OctoPlus N.V. (“OctoPlus” or the “Company”) (Euronext: OCTO), the drug delivery and development company, announces today that it has been granted a bridge financing of up to € 4 million from its existing shareholders Life Sciences Partners and SR One to enable the Company to secure one or more of the longer term financing options currently under negotiation.
Life Sciences Partners and SR One, both specialist life sciences venture capital funds, have been participating in OctoPlus since 2005. The bridge financing is a strong endorsement of OctoPlus’ strategy and it enables the Company to secure one or more of the longer term financing options currently under negotiation, including a private offering to several qualified investors.
In view of these recent events, OctoPlus has decided to postpone publication of its 2007 annual report and its Annual General Meeting (AGM), which were planned for 31 March and 22 April, respectively. This will enable the Company to include the outcome of the ongoing negotiations in the 2007 annual report. New dates for the publication of the annual report and the AGM will be announced as soon as a final agreement has been reached.
The bridge financing loan carries 15% interest annually and may be substituted by each lender for a participation in a potential private offering, or alternatively, in ordinary shares, which will have a dilutive effect.
The Company reiterates its confidence to be able to advance its two Phase II clinical products to the next stage and to further grow its Contract Development business in 2008, as the Contract Development order book is once again better filled than at the same stage last year. In February OctoPlus had also announced the start of a US Phase IIa clinical study with Locteron, which is progressing according to plan.
For further information, please contact: Rianne Roukema, Corporate Communications: telephone number +31 (71) 524 1071, e-mail IR@octoplus.nl.
About OctoPlus OctoPlus N.V. is a product-oriented biopharmaceutical company committed to the creation of improved pharmaceutical products that are based on OctoPlus’ proprietary drug delivery technologies and have fewer side effects, improved patient convenience and a better efficacy/safety balance than existing therapies. Rather than seeking to discover novel drug candidates through early stage research activities, OctoPlus focuses on the development of long-acting, controlled-release versions of known protein therapeutics, other drugs, and vaccines.
OctoPlus’ pipeline consists of 5 products in pre-clinical and clinical development. The lead product is Locteron, a controlled-release formulation of interferon alfa for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, which the Company is co-developing with Biolex Therapeutics. Locteron is currently in Phase II clinical studies. Furthermore, the pipeline comprises a product candidate for the treatment of chronic middle ear infection, which is in Phase II clinical development, a pre-clinical GLP-1 analogue product candidate for the treatment of diabetes type 2 and two pre-clinical-stage single-shot vaccines.
In addition, OctoPlus is a European leading provider of advanced drug formulation and clinical scale manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, with a focus on difficult to formulate active pharmaceutical ingredients. The earnings and expertise that the Company derives from rendering formulation and manufacturing services help to support the Company’s own drug development programs.
OctoPlus is listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext under the symbol OCTO. For more information about OctoPlus, please visit the website on www.octoplus.nl.
This document may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the business, financial performance and results of OctoPlus N.V. and the industry in which it operates. These statements are based on OctoPlus N.V.'s current plans, estimates and projections, as well as its expectations of external conditions and events. In particular the words “expect”, “anticipate”, “predict”, “estimate”, “project”, “plan”, “may”, “should”, “would”, “will”, “intend”, “believe” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We caution investors that a number of important factors, and the inherent risks and uncertainties that such statements involve, could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. In the event of any inconsistency between an English version and a Dutch version of this document, the English version will prevail over the Dutch version.
