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PolyTherics and Celtic Pharma enter Product Licence Agreement for novel optimised biopharmaceuticals

PolyTherics Limited (“PolyTherics”), the biopharmaceuticals company dedicated to precision engineering of proteins to improve their pharmacokinetic properties, today announced the extension of its relationship with Celtic Pharma Development Services Bermuda Ltd (“Celtic Pharma”), the global private equity investment fund focused on the development of therapeutic products in the biopharma industry. An initial collaboration agreement was entered into just over twelve months ago, aimed at generating modified biologics with improved half-life and predictable bioactivity. PolyTherics has now granted Celtic Pharma an exclusive licence to develop and commercialise the first novel biotherapeutic discovered in this collaboration.

PolyTherics receives an upfront licence fee with clinical and regulatory milestones as well as royalties on eventual product sales. Further details of the agreement terms were not disclosed.

PolyTherics has substantial expertise in the targeted modification of biologic compounds for therapeutic application. Through its platform of site specific poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based technologies, the Company optimises the pharmacokinetic properties of biologics to create bio-better products serving established and emerging markets.

Dr Keith Powell, Chief Executive Officer of PolyTherics, said: “We are very excited to progress our productive research collaboration with Celtic Pharma into product development in such a short period of time. The evolution of this relationship demonstrates how PolyTherics’ proprietary technologies can be successfully applied to developing novel biologics into product candidates with significant commercial potential.”

Dr Michael Hayes, Chairman of PolyTherics added: “PolyTherics has grown and developed at extraordinary speed since the financing round in 2007. The pace of innovation shows no sign of slackening and product-focused collaborations such as the one with Celtic continue to play an important part in this growth”.

Celtic Pharma currently has a portfolio of nine novel pharmaceutical products in clinical development across a range of therapeutic areas. Each product is being developed to address important unmet medical needs, and Celtic Pharma aims to move these products rapidly and effectively through clinical development to regulatory approval.

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12 May 2009

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