AGM Statement and Trading Update

RUA Life Sciences PLC

22 August 2023

 

22 August 2023

RUA Life Sciences plc

("RUA", the "Company" or the "Group")

AGM Statement and Trading Update

RUA Life Sciences plc (AIM: RUA.L), the holding company of a group of medical device businesses focused on the exploitation of the world's leading long-term implantable biostable polymer (Elast-Eon^TM), is holding its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") at 11.00am today.

At the AGM, the Chairman, Bill Brown, will make the following statement regarding current trading:

"Trading in the period to the end of July has seen group revenues meeting the Board's expectations. We have continued to manage expenditure prudently and all main cost lines are showing positive variances to budget with overall costs 20% down on management's expectations. As a result of the tight control over expenditure and the positive trading, cash resources are also ahead of management's budget.

There have continued to be positive developments in all parts of the business which are summarised below:

RUA Contract Manufacture has made good progress with a customer funded development project for an implantable textile component of a currently marketed product. Assuming the project is a success, it is anticipated it will convert into a long term supply agreement. At a customer's request, we have also now supplied samples of textiles and components for another range of devices that are part of the customer's plans to de-risk supply chain issues by dual sourcing. Dual sourcing is a developing industry theme, a reaction to shocks to global supply chains during Covid, resulting in device manufacturers now being prepared to undertake the expense of validating second suppliers. We have had enquiries from other potential customers for textile devices, strengthening our belief of being able to double the scale of the business over the coming years.

Revenues at RUA Biomaterials have been in line with expectations with some positive indicators of shipments by Biomerics to new customers within the mix. Additionally, we have agreed an extension to one of our existing licenses that over time will allow a doubling of the royalty potential from licensee.

RUA Structural Heart, which has been undertaking research and development activities into the creation of a polymeric heart valve, has made an outstanding breakthrough in the development of a synthetic leaflet material for the manufacture of heart valves. As well as demonstrating that it has the flexibility to perform as a heart valve leaflet, our new composite material has now achieved the important milestone of completing 400 million cycles (equivalent to 10 years in man and twice regulatory requirements) of fatigue testing. As at the time of the release of the Group's annual report, only 200 million cycles had been completed.   The blood contacting properties of Elast-Eon, combined with the flexibility, durability and mechanical properties of the composite, mean that the new composite may well be suitable to be used in valve designs that are currently in the market. As such, the route to commercialisation for the RUA composite is no longer dependant on developing and testing our own valve design but could be more near term by making the composite available to other manufacturers. Having been approached, we have recently agreed to provide a major player with material for evaluation to initially confirm some of our in-house test results.

RUA Vascular, the business developing the vascular graft range is now in the final stages of planning the pre-clinical and clinical trials that have been agreed with the FDA under the pre submission process. Quotations have been received and budgets prepared with detailed timelines as well as other detailed planning to allow testing to be undertaken as soon as funding allows. On commercial activities, we have always expected the grafts to be ideal for incorporation as components into other medical devices. We are delighted that our promotional efforts are being effective and we have now received a purchase order from a major company in the sector for grafts to trial as part of their devices.  Although early stages, this first commercial sale of our graft devices is the beginnings of an OEM business line."

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (2014/596) which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended and supplemented from time to time.

For further information contact:

RUA Life Sciences

Bill Brown, Chairman                                                            Tel: [phone]  

Dr Caroline Stretton, Group MD                                            Tel: [phone]

Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker)      Tel: [phone]

Giles Balleny/Max Gould (Corporate Finance)

Michael Johnson (Sales)

About RUA Life Sciences

The RUA Life Sciences group was created in April 2020 when RUA Life Sciences Plc (formerly known as AorTech International Plc) acquired RUA Medical Devices Limited to create a fully formed medical device business. RUA Life Sciences is the holding company of the Group's four trading businesses, each exploiting the Group's patented polymer technology.

Our vision is to improve the lives of millions of patients by enabling medical devices with Elast-Eon^TM, the world's leading long-term implantable polyurethane. Whether it is licensing Elast-Eon^TM, manufacturing a device or component, or developing next generation medical devices, a RUA Life Sciences business is pursuing our vision.

Elast-Eon™'s biostability is comparable to silicone while exhibiting excellent mechanical, blood contacting and flex-fatigue properties. These polymers can be processed using conventional thermoplastic extrusion and moulding techniques. With over 8 million implants and 15 years of successful clinical use, RUA's polymers are proven in long-term life enabling applications.

The Group's four business units are:

RUAContract Manufacture:	End-to-end contract developer and manufacturer of medical devices and implantable fabric specialist.
RUA Biomaterials:	Licensor of Elast-EonTM polymers to the medical device industry.
RUA Vascular:	Commercialisation of open surgical vascular grafts and patches
RUA Structural Heart:	Development of polymeric leaflet systems for heart valves.

 

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