Vectura announces agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim on a new inhaler
19 Apr 2006
Vectura announces agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim on a new inhaler
Chippenham/UK – April 19 2006: Vectura Group plc (LSE: VEC ) ("Vectura") today announced that it has agreed a worldwide collaboration, development and licence agreement with the leading German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim. The aim of the collaboration is to develop a dry powder inhaler (“DPI”) as a Boehringer Ingelheim branded device, to deliver a range of proprietary respiratory products of Boehringer Ingelheim, mainly for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Under the non-exclusive agreement, Vectura will work with Boehringer Ingelheim on the continued development of the inhaler until the end of 2007, after which Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for any further development, manufacturing, clinical trial use with proprietary compounds of Boehringer Ingelheim, and the commercialisation of these products.
Under the terms of the agreement, Vectura will receive an initial payment of €5 million and a €10 million (£6.9 million) equity investment. Following this purchase of 4.9 million ordinary shares at £1.40 per share, Boehringer Ingelheim will hold approximately 3.8% of the enlarged fully diluted share capital of Vectura.
An additional payment and a further equity investment will be made to Vectura upon the achievement of pre-agreed pre-clinical milestones. The option to acquire further equity is under similar terms to the first equity investment. This option expires in late 2007 and is capped at €5 million.
Additional milestones will be payable to Vectura for each Boehringer Ingelheim product developed using the device.
In addition to the above, royalties will be paid on all global sales of Boehringer Ingelheim products delivered with the device.
The majority of treatments for asthma and COPD are delivered by inhalation. Global markets for these treatments are valued in excess of $16 billion today and are forecast to grow to over $32 billion by 2010. Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's leading companies developing therapies for the treatment of asthma and COPD. Dry powder inhalers are increasingly the first choice for patients with these diseases and it is expected that DPIs will be used to deliver the majority of the drugs sold in these markets by 2010.
Dr Chris Blackwell , Chief Executive of Vectura, said:
"Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the leading global players in respiratory medicine, as has been demonstrated with products like Spiriva ® and its commitment to improving the delivery of its inhaled products. The total deal value reflects the strategic importance of Boehringer Ingelheim's respiratory pipeline and makes the company an ideal collaboration partner for Vectura. The non-exclusive nature of this agreement allows us to continue our efforts to deliver further value from our inhaled therapy technologies in the future."
Enquiries
Vectura Group plc Tel + 44 (0) 1249 667700
Chris Blackwell, Chief Executive
Anne Hyland, Chief Financial Officer
Financial Dynamics Tel: + 44 (0) 207 831 3113
David Yates / Sarah MacLeod / John Gilbert
Notes for Editors
About Vectura
Vectura's principal focus is the development of a range of inhaled drugs for the treatment of both lung diseases and other conditions where optimised delivery via the lungs can provide significant benefits, such as a rapid onset of action, improved efficacy and improved tolerability compared with current therapies.
Vectura's strategy is to combine its proprietary, innovative, pulmonary formulation and device technologies (PowderHale® , Aspirair® and GyroHaler® ) with existing, off-patent drugs either for use in new indications or to provide inhalation as an improved route of administration. The Company seeks to license its lead products to pharmaceutical companies with established sales and marketing infrastructures for the later stages of development and for commercialisation, typically prior to Phase III clinical development. The Company has development collaborations with a number of companies, including Novartis, GSK and Chiesi. For further info rmation, please visit Vectura's website at www.vectura.com
About Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim , Germany , it operates globally with 143 affiliates in 47 countries and almost 37,500 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.
In 2005, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of €9.5 billion while spending almost one fifth of net sales in its largest business segment, Prescription Medicines, on research and development.
For more information please visit www.boehringer-ingelheim.com
