Transformational deal completed, the evolution continues for Vernalis

Vernalis plc announced its results for the year ended 31 December 2011.

Ian Garland, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The transformation of Vernalis has continued. Our licensing deal with Tris, announced in February, together with the £65.9 million equity fundraising are important steps to transform the company into a diversified, profitable and self-sustaining specialty pharmaceutical company. The outlook for 2012 remains very positive with progress expected under the Tris collaboration, where development work has already started on three combination products, as well as our existing programmes and research collaborations.”

Operational Highlights
The licensing deal with Tris Pharma, Inc. completed in February 2012 giving Vernalis exclusive rights to Tris’s extended release technology for use in the US prescription cough/cold market. The equity fundraising achieved £65.9 million (net of expenses) and was oversubscribed. Funds are available for further late-stage in-licensing. Vernalis will pay Tris to develop up to six unique extended release (ER) equivalents to existing immediate release (IR) prescription cough/cold treatments.
Vernalis will own all approved products and will commercialise them in a US market with approximately 35 million prescriptions annually, potentially worth over $2 billion. Development work has already been initiated on three combination products. This accelerates Vernalis’ evolution to self-sustained specialty Pharma Company.

Pipeline Activity
Frovatriptan for migraine produces a royalty income of £6.5 million and approval has been received to market frovatriptan in Russia. It has also been launched in South Korea by SK Chemicals.

Research Collaborations
New collaborations have been announced in January 2012 with Genentech and with Servier, in addition to two existing collaborations with Servier.

Financial Highlights
Revenues remain robust with £12.2 million of revenues, Menarini frovatriptan royalties at £6.5 million. A strong balance sheet positions the company for future growth and cash resources are at £24.7 million at 31 December 2011.

Medimmune’s Granta Park Staff Play Key Role in Major Deal

MedImmune's Granta Park based staff have played a major role in building a deal with Amgen to co-develop and co-commercialise five monoclonal antibodies from Amgen’s clinical inflammation portfolio.

Staff from legal, business development and R & D departments helped support the deal, including negotiating and interfacing with Amgen in the US, and many more are set to become involved in the collaboration which will give MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca, one of the strongest respiratory, inflammation and autoimmunity portfolios in the industry.
Says Site Leader and VP Research Jane Osbourn: “Around 60 staff at Granta Park are focused on this therapy area, with a couple of products in phase 2 clinical trial in Cambridge - Tralokinumab for severe asthma and Mavrilimunab for rheumatoid arthritis. The most advanced of the five monoclonal antibodies involved in the collaboration deal is Brodalumab, an antibody for psoriasis, which we hope to push into phase 3 this year. The deal will also give us the opportunity to look at additional diseases, including psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis and Crohn’s disease.”

The deal has also brought much pride to MedImmune’s Granta Park based staff: “It’s great to get a late stage clinical development programme, which is good for morale here and offers many opportunities and choices. Working with a name like Amgen also brings a lot of pride. It reflects well on staff as a whole to work with such an attractive partner, “adds Jane.

Collaboration is a key element to MedImmune's ongoing success, with external development deals fuelling approximately 60% of the company’s pipeline. “We have a collaborative culture at MedImmune, which is actively supported by Granta Park, who have done a great job setting the right tone for us to be able to discuss deals like this. The industry is moving to a more creative phase around partnerships. This shared approach will allow us to drive things forward and share a sense of reward as well as sharing the risk.”

MedImmune has a state-of-the-art Research and Development facility at Granta Park employing around 400 people and is recognized for its rich history as an innovator and a key player in Cambridge’s bioscience community.

Vernalis and Servier Achieve Research Milestone in Drug Discovery Collaboration

Vernalis plc and Servier, Suresnes, France, today announce they have achieved a research milestone in one of their oncology drug discovery collaborations. As a result, Vernalis will receive a payment of €0.5m from Servier in recognition of reaching this stage in the programme.
This collaboration between Vernalis and Servier utilises Vernalis’ proprietary fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform on undisclosed oncology targets. Vernalis will receive fees and a share in the future success of the product in the form of milestones and royalties on sales. Financial terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed.

Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis commented: “This achievement is a further endorsement of our proprietary fragment and structure-based drug discovery platforms and the strength of our collaborative partnership with Servier. We look forward to further success with these collaborations”.
Bernard Marchand, PhD, General Manager of Servier Discovery Research, added: “We are very pleased with the progress of this collaboration showing once again the added value of integrated structural biology on a challenging oncology target”.

Science Park Cambridge

Pictured: Ian Garland, CEO Vernalis