LMT Lombard Med.Tec

RNS Number:2263H
Biofusion PLC
03 August 2006

3rd August 2006

                                 Biofusion plc

          Axordia Collaboration with Lombard Medical Technologies plc


Biofusion plc ("Biofusion"), the university intellectual property (IP)
commercialisation company is pleased to announce that Axordia Limited 
("Axordia") has signed a letter of intent to enter into a collaboration with 
Lombard Medical Technologies PLC ("LMT") for the development of a new generation
treatment for coronary artery disease - a regenerative stent.

The collaboration is aimed at making use of Axordia's unique stem cell-derived
endovascular cells and LMT's PEP(TM) polymer coating on the stent surface to
create a stent that encourages rather than restricts local vascular repair.

David Baynes, CEO of Biofusion said: "Axordia is a leader in developing stem
cell technologies across a number of applications within the pharmaceutical
industry and this agreement highlights the value of its proprietary endovascular
cell lines in particular.  A stent that makes use of Axordia's endovascular
cells and encourages normal tissue regeneration has the potential to make a
significant contribution to treatment of one of the World's most serious
diseases."

Biofusion is the largest shareholder in Axordia with a 36% shareholding.



The press release issued today by Axordia is below:


Axordia Announces a Collaboration with Lombard Medical Technologies PLC for the
     Development of a Next Generation Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease

03 August 2006 - Axordia Limited announced today that it has signed a letter of
intent to enter into a collaboration with Lombard Medical Technologies PLC (LMT)
to co-develop a new generation of treatment for coronary artery disease - a
regenerative stent.

The collaboration between Lombard and Axordia is for a two and a half year
project to develop a regenerative stent that encourages rather than restricts
local vascular repair. Attaching Axordia's proprietary, stem cell-derived
endovascular cells to Lombard Medical's PEP(TM) programmable polymer coating on
the stent surface will allow the human body to promote controlled vascular
repair and heal the damaged coronary artery vessel wall.

Axordia's unique stem cell-derived endovascular cells have the remarkable
ability to promote rapid healing at the site of stent implantation, reduce
inflammation and create a localised immune privileged site, which acts to
prevent rejection.

The stent will represent a major step forward into a new format for stent
technology where early healing (endothelialisation) is promoted rather than
using cytotoxic drugs on drug eluting stents (DES) which inhibit growth and can
cause late stage thrombotic events. As a result this stent technology could
revolutionise the DES market.

The idea of promoting self repair and healing has an intuitive appeal to
physicians and the development of regenerative stent technology is seen as the
natural evolution in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Healthcare
industry estimates have suggested that the drug eluting stent market has already
reached a value of around $6bn but the maintenance of this market, as well as
its future growth, is under question due to the safety concerns over late stent
thrombosis.

Alistair Taylor, Executive Chairman of Lombard Medical said

"The potential for a regenerative stent is significant. Current drug eluting
stent technology reduces restenosis but tends to inhibit normal tissue
regeneration and may contribute to late stent thrombosis, with possible serious
consequences for the patient. A system that engenders normal healing of the
tissues may well reduce these late complications and lead to a reduction in
associated health care costs."

Many physicians believe that the success of second-generation drug eluting
stents will be measured by how quickly patients can safely come off
anti-platelet drug therapy and when late stent thrombosis is no longer the
Achilles heel that it is for DES. It makes sense that encouraging rather than
preventing healing is a better route and Axordia and Lombard believe that
regenerative stents could be the answer.

Dr V Paul Gerskowitch, CEO of Axordia said:

"This collaboration with Lombard is evidence of Axordia leading the field in
partnering to deliver practical, effective and safe applications for stem cells.
Lombard's experience of successful commercialisation together with all our
partners cutting edge technology and intellectual property will put this
consortium in a powerful position to revolutionise the treatment of one of the
World's most serious diseases. This collaboration will support a core part of
Axordia's therapeutic business stream on immune privilege"


Contacts


Biofusion

David Baynes                                         +44 (0) 114 275 5555
Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Chris Gardner/David Dible                            +44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Axordia                                              +44 (0) 208-663-3472

Dr V Paul Gerskowitch
  gerskowitch@axordia.com


About Biofusion

Biofusion was established in 2002 to commercialise university-generated IP.  The
Company has a ten-year exclusive arrangement with the University of Sheffield
for the commercialisation of IP owned by the University in the area of medical
life sciences. Biofusion has shareholdings in a portfolio of ten spin-out
companies including Asterion, Axordia, Celltran, Simcyp, Lifestyle Choices and
Genophrenix. The University of Sheffield is a world class life sciences research
centre spending an estimated #0.5bn of research funding over the next ten years.
The University can count five Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and
researchers, and data from the latest UK Government's Research Assessment
Exercise 2001 ("RAE 2001") showed it ranked fifth in the UK for the quality of
its life sciences research.

In March 2006 Biofusion entered into a strategic partnership with NPI Ventures
Limited ("NPI Ventures"). NPI Ventures is the technology investment business
wholly owned by Nikko Principal Investments Limited ("NPIL"), the European
principal finance arm of Nikko Cordial Corporation ("Nikko"), which is listed on
the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Under the agreement NPI Ventures established a #10
million side fund for the dedicated purpose of investing in Biofusion portfolio
companies, invested #2 million in Biofusion by taking a 7.37% equity stake in
Biofusion and has warrants with a total potential subscription value of #6.25
million, exercisable at exercise prices between 150p to 220p.

www.biofusion.co.uk

About Axordia

Axordia Limited is one of the UK's leading stem cell companies. It is using the
extraordinary properties of stem cells to improve the speed and safety of
conventional pharmaceutical drug discovery and also to develop therapeutic
products that exploit the unique properties of its endovascular cells in
transplantation and the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

Axordia is based in Sheffield and has strong links to the University of
Sheffield, the UK's leading university in the generation of stem cell
intellectual property. The Company is focused on the delivery of three core
business streams.  Its Drug Discovery products that will provide improved safety
and efficacy tests for used in drug development, ESC Tools technologies will
improve the research and manufacturing capability of the growing stem cell
industry and its Therapeutics research and development programme, which is
focused around immune suppression and promoting blood vessel growth.

www.axordia.co.uk

About Lombard Medical

Lombard Medical Technologies is a medical devices company developing stent
grafts and other medical products for use in the treatment of vascular disease.
The Company's lead product, Aorfix(TM), is a stent graft for the treatment of
aortic aneurysms, a balloon-like enlargement of the aorta which, if untreated,
may rupture and cause death.  Abdominal and thoracic aortic aneurysms are the
13th largest cause of death in the US and the market is estimated to be worth
approximately US$2 billion by 2010.  Aorfix(TM) is currently being
commercialised in the EU, with US clinical trials expected to commence during
2006.  The Company also has a research programme running with Amgen and the
University of Sheffield to develop a drug eluting stent with a new drug and
polymer combination to treat coronary stent restinosis.

Lombard Medical has recently successfully completed its initial public offering
on AIM and was admitted to listing in December 2005, raising #23.9 million, net
of expenses.  The Company, based in Oxfordshire & Yorkshire, currently employs
75 people.




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            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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