Xenova (NASDAQ:XNVA)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2019 to Jun 2024
Xenova Group plc Sale of Farnham Research Facility to Bioventix
SLOUGH, England, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Xenova Group plc today
announced that it has sold certain premises at its Farnham research facility
together with related assets to Bioventix Limited ("Bioventix"). The sale assets
constitute part of the business acquired by the Group upon the acquisition of KS
Biomedix Holdings plc. The consideration for the sale assets was £0.8m paid in
cash.
The sale includes certain rights to intellectual property relating to super
high-affinity antibodies that are not being developed by Xenova, and provides
for the continuation of work by Bioventix on novel three-part proteins
("trimers") being developed under an option agreement with Isis Innovations Ltd.
Xenova has retained an option to develop any promising therapeutic candidates
arising from this work. In addition, a team of 7 research scientists is
transferring with the business to Bioventix.
The sale is in line with Xenova's declared strategy following the acquisition of
KS Biomedix Holdings plc on 12 September 2003, of focusing on its clinical
development portfolio and achieving cost savings through the disposal of
non-core business activities and facilities.
Commenting on the disposal, David Oxlade, Chief Executive of Xenova, said, "We
are pleased to announce continuing progress in achieving the cost savings
expected at the time of the acquisition of KS Biomedix Holdings plc and to
realize value from non-core assets for our shareholders. The sale to Bioventix,
which is being run by Peter Harrison formerly of KS Biomedix, also provides
Xenova an option to in-license certain therapeutic candidates."
Notes to Editors
Xenova Group plc's product pipeline focuses principally on the therapeutic areas
of cancer and immune system disorders. Xenova has a broad pipeline of programs
in clinical development. The Group has a well-established track record in the
identification, development and partnering of innovative products and
technologies and has partnerships with significant pharmaceutical and
biopharmaceutical companies including Celltech, Genentech, Lilly, Millennium
Pharmaceuticals, Nycomed, Pfizer and QLT.
Bioventix Ltd is a company that was formed in order to acquire certain premises
at Xenova's Farnham research facility together with related assets and aims to
develop and commercialize antibodies and antibody fragments and derivatives
initially derived from sheep as diagnostic and therapeutic products. As a
result, the Company will sell unlabelled sheep antibodies to T3 for diagnostic
use and rights to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic products to other
targets. (These rights exclude directly and indirectly labeled diagnostic
products to carcino-embryonic antigen (CEA) and directly labeled therapeutic
products to CEA.). Bioventix will also develop novel trimeric antibody entities
for use in targeting solid tumors.
For further information about Xenova and its products please visit the Xenova
website at http://www.xenova.co.uk/.
For Xenova: Disclaimer to take advantage of the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the
US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release contains
"forward-looking statements," including statements about our ability to
integrate acquired businesses and realize cost savings from integration, and the
discovery, development and commercialization of products. Various risks may
cause Xenova's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
implied by the forward looking statements, including: unexpected costs and
delays in integrating acquired businesses into our group, adverse results in our
drug discovery and clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent
protection for our discoveries; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned
or controlled by third parties; our dependence upon strategic alliance partners
to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in
obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from
our development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct
research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product
initiatives by competitors. For a further list and description of the risks and
uncertainties we face, see the reports we have filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or
revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise.
DATASOURCE: Xenova Group plc
CONTACT: UK: David A Oxlade, Chief Executive Officer, or Daniel Abrams,
Finance Director, or Veronica Cefis Sellar, Corporate Communications, all of
Xenova Group plc, +44-1753-706600; or David Yates or Ben Atwell, both of
Financial Dynamics, +44-207-831-3113; or US: Daniel Budwick (Ext 14), or
Press: Brad Miles (Ext 17), or Lee Stern (Ext 22), or Investors: Jonathan
Fassberg (Ext 16), all of Trout Group - BMC Communications, +1-212-477-9007
Web site: http://www.xenova.co.uk/