Licensing Agreement

PHYTOPHARM PLC
15 JULY 1999
 
 
        Phytopharm plc announces in license of Hepatitis treatment
 
 
Phytopharm plc (PYM: London Stock Exchange) ('Phytopharm') announces that
it has signed a licensing agreement with the University of Madras whereby
the Company will acquire the rights to develop and commercialise a plant-
based anti-viral for the treatment of Hepatitis B in exchange for the
payment of a small cash sum and an undertaking to pay royalties arising
from the Company's future sales of the product.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, Phytopharm will have exclusive rights to
commercialise the product outside India.  In addition, Phytopharm, the
University of Madras and Rallis India Ltd, India's largest agricultural
business, will collaborate to commercialise the product in India.
 
The University of Madras has spent a number of years working with this
drug candidate which was first used as a treatment for jaundice in the
traditional medical system of the country. The University commenced an
extended program to study the mode of action of the material, and
identified five linked actions of the plant in the treatment of Hepatitis
B.  Using this data, a selective plant breeding programme has been
established in collaboration with Rallis India Ltd and plantations of the
variety showing the highest potency against Hepatitis B have been
established. It is anticipated that extracts made from this variety will
be the subject of a multi-centre trial in India early next year, which
will be funded by Rallis.
 
Hepatitis B, one of the most common viral infections in man, is thought to
affect approximately 5% of the world's population.  Chronic carriers of
Hepatitis B are at high risk of developing chronic liver disease,
carcinoma of the liver and cirrhosis, as well as passing on the virus to
uninfected people. Hepatitis B patients, many of who suffer from liver
cancer, are poorly treated by existing drugs and individuals suffering
from the virus have a low survival rate.
 
Dr. Richard Dixey, Chief Executive of Phytopharm, said:
 
'This collaboration with Rallis India and the University of Madras
epitomises Phytopharm's philosophy of combining first rate scientific work
with traditional medical knowledge.
 
'We have been able to capture the potency of a traditional plant through a
scientifically guided breeding programme and we look forward to the first
trial of this recovered medicine in the treatment of this important
disease.'

 
Enquiries:
 
Phytopharm plc                               Tel:      [phone]
Dr Richard Dixey, Chief Executive
 
Financial Dynamics                           Tel:      [phone]
David Yates / Sophie Pender-Cudlip
 
 
 
NOTES TO EDITORS
 
Phytopharm plc
 
Phytopharm's business is to take both simple and complex mixtures derived
from plant sources into full pharmaceutical development.  The US Food and
Drug Administration call such medicinal products 'botanicals'.  Botanical
products are whole or partially purified extracts of medicinal plants in
which the chemical composition is not fully characterised. These products
represent a new sector in the pharmaceutical market.
 
Phytopharm is the leading company in the development of botanical
pharmaceuticals. It has developed a portfolio of 11 such products, six of
which are in the clinical evaluation phase.  These products have been
targeted in the four therapeutic categories of anti-inflammatory
treatments, neurological disorders, dermatology and metabolic diseases.
In 1997, Phytopharm was granted an Investigational New Drug (IND) approval
in the US, the first time an IND has been granted for a complex botanical
product, indicating that such products may be registered as prescription
medicines.
 
In November 1997, Phytopharm entered a long term collaboration agreement
with Rallis India Ltd, a member of the Tata group of companies, India's
largest industrial group. Founded in 1822 in London, Rallis is the largest
agricultural business and second largest seed producer in India and
currently has over 10,000 hectares under controlled conditions of
cultivation. The Company also operates a substantial research station with
facilities for the clonal propagation of plants and the production of
uniform plant populations, and has a dedicated facility for toxicological
assessment. The Company also has an extensive interest in the production
of bulk pharmaceutical products.
 
More information concerning Phytopharm's activities can be found on its
Web site at http://www.phytopharm.co.uk.