Melbourne; 22 May 2009: Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX:SPL, OTCQX:SPHRY) has announced the finalisation of the second tranche of its previously announced share placement, and the successful completion of its share purchase plan (SPP).
The total equity raised is A$7.1 million. The private placement to existing and new institutional and sophisticated investors raised A$5.1 million in total, with the second tranche contributing A$2 million. Existing shareholders also contributed an additional A$2 million through the SPP. All shares in the placement and SPP will be issued at A$0.26 per share.
The placement was led by Acorn Capital, with a leading Australian institution and a significant European fund among a number of new institutions participating.
Dr Jackie Fairley, CEO of Starpharma said: “We are delighted with the strong support shown by both institutional and retail shareholders in this raising.
These additional funds place the company in a very strong financial position and build upon the recently announced drug delivery deal with animal health company Elanco. This is a period of increasing commercial momentum for Starpharma.”
“The Elanco deal is the most recent example of Starpharma’s strategy of partnering our dendrimer technology widely, allowing us to commercially exploit our technology across a range of markets to maximum effect”, Dr Fairley added.
The recent deal with Elanco (part of Eli Lilly and Company) follows the company’s deal last September for a VivaGel® coated condom with SSL International, the marketers of Durex®. The coated condom deal is estimated to be worth in excess of $100 million to Starpharma.
Shareholder approval is not required for the shares issued via the private placement as they fall within the 15% threshold permitted by the ASX Listing Rules.
About Starpharma
Starpharma Holdings Limited (ASX:SPL, OTCQX:SPHRY) is a world leader in the development of dendrimer nanotechnology for pharmaceutical, life-science and other applications. SPL has two operating companies, Starpharma Pty Ltd in Melbourne, Australia and DNT, Inc in the USA. Products based on SPL’s dendrimer technology are already on the market in the form of diagnostic elements and laboratory reagents through licence arrangements with partners including Siemens and Merck KgA.
The Company’s lead pharmaceutical development product is VivaGel® (SPL7013 Gel), a vaginal microbicide designed to prevent the transmission of STIs, including HIV and genital herpes. In September 2008 Starpharma signed a full licence agreement with SSL International plc (LSE:SSL) to develop a VivaGel® coated condom. SSL manufactures and sells Durex® condoms, the market-leading condom brand worldwide. Starpharma’s receipts under the agreement are estimated to exceed A$100m comprising royalties on SSL sales, further milestone payments, and development support.
In the wider pharmaceutical field Starpharma has specific programs in the areas of Drug Delivery and Drug Optimisation technologies (using dendrimers to control where and when drugs go when introduced to the body) and Targeted Diagnostics (using dendrimers as a scaffold to which both location-signalling and targeting groups are added to allow location of specific cell type, such as cancer cells). More broadly the company is exploring dendrimer opportunities in materials science applications including water remediation.
Dendrimer: A type of precisely-defined, branched nanoparticle. Dendrimers have applications in the medical, electronics, chemicals and materials industries.
American Depositary Receipts (ADRs): Starpharma’s ADRs trade under the code SPHRY (CUSIP number 855563102). Each Starpharma ADR is equivalent to 10 ordinary shares of Starpharma as traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The Bank of New York Mellon is the depositary bank. Starpharma’s ADRs are listed on International OTCQX (www.otcqx.com), a premium market tier in the U.S. for international exchange-listed companies, operated by Pink OTC Markets, Inc.
Forward Looking Statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements, relating to Starpharma’s business, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “promising”, “plans”, “anticipated”, “will”, “project”, “believe”, “forecast”, “expected”, “estimated”, “targeting”, “aiming”, “set to”, “potential”, “seeking to”, “goal”, “could provide”, “intends”, “is being developed”, “could be”, “on track”, or similar expressions, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential filings or marketing approvals, or potential future sales of product candidates. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no assurance that any existing or future regulatory filings will satisfy the FDA’s and other health authorities’ requirements regarding any one or more product candidates nor can there be any assurance that such product candidates will be approved by any health authorities for sale in any market or that they will reach any particular level of sales. In particular, management’s expectations regarding the approval and commercialization of the product candidates could be affected by, among other things, unexpected clinical trial results, including additional analysis of existing clinical data, and new clinical data; unexpected regulatory actions or delays, or government regulation generally; our ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry, and general public pricing pressures; and additional factors that involve significant risks and uncertainties about our products, product candidates, financial results and business prospects. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Starpharma is providing this information as of the date of this document and does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or developments or otherwise.
For further information:
Media
Buchan Consulting
Starpharma
www.starpharma.com
Rebecca Wilson
Tel: +61 3 9866 4722
Mob: +61 417 382 391
rwilson@bcg.com.au
Ellie Papathanasiou
Tel: +61 2 9237 2800
epapathanasiou@bcg.com.au
Dr Jackie Fairley
Chief Executive Officer
+61 3 8532 2704
Ben Rogers
Company Secretary
+61 3 8532 2702
ben.rogers@starpharma.com
