Director deals and Share Option Scheme

RNS Number : 8191F

Advanced Oncotherapy PLC

30 April 2014

 



ADVANCED ONCOTHERAPY PLC

("Advanced Oncotherapy" or "the Company")

Director deals and Share Option Scheme

Advanced Oncotherapy (AIM: AVO), the developer of innovative medical technology for cancer treatment, announces that it has granted options under the Employee Share Options Scheme (the "Scheme") designed to incentivise and reward employees of the Group for the rapid development of the Company's proprietary technology: the Linac Image Guided Hadron Therapy (LIGHT) system for generating a proton beam for therapeutic use.

Under the Scheme, 121,500,000 options on ordinary shares exercisable for five years at a price of 3.5 pence per ordinary share (the "Options") have been granted to Directors and other employees of the Company. In order to incentivise management and employees the options will vest on the basis of the following timetable:

Event	Fraction of total Options vesting
On issue	1/3rd
On signing of two sales orders within the next 12 months	1/6th
On the LIGHT machine achieving the energy level of 150MeV within 18 months	1/6th
On the LIGHT machine achieving the energy level of 230MeV within 22 months	1/3rd

Directors have been granted Options as follows:

Lord Evans	10,000,000 Options
Dr Michael Sinclair	30,000,000 Options
Mr Sanjeev Pandya	30,000,000 Options
Dr Euan Thomson	2,500,000 Options

Save for the above, the Directors' beneficial interests remain unchanged and as previously announced.

Related party transaction

The grant of Option to certain Directors of the Company is classified as a transaction with a related party for the purposes of the AIM Rules. In accordance, therefore, with the AIM Rules, the Directors of the Company, with the exclusion of Lord Evans, Michael Sinclair, Sanjeev Pandya and Euan Thomson, having consulted with the Company's nominated adviser, Westhouse Securities Limited, consider that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's shareholders are concerned.

For further information contact:

Advanced Oncotherapy Plc	www.avoplc.com
Michael Sinclair, CEO	Tel: [phone]
Westhouse Securities (Nomad & Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Antonio Bossi / David Coaten
Peterhouse Corporate Finance (Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Jon Levinson / Lucy Williams
Walbrook PR (Financial PR & IR)
Anna Dunphy/Mike Wort	Tel: [phone] or [e-mail]

About Advanced Oncotherapy

Vision:

To advance patients' clinical treatments and improve their everyday lives by harnessing innovative science and focusing it to develop the most effective and affordable cancer treatments.

Mission:

To facilitate the wider use of radiation with protons for treating all forms of cancerous tumours by commercialising novel technologies inspired by CERN and the Large Hadron Collider

Key corporate messages:

AVO's team based at CERN near Geneva focuses on the development of a proprietary proton system called Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology (LIGHT). This LIGHT system accelerates protons to the energy levels achieved in legacy machines but in a unit that is a quarter of the size and between a quarter and a fifth of the cost. This compact configuration delivers proton beams in a way that facilitates a greater precision and electronic control which is not achievable with older technologies.

AVO is a provider of proton radiotherapy that harnesses the best in modern technology.  As a result, the Company will offer healthcare providers affordable systems that will enable them to treat cancer with an innovative technology which is proven to bring better health outcomes and lower treatment related side effects.

AVO continually monitors the market for any emerging improvements in delivering proton therapy and actively seeks working relationships with providers of these innovative technologies. Through these relationships the Company will remain the prime provider of innovative and cost-effective equipment for proton radiation. This will allow healthcare suppliers to access more cost effective and more efficient ways to treat the increasing number of cancer patients who expect lower short term and long term side effects of their cancer care. 

AVO's subsidiary company, Oncotherapy Resources Ltd, offers an exclusive mobile service for intraoperative radiotherapy (SD-IORT).  This form of radiotherapy is used in a variety of cancers, notably breast cancer, and offers a convenient, safe and effective alternative for the patient.  It is currently available in the UK from Spire Healthcare and BMI Healthcare Hospitals.

Through its shareholding and collaboration with Advanced Proton Solutions (APS), AVO can offer a complete turnkey solution to the design installation and operation of its LIGHT proton system for healthcare providers. This is attractive to potential purchasers and has led to its involvement in the development of the first comprehensive proton beam therapy centre in London to treat both NHS and private patients. 

For more information, please visit http://www.avoplc.com

 

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