FIRST DAY OF TRADING ON AIM
December 20 2004 - 2:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
FIRST DAY OF TRADING ON AIM Physiomics plc FIRST DAY OF TRADING ON
AIM Oxford, UK, December 20th, 2004, Physiomics plc (PYC,
`Physiomics' or the `Company'), a European systems biology
simulation company, announces that trading in its shares started
today on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) following a
Placing which raised �750,000 (before expenses) for the Company.
The net proceeds of the Placing will be used by Physiomics to
develop and market its technologies, such as SystemCell�, and to
participate in proprietary therapeutic development projects such as
those that may arise from its collaboration with Cronos
Therapeutics Ltd. Commenting on Physiomics' flotation, Dr Stephen
Parker, Chairman, said: "We are extremely pleased with the success
of this fund raising. It will enable Physiomics to invest
aggressively in marketing and further developing this important new
generation of clinical response prediction services." Grant
Thornton Corporate Finance is nominated adviser to Physiomics and
HB- corporate is acting as broker. Physiomics' RIC is PYC Placing
Statistics: Placing Price 2p Number of Ordinary Shares in issue
following Admission 230,025,599 Percentage of the Enlarged Share
Capital placed 16.3 per cent Market Capitalisation at the Placing
Price �4.6 million For further information please contact:
Physiomics plc Tel: 01865 784 980 Dr Stephen Parker (Chairman) Tel:
07771 526 785 Dr John Savin (CEO) Tel: 07774 831 967 Grant Thornton
Corporate Finance Tel: 0870 991 2942 Colin Aaronson HB-corporate
Tel: 020 7510 8600 Edward Hutton Luke Cairns Northbank
Communications Tel: 020 7886 8150 Emma Palmer Fiona Brown
Background to Physiomics Physiomics plc, founded in 2001, develops
and sells services aimed at reducing the high cost of drug
development for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies by
optimising the design of cancer clinical trials through the
application of computer-based simulations. Physiomics is also
applying its technologies to develop proprietary cancer therapy
products for out-licensing and, to this end, it has secured an
option to license two innovative molecules. Industry drug
development costs on average over $800 million per product, with
approximately 80 to 90 per cent of all clinical drug candidates
failing to reach the market. Improving overall success rates by 10
per cent could save the industry $242 million per drug. Physiomics
believes that in silico simulation technologies will quickly become
the essential tools of the pharmaceutical industry as a means of
reducing this rate of attrition. The market for system biology
products and services is expected to grow to $785 million by 2008,
an annual compound growth rate of 66 per cent. Physiomics has a
strong team of Directors, with considerable experience of the life
sciences industry. * Chairman Dr Stephen Parker MBA was Finance
Director at Oxford GlycoSciences, following a career in corporate
finance. * CEO Dr John Savin MBA, who joined Physiomics in 2001,
has worked as a life sciences equity analyst and in marketing for
global healthcare companies such as Pharmacia and Amersham
International. * Science Director Professor David Fell is a
recognised expert in systems biology and runs a research team in
this area at Oxford Brookes University. He is the author of
approximately 85 scientific publications. * The Finance Director is
David Collins ACA who has a broad range of experience with large
corporations, including ICI and BASF, and is currently part-time
Finance Director at Gieves & Hawkes. * Other Directors are Dr
Paul Harper, who was CEO at Provensis and Cambridge Antibody
Technology, and John Pool, who has extensive commercial and
scientific experience in the life sciences sector. Physiomics
believes that systems biology simulations, combined with its
SystemCell� technology to create virtual biological cell
populations (where each cell encapsulates its own copy of the
simulation), should enable better understanding of required drug
dosages. Its mathematical models of key cellular processes, such as
cell growth and division, can, the Directors believe, be used to
define expensive pre-clinical and clinical research protocols to
produce "right first time" studies. The potential of Physiomics'
approach has been validated through an ongoing collaboration with
Cyclacel to evaluate novel cancer therapies and in 2004 with the
announcement of a collaboration with Bayer Technology Services GmbH
(BTS, an affiliated company of Bayer AG) to supply services for
clinical response prediction. Under this agreement, the two
companies are combining BTS' PK-Sim� technology (which is used to
evaluate how much administered drug reaches the disease site) with
Physiomics' own technology, including its SystemCell software based
on patented technology. Physiomics technology is used to calculate
how much drug is needed to maintain a therapeutic level. The
Directors believe that drug companies will use Physiomics' services
to: * design clinical trials to maximise the chances of a
successful outcome; or * troubleshoot problem trials, in order to
identify the remedial action required and salvage drug development
programmes; or * evaluate the benefits of buying in, or
out-licensing, potential drug development projects. Grant Thornton
Corporate Finance is nominated adviser to Physiomics and
HB-corporate is acting as broker. END
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