Disposal of Dextra Services Business
(Thomson Reuters ONE) - Summit Corporation plc("Summit" or "the Company")DIVESTMENT OF DEXTRA SERVCIES BUSINESS TO NEW ZEALAND PHARMACEUTICALSOxford, UK, 02 September, 2009 - Summit Corporation plc (AIM: SUMM),a UK drug discovery company, announces that it has divested itschemistry services subsidiary, Dextra Laboratories ("Dextra") to NewZealand Pharmaceuticals ("NZP") in order to focus on its iminosugardrug discovery business.The key terms of the divestment are as follows:* Consideration of £950,000 paid in cash in respect of the whole issued share capital of Dextra* All employees of the Dextra subsidiary business will become employees of NZP with immediate effectIn addition, Summit will retain the cash balance at the close ofbusiness on 31 August 2009. The combined impact of the realisedconsideration and cash balance will extend Summit's cash resourcesinto Q2 2010.The proceeds from the divestment will support the working capitalrequirements of the business that is now exclusively focused on drugdiscovery, and specifically, the development of the Company'sinnovative iminosugar platform. Summit now employs a total of 25staff based at its single site in Oxfordshire, UK.Steven Lee, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at Summit said, "Thisdivestment is positive news for Summit and builds on the progressmade in our restructuring programme over the last six months as thebusiness continues to streamline its operations and focus on ouriminosugar drug discovery platform."This additional finance extends our cash life into Q2 2010 and willsupport the continuing development of our innovative iminosugar drugdiscovery platform. Over the coming months, we anticipate generatingkey data from our diabetes and Hepatitis C programmes, both of whichcould potentially develop into new, attractive licensingopportunities.We believe NZP offers the best strategic fit for the Dextra businessand provides the best opportunity to realise the potential of Dextraand its employees"Dr Richard Garland, Managing Director of NZP said "The acquisition ofDextra complements NZP's offering to the global carbohydrates marketwell. Dextra's strong medicinal and pre-clinical contract synthesiscapabilities and cGMP contract manufacturing to Phase I clinicaltrial, align well with NZP's existing Phase II to full-scalecarbohydrate manufacturing capability, providing a single seamlesslink from discovery to full scale cGMP manufacture".About DextraDextra is a specialist chemistry and analytical services businesswith a process development and GMP manufacturing capability and achemical catalogue sales business. Dextra made a net operating loss,excluding non-cash impairment charges, of £1.1 million for thefinancial year ended 31 January 2009 under exceptionally difficulttrading conditions throughout 2008 and following capital expenditureand increase in headcount in line with Dextra's strategy forlong-term growth. The value of its net assets transferred amounted to£1.2 million. - ENDS -For more information, please contact:Summit plcSteven Lee, PhDRichard Pye, PhDTel: +44 (0)1235 443939Panmure GordonAndrew Burnett / Rakesh Sharma (Corporate Finance)Ashton Clanfield (Corporate Broking)Tel: +44 (0)207 459 3600About Summit plcSummit plc is a UK based drug discovery company with a major focus ondeveloping new therapeutics from its iminosugar drug discoveryplatform.Summit believes iminosugars are the key to gaining access to severaldisease mechanisms where classical drug candidates have had littlesuccess, and therefore offer a major opportunity for the discoveryand development of new medicines.Carbohydrates play critical roles in maintaining correct function ofmany normal processes in healthy individuals and provide a wealth ofnew targets for drug discovery. Iminosugars have the capability ofaccessing such targets and offer the potential of generating newmedicines in a variety of major therapy areas. Summit is currentlyfocussed on metabolic diseases, including diabetes, and anti-virals.Commercially, Summit has a track record of signing programmeagreements and currently has an out-licensed product portfoliocomprising of seven drug programmes with BioMarin, Orient Pharma,Evolva and the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative. In the futurethese programmes may generate success based milestone payments androyalties for Summit.The company listed on the alternative investment market (AIM) of theLondon Stock Exchange in October 2004 - symbol: SUMM. Furtherinformation about the company is available at www.summitplc.com.About NZPNew Zealand Pharmaceuticals (NZP) has been manufacturing high puritybiochemicals since the early 1970's from its base in PalmerstonNorth, New Zealand. The company's products are either extracted andpurified from natural raw materials or synthesised smallmolecules. Products include bile acids, glycosaminoglycans, proteinhydrolysates, amino acids, sugars and a range of plant-derivedproducts, most notably blackcurrant extracts under its "Just theBerries" brand.Building on its polysaccharide business, NZP expanded to specialisein the chemical synthesis of a range of sugar and bile acidderivatives. The synthetic bile acid derivatives are used in drugdelivery, as adjuvants and in vaccine production amongst other uses.In 2007 NZP opened a $10m API capable facility specifically designedfor bulk GMP manufacture of these products.Excellent business relationships, reliability and responsiveness arethe key to NZP's ongoing growth, underpinning over 30 years of supply& service to many of the pharmaceutical & biotechnology industrieslargest and most demanding clients. Furthermore, NZP has a range oflarge volume manufacturing capabilities, and its licences include amedicines licence for the manufacture of specific medicines,biological processing licence for the manufacture of animal-derivedproducts and GMP certification to manufacture active pharmaceuticalingredients.NZP is a private company, owned 51% by Direct Capital (a leading NewZealand private equity and venture capital firm) with the remaining49% of shares held by NZP management and staff.This document contains "forward-looking statements" within themeaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as"anticipates", "intends", "plans", "seeks", "believes", "estimates","expects" and similar references to future periods, or by theinclusion of forecasts or projections.Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's currentexpectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy andother future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate tothe future, by their nature, they are subject to inherentuncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficultto predict. The Company's actual results may differ materially fromthose contemplated by the forward-looking statements. The Companycautions you therefore that you should not rely on any of theseforward-looking statements as statements of historical fact or asguarantees or assurances of future performance. Important factorsthat could cause actual results to differ materially from those inthe forward-looking statements and regional, national, globalpolitical, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatoryconditions.---END OF MESSAGE---This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Datum: 02.09.2009 - 08:00 Uhr
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