Unilife Corporation Signs $10 Million Equipment Financing Agreement

YORK, Pa., Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Unilife Corporation (“Unilife” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: UNIS; ASX: UNS) today announced it has finalized a previously disclosed Equipment Financing Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Varilease Finance, Inc. for $10 million in available funding. This agreement will immediately replenish cash Unilife has previously invested to finance the automated assembly line now manufacturing the Unifill® ready-to-fill (prefilled) syringe at its manufacturing facility in York, PA.

Mr. Alan Shortall, Chief Executive Officer of Unilife, stated, “One of our goals is to constantly seek innovative methods for financing our business expansion so as to minimize any immediate need for equity financings. The financing agreement with Varilease provides us with additional capital resources that we can use to support continued sales and marketing of the Unifill syringe to current and additional pharmaceutical customers, as well as to fast-track the commercialization of other exciting new pipeline products. We are building a relationship with Varilease that can lead to future financing agreements in order to support much of our anticipated capital equipment requirements as we continue to grow our business.

“In addition to this new capital equipment financing relationship with Varilease, Unilife also has an extensive range of other near to mid-term revenue generating opportunities. We remain very confident in the continued supply and sale of the Unifill syringe to current and additional pharmaceutical customers. Several of these pharmaceutical companies have expressed interest in securing special access to the Unifill syringe and other pipeline devices within a designated therapeutic drug class that would result in the receipt of access or royalty fees.

“We also expect to receive revenues relating to the development and sale of other pipeline products that are scheduled for use in the clinical drug trials of our pharmaceutical customers over the coming year. Unilife remains right on schedule regarding the continued implementation of its strategic business plan to attain a position of global leadership within the fast-growing market for advanced drug delivery systems,” concluded Mr. Shortall.

Jacob Dinsdale, Vice President, of Varilease, said, “Having conducted our due diligence on Unilife and met with its management team, Varilease is delighted to join the Company as a financial partner. The Unifill syringe and its assembly systems represent an exciting commercial opportunity for Unilife. We look forward to supporting the continued business expansion of Unilife, and building a strong long-term relationship with them.”

About Varilease Finance, Inc

Established equipment-leasing financiers since 1987, the Varilease companies have financed more than $2 billion in assets worldwide. Monitor magazine’s annual report of the overall performance of the equipment-leasing industry ranked Varilease among the top 100 companies in the United States. Additionally, Monitor recognized Varilease as one of the TOP 75 fastest-growing companies, based on new business volume. Varilease specializes in meeting the financing needs of companies in the middle-market to investment-grade range. Our unique access to hedge fund capital allows us to finance some of the most complex and structured transactions in the marketplace today.

About Unilife Corporation

Unilife Corporation (NASDAQ:UNIS / ASX: UNS) is a U.S. based developer, manufacturer and supplier of advanced drug delivery systems with state-of-the-art facilities in Pennsylvania. Established in 2002, Unilife works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seeking innovative devices for use with their parenteral drugs and vaccines. Unilife has developed a broad, differentiated proprietary portfolio of its own injectable drug delivery products, including the Unifill^® and Unitract^® product lines of safety syringes with automatic, operator controlled needle retraction. Unifill represents the world’s first prefilled syringe technology integrating safety within the primary drug container. The products are ideally positioned to help pharmaceutical companies maximize the lifecycle of their injectable drugs and enhance patient care. Unifill syringes, together with other devices that are part of the Unilife technology platform, can either be supplied to pharmaceutical customers ready for use, or customized to address the specific requirements of targeted novel drugs. For more information on Unilife, please visit www.unilife.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Our management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, you should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, events and developments to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those described in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and those described from time to time in other reports which we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

General: UNIS-G

SOURCE Unilife Corporation