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Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Type | Share ISIN | Share Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Catco Reinsurance Opportunities Fund Limited | LSE:CAT | London | Ordinary Share | BMG1961Q3242 | ORD USD0.00013716 (DI) |
Price Change | % Change | Share Price | Bid Price | Offer Price | High Price | Low Price | Open Price | Shares Traded | Last Trade | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0.00 | 0.00% | 24.00 | 13.00 | 35.00 | 24.00 | 24.00 | 24.00 | 0.00 | 01:00:00 |
Industry Sector | Turnover | Profit | EPS - Basic | PE Ratio | Market Cap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unit Inv Tr, Closed-end Mgmt | 6.33M | 5.44M | 3.6440 | 6.59 | 35.84M |
RNS No 5741j CAMBRIDGE ANTIBODY TECHNOLOGY GROUP PLC 18th May 1998 INTERIM RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS 31 MARCH 1998 HIGHLIGHTS - Anti-TNFalpha clinical programme conducted by BASF Pharma: - Planned patient enrolment complete in European phase I/IIa study - Over 1,000 doses have been given to patients - New phase II studies starting shortly in both US and Europe - Anti-TGFbeta2 clinical programme for treatment of ophthalmic fibrosis: - Phase I/II study in proliferative vitreo retinopathy completed first dose level according to plan - Phase I/II study in glaucoma filtration surgery expected to commence shortly - Two drug candidates enter pre-clinical development: - Anti-IL-12 for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases - Anti-TGFbeta1 for systemic fibrosis and dermal scarring - European patent issued covering the use of all antagonists against the TGFbeta cytokine family for the prevention of fibrosis, to which CAT has an exclusive licence - Collaborations signed with ICOS and Progenitor widening CAT's potential drug target base - Participation in TNT programme (with Techniclone) curtailed - Agreement with Dyax clarifies patent position with regard to the US market - Staff numbers currently over 130 (a 30% increase during the last six months) - Operating cash outflow in six months (excluding revenue) of #4.8 million (1997: #4.0 million) - Current gross rate of cash spend (excluding revenue and interest income) approximately #1.2 million per month Professor Peter Garland, Chairman of CAT, commented: "Significant progress has been made in all areas of activity needed to deliver CAT's business strategy - to build one of the broadest clinical pipelines in the sector, managing risk by both the breadth of this portfolio and by partnership. Notably, our current clinical programmes in rheumatoid arthritis (where over 1,000 doses have now been given to patients) and fibrosis continue to proceed to plan, the deals with ICOS and Progenitor and the advancement of additional programmes into pre-clinical development will all contribute to CAT's product pipeline." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DELIVERING CAT'S BUSINESS STRATEGY CAT believes the major long term value to shareholders will come from the fulfilment of its strategy to capitalise on the power and breadth of its technology platforms to build a diverse portfolio of human monoclonal antibody-based therapeutic products. From the year 2000 onwards it is our stated objective to initiate 3 to 4 new clinical programmes each year. Achievement of this challenging objective would result in one of the broadest product portfolios in the sector. In effect this business model converts CAT's broadly applicable technology platform into a broad portfolio of product candidates in clinical trials and, with time, on the market. As well as building a significant realisable asset base, this strategy manages risk by both portfolio and partnership approaches. To realise this plan fully CAT has been focusing on building and demonstrating its capabilities in the following key areas: - Maintaining and developing technology strength - Sufficient targets against which to develop drugs - The ability to develop potent drug candidates - The ability to conduct pre-clinical and clinical development - Building partnerships - Resources and management Since listing in 1997, CAT has made significant progress in all the key areas required to realise this plan. Notable in the last six months has been the progress of the two clinical programmes and the deals with ICOS and Progenitor which, along with CAT's development of its ProAb(TM) and ProxiMol(TM) functional genomics platforms, have significantly enhanced the number of proprietary potential drug targets available to CAT. The continued movement of commercially attractive product candidates into the manufacturing and pre-clinical development phase underlines the effectiveness of CAT's product development capabilities. PRODUCT PIPELINE CAT continues to build its portfolio of clinical development programmes, two of which are already underway in the fields of inflammation and fibrosis. Two further programmes have progressed to the pre-clinical phase, extending CAT's position in fibrosis and inflammation/autoimmune diseases. Summary of clinical and pre-clinical programmes Development Phase Monoclonal antibody Disease target Status ----------------- ------------------- ------------------- -------------------- Clinical Human anti-TNFalpha Rheumatoid More than 1,000 arthritis doses administered in Phase I/IIa trials. Further Phase II trials beginning. ----------------- ------------------- ------------------- -------------------- Human anti- Fibrosis after First dose level TGFbeta2 retinal detachment completed in Phase I/IIa trials ----------------- ------------------- ------------------- -------------------- Pre-clinical Human anti- Glaucoma filtration Phase I/IIa trials TGFbeta2 surgery on target to start mid-98 Human anti- Systemic fibrosis Entered pre- TGFbeta1 and dermal scarring clinical phase. Clinical starts planned for 1999 Human anti-IL-12 Inflammation/ Entered pre- Autoimmune diseases clinical phase. Clinical starts planned for 1999. TNT (Techniclone) Cancer CAT ceased funding ----------------- ------------------- ------------------- -------------------- Antibody Engines 7 active antibody Including New engines started engines inflammation, (including for ICOS allergy, cancer target) and obesity ----------------- ------------------- ------------------- -------------------- INFLAMATION Anti-TNFalpha Phase I/IIa clinical studies were initiated by BASF in 1997 for the human monoclonal anti-TNFalpha antibody developed in conjunction with CAT. TNFalpha is a pro-inflammatory cytokine which increases tissue damage in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Rheumatoid arthritis affects an estimated 2% of the population of North America and Western Europe. CAT estimates that up to one million of these patients could benefit from treatment with this product. Enrolment of the planned patients into the first European phase I clinical trial in rheumatoid arthritis has been completed. Over 1,000 doses of the anti-TNFalpha antibody have now been administered and the summary results of the study are expected to be released at the American College of Rheumatology meeting in November 1998. BASF Pharma has received approval from the FDA to commence clinical studies in the US. These trials are expected to begin shortly. BASF Pharma is committed to initiate phase II trials in rheumatoid arthritis in Europe shortly. Anti-IL-12 Our partners Genetics Institute and BASF Pharma have decided to begin the pre-clinical development of the anti-IL-12 human antibody (J695) developed in collaboration with CAT. Further development and marketing of J695 is the responsibility of GI and BASF Pharma. CAT will receive clinical milestone payments, and royalties should the product candidate be marketed. Initial clinical trials are expected to begin in 1999. Anti-IL-12 antibodies could have application in a number of severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Dr Bob Kamen, President of BASF Bioresearch, commented: "We have initiated two programmes with CAT designed to isolate high affinity anti-cytokine drug candidate human antibodies. With the formal approval to move J695 into the pre-clinical development stage both programmes have resulted in potent drug candidates that are either in clinical trials or that we intend to take into clinical trials" FIBROSIS The TGFbeta family of cytokines is a major factor in the initiation of fibrosis. CAT has an exclusive licence to a European patent issued in 1997 which covers the use of antagonists (including, but importantly not restricted to, antibodies) against the TGFbeta family of cytokines for the prevention of fibrosis. CAT has developed two human monoclonal antibodies with application in the prevention of fibrosis. Anti-TGFbeta2 CAT's antibody directed against TGFbeta2, aimed at preventing fibrosis in the eye, began Phase I/IIa clinical studies for the prevention of proliferative vitreo retinopathy (PVR) in November 1997. The first dose level has been completed with no safety concerns. PVR is characterised by the formation of fibrous tissue in, and in front of the retina, following trauma or retinal detachment or in the late stages of diabetic retinopathy. PVR causes the retina to be pulled from its attachment with resulting loss of vision or blindness. Results with this antibody demonstrating efficacy in an in vitro model of PVR were presented at the Association for Research into Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) meeting in the US earlier this month. The anti-TGFbeta2 antibody also has significant potential in preventing fibrosis following glaucoma filtration surgery. Glaucoma is characterised by raised intra-ocular pressure which jeopardises eyesight. It is estimated to affect six million people in North America and Europe. A conservative estimate is that at least 250,000 glaucoma filtration operations per year in the US and Western Europe could benefit from this antibody since fibrosis is the main cause of failure of surgery. CAT's anti-TGFbeta2 antibody thus has potential to increase the number of operations performed each year by improving the success rate. Phase I/IIa trials for this indication are expected to begin shortly. Anti-TGFbeta1 TGFbeta1 has been associated with both scarring in the skin and fibrosis within internal organs. This can give rise to conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver. CAT has engineered a human anti-TGFbeta1 antibody with the potential to prevent scarring and tissue fibrosis, thereby reducing the risk of organ failure. A conservative estimate is that three million patients in North America and Western Europe alone could benefit from such anti-fibrotic/anti-scarring treatment. This programme has progressed into pre-clinical development, placing it in line to enter the clinic in late 1999. CANCER Techniclone (CAT's joint venture partner in Tumour Necrosis Therapy - TNT) recently announced the start of Phase I/IIa trials for the chimaeric TNT antibody for the treatment of malignant brain tumours. Techniclone desires rapidly to expand the clinical programmes for TNT to include other trials for additional cancer disease indications. Taking into account other opportunities available to it, CAT has decided not to co-fund any of the TNT clinical programmes (including both the chimaeric and human antibodies.) However, CAT retains an economic interest in the programme with royalty income potential should products be marketed in the future. CORPORATE COLLABORATIONS In addition to CAT's ongoing corporate collaborations with Pfizer, Eli Lilly, BASF, GI and Mitsubishi, CAT entered into new agreements in the last six months with ICOS and Progenitor. CAT's technology platforms have the capacity to validate large numbers of candidate targets in order to maintain a healthy antibody pipeline. The total pool of targets available to CAT has been considerably strengthened through the deals with ICOS and Progenitor. The collaborative agreement with ICOS will lead to joint development of antibody-based therapeutics to treat conditions such as inflammation, cancer and allergy. Intellectual property rights to six initial targets are provided by ICOS whilst CAT will contribute its antibody engineering expertise to validate these targets and to develop therapeutic candidates for specific diseases. The collaboration will also be used to discover novel associated drug targets, principally using CAT's ProxiMol(TM) platform. The broad-based collaboration with Progenitor will allow both companies to accelerate their respective product development programmes by sharing each other's technology strengths. Under the deal, CAT will have access to a diverse and extensive portfolio of molecular targets from Progenitor's gene discovery programmes in asthma, inflammation, hematopoiesis (blood cell formation), and angiogenesis (blood vessel formation) and will have the first right to develop antibody-based products. The deal includes rights to the leptin receptor, with possible application in obesity and other metabolic and haematological disorders and Del-1, a blood vessel growth factor and a target for cancer therapy and vascular disorders. In return, CAT will use its ProAb(TM) and ProxiMol(TM) technologies to develop target-specific antibodies for Progenitor and for functional genomics applications. PEOPLE AND FACILITIES In March 1998, Alistair Cumming joined the Board of CAT as a non-executive director. Until last year Mr Cumming was Chief Operating Officer for British Airways. During the six months ended 31 March 1998 the Group has continued to recruit high-calibre personnel. Staff numbers currently stand at 133. It is anticipated that this figure will have reached 150 by the end of the current financial year. In response to increased R&D activity, we have recently taken out a lease on 23,000 sq. ft of additional space in Melbourn. This is currently being commissioned for office and laboratory use, in particular to accommodate a significant investment in automation and development processes. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY In addition to the issue of the anti-TGFbeta2 antagonist patent mentioned above, CAT recently signed an agreement with Dyax which serves to clarify its intellectual property position in phage display with respect to research, development and commercialisation of products on a worldwide basis. FINANCIAL CAT made a loss for the six months ended 31 March 1998 of #2.97 million (1997: #6.41 million). Operating cash outflow for the period was #3.85 million (1997: #3.69 million) and at 31 March 1998 the Group held cash and liquid resources of #40.91 million (1997: #48.16 million). The major source of income during the period was the second instalment of a licence fee from Eli Lilly under the agreement signed in December 1996. The profile of revenues received by CAT continues to be irregular as most derive from licence, option and milestone payments - the timing of which tends to be uncertain. Operating costs for the period amounted to #5.44 million compared to #3.99 million for the six months to 31 March 1997 (excluding the #2.97 million cost of intellectual property acquired from the Medical Research Council in return for the issue of shares in January 1997) and #4.28 million for the six months to 30 September 1997. Six months Six months Six months ended 31 ended 30 ended 31 March 98 Sept. 97 March 97 # million # million # million Research & development 4.51 3.49 3.21 General & administration 0.93 0.79 0.78 ----- ----- ----- Total 5.44 4.28 3.99 The increase in the cost base for the six months reflects the on-going investment in staff as well as the increasing levels of pre-clinical and clinical activity being carried out by CAT. Interest receivable during the six months ended 31 March 1998 was #1.57 million compared to #1.50 million for the six months ended 30 September 1997. This reflects an increase in returns due to higher interest rates, offset by the decline in cash balances. Capital expenditure during the period was #0.96 million, principally on laboratory equipment. This figure is anticipated to rise significantly over the next six months with the addition of further capabilities and the fitting out of additional premises. Operating cash outflow, excluding revenues, for the six months ended 31 March 1998 was #4.80 million compared to #3.96 million for the six months ended 31 March 1997 and #4.47 million for the six months ended 31 September 1997. CAT's current monthly rate of gross cash spend (excluding revenues and interest income), is approximately #1.2 million, It is anticipated that the annual cash spend for the full year to September 1998 (excluding revenues) will be within the #18 million estimated in December 1997. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONSOLIDATED PROFIT AND LOSS (Unaudited) Six months Six months Year ended ended ended 31 March 31 March 30 Sept. 1998 1997 1997 #'000 #'000 #'000 Turnover 945 265 1,134 Direct costs (42) (13) (51) ------ ------ ------ Gross profit 903 252 1,083 Research and development expenses (4,507) (3,209) (6,693) MRC intellectual property acquisition - (2,967) (2,967) General and administration expenses (931) (783) (1,576) ------ ------ ------ Operating loss (4,535) (6,707) (10,153) Amounts written off investments - (1) (1) Interest receivable (net) 1,567 301 1,799 ------ ------ ------ Loss on ordinary activities before taxation (2,968) (6,407) (8,355) Taxation on loss on ordinary activities (4) - - ------ ------ ------ Loss for the financial period (2,972) (6,407) (8,355) ====== ====== ====== Loss per share - basic (pence) 13.4 50.5 47.9 Loss per share -fully diluted (pence) 11.9 41.1 41.3 CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF TOTAL RECOGNISED GAINS AND LOSSES Six months Six months Year ended ended ended 31 March 31 March 30 Sept. 1998 1997 1997 #'000 #'000 #'000 Loss for the financial period (2,972 (6,407) (8,355) (Loss) / gain on foreign exchange translation (2) 22 (2) ------ ------ ------ Total recognised loss (2,974 (6,385) (8,357) ====== ====== ====== CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET (Unaudited) As at As at As at 31 March 31 March 30 Sept. 1998 1997 1997 #'000 #'000 #'000 Fixed Assets Tangible fixed assets 2,347 838 1,763 ------ ------ ------ Current Assets Debtors 1,512 774 1,111 Investment in liquid resources 40,753 47,356 44,182 Cash at bank and in hand 155 801 411 ------ ------ ------ 42,420 48,931 45,704 Creditors Amounts falling due within one year (2,013) (2,170) (1,817) ------ ------ ------ Net current assets 40,407 46,761 43,887 ------ ------ ------ Total assets less current liabilities 42,754 47,599 45,650 Creditors Amounts falling due after one year (11) (177) (13) ------ ------ ------ Net Assets 42,743 47,422 45,637 ====== ====== ====== Capital and Reserves Called-up share capital 2,220 2,214 2,215 Share premium account 42,840 42,791 42,785 Other reserve 13,403 13,368 13,383 Profit and loss account (15,720) (10,951) (12,746) ------ ------ ------ Shareholders' funds - all equity 42,743 47,422 45,637 ====== ====== ====== CONSOLIDATED CASH FLOW STATEMENT (Unaudited) Six months Six months Year ended ended ended 31 March 31 March 30 Sept. 1998 1997 1997 #'000 #'000 #'000 Operating loss (4,535) (6,707) (10,153) Depreciation in the period 370 223 466 Profit on disposal of fixed assets (6) - (8) Non cash considerations - 3,007 3,007 Decrease / (increase) in debtors 111 (275) (307) Increase / (decrease) in creditors 206 58 (299) ------ ------ ------ Net cash outflow from operations (3,854) (3,694) (7,294) ====== ====== ====== Returns on investments and servicing of finance Interest received 1,055 303 1,464 Interest paid (2) (3) (6) ------ ------ ------ 1,053 300 1,458 ------ ------ ------ Taxation UK corporation tax recovered - - 36 ------ ------ ------ Capital expenditure and financial investment Purchase of fixed assets (960) (257) (1,449) Sale of fixed assets 8 - 32 ------ ------ ------ (952) (257) (1,417) Net cash outflow before management of liquid resources and financing (3,753) (3,651) (7,217) ====== ====== ====== Management of liquid resources 3,429 (38,856) (35,682) ------ ------ ------ Financing Issue of ordinary shares 80 42,243 42,253 Capital element of finance lease payments (11) (6) (13) ------ ------ ------ 69 42,237 42,240 ------ ------ ------ Decrease in cash (255) (270) (659) ====== ====== ====== Basis of preparation These interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the policies set out in the statutory financial statements for the year ended 30 September 1997. These interim financial statements do not constitute statutory financial statements within the meaning of section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. Results for the six month periods ended 31 March 1998 and 31 March 1997 have not been audited. The results for the year ended 30 September 1997 have been extracted from the statutory financial statements, which have been filed with the Registrar of Companies and on which the auditors reported without qualification. Major non-cash transaction In January 1997 the group acquired certain intellectual property rights from the Medical Research Council for #2,967,000. The consideration was paid by the issue of shares. In accordance with the group's accounting policy on research and development expenditure, the cost of acquisition was written off in the profit and loss account. Loss per share The loss per ordinary share and fully diluted loss per share are based on the following, for the six months ended 31 March 1998, the six months ended 31 March 1997 and the year ended 30 September 1997 respectively. Losses of #2,967,000, #6,407,000 and #8,355,000. For the basic earnings per share, weighted average numbers of shares in issue of 22,169,842, 12,688,707 and 17,427,833. For the fully diluted earnings per share, weighted average numbers of shares of 24,973,896, 15,596,505 and 20,221,636. The company currently has 22,199,633 ordinary shares in issue and a total of 2,875,515 under option. Investment in liquid resources Liquid resources comprise negotiable securities and term deposits. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For further information contact: Cambridge Antibody Technology David Chiswell, Chief Executive Officer Tel: +44 (0) 1763 263233 John Aston, Finance Director City/Financial Enquiries Nicola How, HCC.De Facto Financial Tel: +44 (0) 171 957 4600 Scientific/Trade Enquiries Andrew Worsfold, HCC.De Facto Cambridge Tel: +44 (0) 1223 518093 END IR SFIFUIUAUFEI
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