrostatic powder coating technology for pharmaceutical applications and has over 120 granted patents. To assist the delivery of its strategy, Phoqus has a strategic alliance with Cardinal Health Inc (‘‘Cardinal Health’’) for the active co-marketing of Phoqus’ drug delivery and image systems in all major markets, as well as providing commercial scale GMP manufacturing to Phoqus’ collaboration partners. Cardinal Health is a leading provider of products and services supporting the health care industry with a turnover of approximately $74 billion. This alliance is an important step in moving the Company towards commercial operation. The net proceeds of the placing will be used to repay a trade loan from Cardinal Health, expand the Company’s collaborations and conduct further in-house development programmes, as well as for general working capital purposes. The nominated adviser and broker to the Company is Code Securities Limited. Andy Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Phoqus, commented: Enquiries:
Notes to editors The Company’s products target the established and growing oral drug delivery sector, which is valued at over $31 billion, and address the major oral sectors including modified release, fast dissolve, low dose and combination drugs. Drug delivery technologies are applied to pharmaceuticals to provide benefits such as controlling the release of a drug into the body, enhancing patient compliance and improving the performance and efficacy of an existing drug. In turn, these benefits enable pharmaceutical companies to extend the life cycles of their products, strengthen their patent protection and thereby enhance the value of their marketed products and development pipelines. In addition, the Company has developed its coating technology to create novel images on drug tablets as a means of brand enhancement and protection against counterfeiting. The Company’s business model is to collaborate with leading pharmaceutical companies, charging fees for both product development and contract manufacture, and royalties from product sales. In addition to providing commercial drug delivery services to collaboration partners, the Directors intend to fund the early stage product development of a limited number of Phoqus own projects. The levels of royalties on sales that may be earned in the drug delivery sector are typically in the range of 3 to 7 per cent. The Directors believe that it may be possible to achieve higher royalties from projects where the Company has funded initial development. The Directors expect that many projects will involve drugs already approved or in the final stages of approval and so returns will not be subject to the high levels of risk associated with the development of a novel drug. Several of the Company’s collaboration agreements are now close to conversion to full scale development and commercialisation, and the Directors anticipate first product launches and royalties starting in 2007. In addition, Phoqus is funding the initial, in-house development of a modified release formulation. Phoqus has also been successful in developing additional applications for the LeQtracoat® technology in pharmaceutical capsules, medical devices and detergent tablets, and is in discussions regarding potential collaborations with several leading companies in these areas. To assist the delivery of its strategy, Phoqus has entered into a strategic partnership with Cardinal Health, the world’s largest supplier of services to the healthcare industry, to provide commercial scale GMP manufacturing to collaboration partners. Cardinal Health also co-markets Phoqus’ drug delivery and image enhancement systems in all major markets. Phoqus, based in Kent, was established in 1998 as a spin-out from Colorcon, a division of Berwind Pharmaceutical Services Inc, and employs 30 people. Further background on the Company can be found at www.phoqus.com |
