HOUSTON, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cyberonics, Inc. announced that effective December 18, 2007, the company has entered into an agreement with Ethicon Endo-Surgery granting exclusive rights to the company’s patents and patent applications pertaining to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) for the treatment of obesity and two related co-morbidities, diabetes and hypertension, in overweight patients.
Ethicon Endo-Surgery has agreed to pay Cyberonics a signing fee of $9.5 million and royalties on commercial sales of products covered by the subject patents.
“This agreement advances our mission to improve the lives of people affected by chronic neurological disorders,” commented Dan Moore, Cyberonics’ President and Chief Executive Officer. “Out-licensing our obesity-related patents permits us to obtain value from these assets while we continue to focus on our other strategic objectives -- achieving positive cash flow and profitability, growing our core epilepsy business, and appropriately developing our treatment-resistant depression business -- and provides an opportunity for a device leader in the obesity space to utilize Cyberonics’ assets in developing weight reduction solutions.”
More than 46,000 patients worldwide have benefited from VNS Therapy during the past 10 years.
ABOUT VNS THERAPY AND CYBERONICS
Information on Cyberonics, Inc. and VNS Therapy is available at http://www.cyberonics.com and http://www.VNSTherapy.com.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including “may,” “believe,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “intend,” and “forecast,” or other similar words. Statements contained in this press release are based upon information presently available to us and assumptions that we believe to be reasonable. We are not assuming any duty to update this information should those facts change or should we no longer believe the assumptions to be reasonable. Investors are cautioned that all such statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, statements concerning achieving positive cash flow and profitability, growing our core epilepsy business, appropriately developing our TRD business, and developing VNS as a viable therapy for weight reduction. Our actual results may differ materially. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to: continued market acceptance of VNS Therapy and sales of our product; the development and satisfactory completion of clinical trials and/or market test and/or regulatory approval of VNS Therapy for the treatment of other indications; satisfactory completion of post-market studies required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a condition of approval for the TRD indication; adverse changes in coverage or reimbursement amounts by third parties; intellectual property protection and potential infringement claims; maintaining compliance with government regulations and obtaining necessary government approvals for new indications; product liability claims and potential litigation; reliance on single suppliers and manufacturers for certain components; the accuracy of management’s estimates of future expenses and sales; the results of the previously disclosed governmental inquiries; the potential identification of new material weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting; risks and costs associated with such governmental inquiries and any litigation relating thereto or to our stock option grants, procedures, and practices (including the previously disclosed private litigation); uncertainties associated with stockholder litigation; and other risks detailed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to our most recent filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 27, 2007.
ir@cyberonics.com
CONTACT: Greg Browne, CFO of Cyberonics, Inc., +1-281-228-7262, fax,
+1-281-218-9332, ir@cyberonics.com
Web site: http://www.cyberonics.com/
http://www.VNSTherapy.com/
