Vernalis PLC: AGM Statement

WINNERSH, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - December 01, 2016) - Vernalis plc (LSE: VER) (OTC PINK: VNLPY)

1 December 2016
LSE: VER

AGM Statement

Insurance coverage expands to 75% of commercial lives and Prescription growth accelerates

Vernalis plc (“Vernalis” or the “Company”) provides an update ahead of its Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) being held today at 11.00 am at the offices of Covington & Burling, 265 Strand, London WC2R 1BH.

The Company’s business is progressing in line with management’s expectations, with positive developments across all 2016-17 priorities since our year-end results update in September this year.

In the commercial cough cold business, unrestricted insurance coverage for Tuzistra® XR has expanded from approximately 60% to approximately 75% of US commercial lives, having recently secured coverage at another large insurer. Pharmacy stocking is building with discussions ongoing with multiple national and regional pharmacy chains. Samples have been deployed to the field to encourage prescribing, and shipments to physicians started in October. The sales force is fully recruited, following the territory alignment and the team is promoting the new 2016-17 marketing campaign to target physicians. We have already seen the impact of these activities with Tuzistra® XR prescription growth accelerating week-on-week in the latest four weeks through to 18 November 2016.

The pipeline of cough cold products in development is progressing to plan; CCP-07 is in filing with FDA with a PDUFA date of 20 April 2017 and CCP-08 is still on track for filing before the end of this calendar year.

The project to identify a replacement source of supply for Moxatag® is progressing to plan.

The Company’s unaudited cash position (including cash and cash equivalents and held to maturity assets), remains strong and at 31 October 2016, was £ 78.6 million. The cash position continues to be positively impacted by the strength of the US dollar, with a significant proportion of our cash denominated in that currency.

No additional material information or updates on trading will be given at Vernalis’ AGM today. The presentation to be given will be available on the company website after the AGM.

This announcement contains inside information.

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Enquiries: Vernalis plc: +44 (0) 118 938 0015 Ian Garland, Chief Executive Officer David Mackney, Chief Financial Officer Canaccord Genuity Limited (Nominated Adviser and +44 (0) 20 7523 8000 Joint Broker): Dr Julian Feneley Henry Fitzgerald-O’Connor Rupert Winckler Emma Gabriel Shore Capital (Joint Broker): +44 (0)20 7408 4090 Bidhi Bhoma Toby Gibbs FTI Consulting: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 Ben Atwell Simon Conway Stephanie Cuthbert 

Notes to Editors

About Vernalis
Vernalis is a revenue generating, commercial stage pharmaceutical company with significant expertise in drug development. The Group has three approved products: Tuzistra® XR targeting the US prescription cough-cold market; Moxatag®, a once-a-day formulation of the antibiotic, amoxicillin, indicated for the treatment of tonsillitis and/or pharyngitis secondary to Streptococcus pyogenes in adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older; and frovatriptan for the acute treatment of migraine. It has an exclusive licensing agreement to develop and commercialise multiple novel products focussed on the US prescription cough-cold market as well as eight programmes in its NCE development pipeline. Vernalis has also significant expertise in fragment and structure based drug discovery which it leverages to enter into collaborations with larger pharmaceutical companies. The Company’s technologies, capabilities and products have been endorsed over the last five years by collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, including Asahi Kasei Pharma, Biogen Idec, Endo, GSK, Genentech, Lundbeck, Menarini, Novartis, Servier, Taisho, and Tris.

For further information about Vernalis, please visit www.vernalis.com.

Vernalis Forward-Looking Statement
This news release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect the Company’s current expectations regarding future events including the clinical development and regulatory clearance of the Company’s products, the Company’s ability to find partners for the development and commercialisation of its NCE pipeline, the Company’s ability to successfully commercialise its cough-cold products and Moxatag® through its own sales force, as well as the Company’s future capital raising activities. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual events could differ materially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors including the success of the Company’s research strategies, the applicability of the discoveries made therein, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the uncertainties related to the regulatory process, the ability of the Company to identify and agree beneficial terms with suitable partners for the commercialisation and/or development of its products, as well as the achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, the acceptance of Tuzistra® XR, Moxatag®, frovatriptan and other products by consumers and medical professionals, the successful integration of completed mergers and acquisitions and achievement of expected synergies from such transactions, and the ability of the Company to identify and consummate suitable strategic and business combination transactions.

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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