Eden Research plc AGM Statement (8845Y)

TIDMEDEN

RNS Number : 8845Y

Eden Research plc

14 May 2019

Eden Research Plc

("Eden" or "Company")

AGM Statement

Eden Research plc (AIM: EDEN), the AIM-listed company that develops and supplies breakthrough biopesticide products and natural microencapsulation technologies to the global crop protection, animal health and consumer products industries, will hold its AGM today at 1.30pm at the Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5ED.

At the meeting, Eden's Chairman, Lykele van der Broek, will make the following statement:

"Since last year's AGM Eden has reached some key milestones and made good progress with the commercialisation and regulatory clearance of its products.

At the end of last calendar year, Eden's commercial partner, Sipcam Oxon SpA ('Sipcam'), paid EUR0.9m for the exclusive right to sell Mevalone in ten additional countries, including the US, China and Brazil.

During 2018, sales of Mevalone more than doubled to GBP1.6m helping Eden to achieve overall revenue of GBP2.8m. This growth was generated by essentially the same commercial "footprint" that was in place in 2017, which is a good like-for-like comparison reflecting a growing market share and strong product adoption of our first product.

Already this year, Eden's commercial partner, Eastman Chemical ('Eastman'), has received authorisation for Eden's nematicide formulation, marketed as Cedroz by Eastman, from the Regulatory Affairs Directorate in Malta. Malta is acting as the zonal rapporteur Member State for the Southern EU agricultural zone and on behalf of a number of EU countries for indoor uses. Additionally, an emergency authorisation has recently been granted in Italy by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. The granting of this type of authorisation gives an indication as to the need for this type of product in the market and has resulted in the first commercial sales of Cedroz.

It is clear that the world of agchem, whilst inherently conservative, is swiftly undergoing major disruption due to external drivers such as regulatory issues, resistance problems with conventional pesticides, and the ever-increasing cost of the registration of new products. In this environment of turmoil and disruption caused by the removal of important conventional pesticides from global markets at a rate that is troubling for farmers, Eden is well-placed to sustainably and effectively meet many of the current and future needs of growers. Eden's products align perfectly with the course set for the industry by changing public policy and increasingly challenging regulations, and we aim to ensure that the Company, our shareholders, growers and our commercial partners benefit from the success that this alignment will bring."

Company presentation

After the conclusion of the formal business of the AGM, Sean Smith, Eden's Chief Executive Officer will provide a short presentation to investors with an overview of Company progress and strategy. No new material information will be disclosed in the presentation and it will be available on the Company's website later today.

 
 Eden Research plc                  www.edenresearch.com 
 Sean Smith 
  Alex Abrey                        01285 359 555 
 
 Shore Capital (Nomad)              020 7408 4090 
 Stephane Auton / Patrick Castle 
 
 Powerscourt (Financial PR)         020 7250 1446 
 Nick Dibden 
  Jana Tsiligiannis 
 

Notes:

Eden Research is a technology development and commercialisation company with intellectual property and expertise in encapsulation, terpenes and environmentally friendly technologies to provide naturally occurring solutions for the global crop protection, animal health, and consumer product industries.

Eden's encapsulation technology harnesses the biocidal efficacy of naturally occurring chemicals produced by plants (terpenes) and can also be used with both natural and synthetic compounds to enhance their performance and ease-of-use. The technology uses yeast cells that are a by-product of numerous commercial production processes to deliver a slow release of natural compounds for agricultural and non-agricultural uses. Terpenes are already widely used in the food flavouring, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.

Historically, terpenes have had limited commercial use in the agrochemical sector due to their volatility, phytotoxicity and poor solubility. Eden's platform encapsulation technology provides a unique, environmentally friendly solution to these problems and enables terpenes to be used as effective, low-risk agrochemicals.

Eden is developing these technologies through innovative research and a series of commercial production, marketing and distribution partnerships.

The Company has a number of patents and a pipeline of products at differing stages of development targeting specific areas of the global agrochemicals industry. To date, the Company has invested in the region of GBP13m in developing and protecting its intellectual property and seeking regulatory approval for products that rely upon the Company's technologies. Revenues earned by the Company have been modest whilst the Company has concentrated on securing patent protection for its intellectual property, gaining regulatory approvals, identifying suitable industrial partners, and entering into commercial agreements.

In May 2013, the three actives that comprise Eden's first commercial product, 3AEY, were approved as new ingredients for use in plant protection products. This represented a major milestone in the commercialisation of Eden's technology and is a significant accomplishment for any company. To illustrate this point, one should note that in all of 2013, Eden's approvals represented 3 of only 10 new active ingredients approved by the EC.

3AEY has been authorised for sale in Kenya, Malta, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, France, Cyprus, Albania, Portugal and Macedonia.

Eden was admitted to trading on AIM on 11 May 2012 and trades under the symbol EDEN.

For more information about Eden, please visit: www.edenresearch.com.

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May 14, 2019 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)