Life Sciences & Biosciences sector update

RNS Number : 4150W

Mercia Technologies PLC

14 November 2017

 

RNS Reach

14 November 2017

Mercia Technologies PLC

("Mercia" or the "Group")

Life Sciences & Biosciences sector update

Mercia Technologies PLC (AIM: MERC), the national investment group focused on the funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions, is pleased to provide an update on recent commercial progress across its Life Sciences & Biosciences portfolio.

Mercia has a current portfolio of five Emerging Stars within its Life Sciences & Biosciences portfolio which represents approximately 20% of the Group's direct investment portfolio by value. Several of these companies are receiving high levels of commercial interest from strategic partners within their target sectors, and two of the portfolio are expected to be profitable during the current financial year.

The sector Investment Team continues to see many opportunities for potential future Emerging Stars as a result of its increased managed fund activity, which provides the Group's proprietary deal flow. Mercia is currently working closely with more than ten companies within its managed funds, including Aston Eyetech, a company that has developed a low-cost, lightweight ultra-portable eye testing technology and SleepCogni, a business which is being developed to help clinicians treat insomnia more effectively.

In addition, earlier this year Mercia successfully exited from AIM-listed direct portfolio company, Abzena (a joint University of Warwick and Imperial College spinout), in keeping with its focus on cash realisations. This is the second profitable cash exit which Mercia has achieved during its short time on AIM; an achievement which demonstrates the significant potential held within the portfolio.

Portfolio Update:

Oxford Genetics is a specialist designer and developer of biological molecules that works within the growing global synthetic biology market, which is estimated to be worth circa $38.7billion by 2020[i]. Earlier this year the company opened an office in the US and its revenues continue to double year on year. In August 2017, Mercia announced a £2.0million investment into Oxford Genetics as part of a £7.5million syndicated funding round alongside Invesco Asset Management Limited. Oxford Genetics has recently strengthened its board with the addition of Martin Hall as chief financial officer. Martin was previously financial director of Allinea Software Limited, which Mercia sold to ARM Limited for circa 21x its original investment cost in December 2016.

PsiOxus Therapeutics ("PsiOxus"), which is developing innovative oncolytic immuno-oncology treatments for cancer was founded following the merger of Hybrid Systems (a University of Birmingham spinout) and Myotec Limited (an Imperial College spinout). PsiOxus is opening a new research laboratory in the US and has signed a development deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb, which paid $50.0million upfront for exclusive worldwide rights to NG-348, a pre-clinical stage, 'armed' oncolytic virus, with the goal of addressing solid tumours. PsiOxus is also eligible to receive up to $886.0million in development, regulatory and sales-based milestones, as well as royalties on net sales.

The Oxford-based company was the only UK business to be featured in this year's FierceBiotech 'Fierce 15', which is a list of up-and-coming biotechnology companies. Furthermore, in September this year the company was listed 25^th in The Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 league table, which ranks Britain's 100 private technology companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years.

Concepta is based in York and develops diagnostic devices for women's health. The company has signed two three-year exclusive distribution agreements in China with Huanzhong Biotech and Wanma Technology for its myLotus product, which is targeting the early pregnancy and fertility markets. With these two agreements, and an existing contract with ThinkBio that covers Beijing and Lianoing, Concepta's product will be available to around 147 million people. In addition, on 13 November 2017 AIM Listed Concepta announced both a successful share placing raising £2.0million to continue its development and confirmed that a £600,000 sales order had been received. Mercia contributed £365,000 to the placing and now holds 18.2% of Concepta.

The Native Antigen Company, a University of Birmingham spinout, specialises in the research, development and scale up manufacturing of highly pure, viral and bacterial native antigens. The company has reported a profitable year having made strong sales progress and continues to develop its presence in the infectious disease antigen and antibody market.

Medherant, a leading developer of next-generation transdermal drug delivery, has signed an agreement with a Japanese transdermal patch company, one of the world's largest patch developers and manufacturers, to evaluate the potential of its TEPI Patch® technology for drug delivery.

Medherant will apply its proprietary high-throughput system for skin permeation studies to rapidly evaluate a range of potential formulations of the drug provided by the Japanese company. A successful outcome could lead to the company licensing the TEPI Patch® technology to develop a product for a market where sales are currently more than $1.0billion and patient numbers are rising. Further news is expected on this over the coming months.

Peter Dines, Head of Life Sciences & Biosciences at Mercia Technologies PLC, said:

"The Life Sciences & Biosciences portfolio is progressing at an impressive rate as a result of close collaboration with our 19 university partners and a highly experienced Investment Team, both of which provide an important source of highly disruptive deal flow opportunities. All five of the existing sector portfolio have come through our managed funds, with four of these via our university partnerships and one through the Investment Team's personal networks. Securing the recent new partnership with the University of Edinburgh will build on our existing track record of sourcing and shaping exciting investment prospects.

"There is tremendous potential within the portfolio which Mercia is nurturing to build shareholder value. I look forward to providing future updates where we will detail the continued and positive progress of our sector portfolio."

For further information, please contact:

Mercia Technologies PLC Mark Payton, Chief Executive Officer Martin Glanfield, Chief Financial Officer www.merciatech.co.uk	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc Stephen Keys, Camilla Hume (NOMAD and Joint Broker)	[phone]
Canaccord Genuity Limited	[phone]
Simon Bridges, Emma Gabriel (Joint Broker)
Buchanan Bobby Morse, Victoria Hayns, Chris Lane, Stephanie Watson www.buchanan.uk.com	[phone]

About Mercia Technologies PLC

Mercia is a national investment group focused on the funding and scaling of innovative technology businesses with high growth potential from the UK regions. Mercia benefits from 19 university partnerships and offices across the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland providing it with access to high quality, regional deal flow. Mercia Technologies PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic "MERC".

Mercia's 'Complete Capital Solution' initially nurtures businesses via its third party funds (now with circa £336.5million under management following recent mandate wins) and then over time Mercia can provide further funding to its Emerging Stars by deploying direct investment follow-on capital from its own balance sheet. Since its IPO in December 2014, Mercia has invested over £41.0million directly across its portfolio of Emerging Stars.

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[i] http://www.bio-itworld.com/Press-Release/Synthetic-Biology-Market-is-Expected-to-Reach-$38-7-Billion,-Globally,-by-2020---Allied-Market-Research/

 

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