Selcia exploits in-house IP with demerger move

Ongar, UK – 31 July 2012. Selcia Limited, the global provider of contract research services to the life sciences industry, has today announced the demerger of all internally generated intellectual property into two new companies, Mitopharm Ltd and Selcia Pharma Ltd. Commenting on the development, Selcia's CEO Simon Saxby, stated: "There are several reasons underlying the demerger of Selcia IP, the ultimate goal of which is to exploit internally generated IP as efficiently as possible while not defocusing our attention from the needs of our clients and core CRO business. We want Selcia to remain completely independent of external shareholders, allowing us to be more flexible and creative in our agreements with CRO clients than many of our competitors. To date the IP projects have all been funded with proceeds from the core CRO activities, but now require additional external funding to progress to clinical studies as rapidly as we would like. Demerging our mitochondrial dysfunction and novel non-cyclosporin cyclophilin inhibitor molecule (NCCIM) programmes into Mitopharm Ltd, and our anti-infective programmes into Selcia Pharma Ltd, will also enable us to more easily raise investment from a variety of sources with interests in specific therapeutic areas without impacting the management and operation of our successful CRO business. We expect the continued development programmes to be outsourced to Selcia Ltd. Having demerged the IP we are already in discussions with a number of potential partners for all of the IP programmes, with a number of compounds currently under evaluation by pharma companies. We expect to sign at least one licencing agreement for one of our NCCIM molecules in 2012. The demerger move is fully aligned with Selcia's stated aim of creating long term value from IP licencing, royalties and milestone revenues that will ensure ongoing investment in further IP generation and increased stability for Selcia's CRO business." The demerger of the Selcia IP has been undertaken in compliance with all applicable UK laws and HMRC / regulatory requirements. All media enquiries: Andy Matthews, O2PR Ltd [email protected] Mob: +44 (0)7967 153753 About Selcia Selcia Limited is a leading provider of contract research services in 14C custom radiolabelling, integrated drug discovery, fragment screening and medicinal chemistry. Selcia operates from modern facilities with a GLP analytical laboratory (including GLP NMR), in Ongar, Essex, UK and Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA. Selcia's radiolabelling division produces 14C radiolabelled compounds and 14C GMP radiolabelled APIs for a global customer base encompassing both the life sciences and chemical industries. Applications of the radiolabelled products prepared by Selcia include: preclinical and clinical drug metabolism, mass balance, and microtracer studies; research and regulatory studies of cosmetic products; and environmental fate studies of agricultural and industrial chemicals. Selcia's Discovery division provides integrated drug discovery services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; these services include medicinal, organic and analytical chemistry, molecular modelling, in vitro biological screening, fragment screening and in vitro ADME/PK evaluation. Selcia's capillary electrophoresis screening platform offers clients the benefits of a powerful and proven technology applied to drug discovery and fragment based screening, on a wide variety of targets.