TIDMVAL
RNS Number : 6154C
ValiRx PLC
14 June 2023
ValiRx PLC ("ValiRx" or the "Company")
Asset Purchase - Imagen Therapeutics
London, UK - ValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company
focusing on early-stage cancer therapeutics and women's health, is
pleased to announce it has acquired the scientific assets of Imagen
Therapeutics Limited ("Imagen") from its appointed liquidators.
Imagen was a pharma services company offering a patient-derived
screening platform suitable for large global clients. Total
consideration paid for the Imagen assets was a single cash payment
of GBP170,000, paid to the liquidators on signature of the purchase
agreement from the Company's existing resources. This represents a
significant discount to the original commercial value of the assets
acquired, which comprises:
-- an extensive biobank of patient derived cells;
-- a comprehensive range of laboratory equipment required for
analysis and application of the cells, including several high value
items already in the financial plan for Inaphaea BioLabs Limited
("Inaphaea");
-- all Intellectual Property, including a granted patent
covering the use of specific methods of growing and testing patient
derived cell lines;
-- trademarks, trade names and logos associated with Imagen; and
-- data from Imagen's in-house screening programme which studied
the activity of non-oncology drugs against cancer cells.
UK-based Imagen's primary business was aimed at personalising
treatment for cancer through the collection and use of
well-characterised, patient-derived cancer cells. Samples,
collected from patients over a number of years across a wide
variety of cancers, enabled Imagen to create a unique 'biobank' of
human derived cells and provide services to the pharmaceutical
industry for pre-clinical screening of drug candidates. By directly
collecting and processing a large number of samples, Imagen was
able to build up a collection of cancer cells to attract global
clients for its pre-clinical screening business.
It is expected that the biobank and relevant equipment will be
transferred and integrated into Inaphaea in MediCity, Nottingham
over the next few months.
The Directors believe that the acquisition and rapid
assimilation of the Imagen assets will transform the service
offering of Inaphaea, broadening the market opportunity, and is
expected to attract interest from a wide range of pharmaceutical,
biotechnology and medical technology companies.
Additionally, the Company has secured the consultancy services
of co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Imagen, Dr Gareth
Griffiths, in order to assist with the establishment of the
patient-derived cell line services in the Inaphaea facility.
The Company was able to take part in the time-limited
competitive bidding process with the liquidators and to exploit
this opportunity efficiently utilising cash from its last equity
raise. Without the available funds on the balance sheet, the
Company would not have been able to participate in this process
which has been run over a matter of weeks.
Dr Suzy Dilly, CEO of ValiRx commented: "We are delighted to
have completed the acquisition of the Imagen assets. In particular,
the biobank of patient derived cell lines is a valuable resource as
it enables Inaphaea to offer screening of a wide-range of oncology
drug candidates against patient derived cell lines. This is an
important step towards our ambition to make our assays more closely
aligned to a complex human system, rather than rely on commercially
available immortalised cell lines. This transaction gives us
significant lab equipment at a substantial discount to our budgeted
cost for these items had we purchased new, with the cell lines and
other IP acquired at modest additional cost. The team did
brilliantly to complete this on a rapid timescale, at excellent
value for the Company. We believe these services will generate
near-term market interest and differentiate Inaphaea's offering.
Furthermore, the equipment, acquired at a fraction of market
prices, will support both the new cancer drug screening services
and Inaphaea's wider business interests."
Dr Kevin Cox, Chair of ValiRx commented : "The acquisition of
Imagen's assets illustrates our intent to build the tCRO(R) in the
most capital efficient way. Suzy and Stella Panu, Non-Executive
Director, have achieved a significant goal for the Company in
identifying, negotiating and completing the deal in a timescale and
at a cost that would be unthinkable for a business acquisition of
this nature. Indeed, building our own Imagen-like biobank would
have taken years and at a cost likely to be an order of magnitude
higher. We believe this approach will significantly enhance value
in ValiRx, and we expect integration of these assets into our
business will be rapid and increase our revenue earning potential
in the near term."
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of
UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018 ("UK MAR"). The Directors of the Company take responsibility
for this announcement.
For more information, please contact:
ValiRx plc Tel: +44 (0) 2476 796496
www.valirx.com
Dr Suzanne Dilly, CEO Suzanne.Dilly@valirx.com
V Formation (Public Relations) +44 (0) 115 787 0206
www.vformation.biz
Lucy Wharton - Senior PR Executive
Sue Carr - Director lucy@vformation.biz
sue@vformation.biz
--------------------------
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nominated Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213
Adviser) 0880
Liam Murray/Jo Turner/Ludovico Lazzaretti
--------------------------
Cenkos Securities plc (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7397
8900
Dale Bellis/Michael Johnson (Sales)
Callum Davidson/Giles Balleny (Corporate
Finance)
--------------------------
Turner Pope Investments (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 3657
James Pope / Andy Thacker 0050
--------------------------
Notes for Editors
About ValiRx
ValiRx is a life science company focused on early-stage cancer
therapeutics and women's health, accelerating the translation of
innovative science into impactful medicines to improve patient
lives.
ValiRx provides the scientific, financial, and commercial
framework for enabling rapid translation of innovative science into
clinical development.
Using its extensive and proven experience in research and drug
development, the team at ValiRx selects and incubates promising
novel drug candidates and guides them through an optimised process
of development, from pre-clinical studies to clinic and
investor-ready assets.
ValiRx connects diverse disciplines across scientific,
technical, and commercial domains, with the aim of achieving a more
streamlined, less costly, drug development process. The team works
closely with carefully selected collaborators and leverages the
combined expertise required for science to advance.
Lead candidates from ValiRx's portfolio are outlicensed or
partnered with investors through ValiRx subsidiary companies for
further clinical development and commercialisation.
ValiRx listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange in
October 2006 and trades under the ticker symbol: VAL.
For further information, visit: www.valirx.com
About Patient-derived Cells
Long-established immortalised cancer cells, although used
frequently in early stage cancer research, are known to have
limitations when considering the translation of research from
preclinical to clinical studies. Patient-derived cells enable the
research to be a step closer to studying a human clinical system,
by more closely resembling the cells within the patient. The
patient-derived cells are maintained at a low passage number, that
it they have not been replicated excessively, to minimise
mutations. Typically these cells will be grown as 2D monolayers for
study, however, they may also be developed into spheroids, to
enable 3D study.
Known characteristics of the patient from which the cells are
derived are whether the patient had received cancer treatment, the
type of cancer the patient was suffering and a broad demographic
group.
Cautionary statement
Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking
statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and
assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties
that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from
any expected future events or results expressed or implied in these
forward-looking statements. Persons receiving this announcement
should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Unless otherwise required by applicable law, regulation or
accounting standard, the Company does not undertake to update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future developments or otherwise.
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