AGI Therapeutics plc Appoints Chris Blackwell as Non-Executive Director
Dublin, Ireland, 13th July 2006: AGI Therapeutics plc ("AGI" or the "Company"), a speciality pharmaceutical company focused on gastrointestinal drug products, today announces the appointment of Dr. Chris Blackwell, Chief Executive of Vectura Group plc, to its Board of Directors.
Vectura is a UK-based pulmonary product development company listed on London's Alternative Investment Market. Dr. Blackwell joined Vectura in October 2002 and was appointed Chief Executive in February 2004. He led the company's flotation in July 2004, raising £20m, and more recently in June 2006, the £45m secondary placing.
Dr. Blackwell trained as a research scientist at the University of Bath, where he completed his doctorate in 1988. He joined Glaxo Research and Development in 1988 as a Clinical Pharmacologist and progressed to a management role before moving to Hoffman La-Roche, becoming UK Director, Global Project Management in 1996. Dr. Blackwell joined Scotia Pharmaceuticals plc in 1998, where he served as Executive Director, Drug Development.
Commenting on the appointment, Dr. Ronan Lambe, Chairman of the Board of AGI, said:
"I am delighted to have Dr. Blackwell join the Board of AGI as an independent director. Chris brings with him a wealth of industry experience and has achieved remarkable success with Vectura. We look forward to the benefit of his counsel as we seek to establish AGI as a successful speciality pharmaceutical company."
There are no details that are required to be disclosed under Schedule 2, paragraph (g) of the AIM and IEX Rules.
Contact Information
AGI - Tel: +353 1 449 3254
David G. Kelly, Chief Financial Officer
Financial Dynamics – UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7831 3113
Sarah MacLeod
Financial Dynamics - Ireland Tel: +353 1 663 3607
Aisling Garvey
For further information please see www.agitherapeutics.com
About AGI Therapeutics
AGI is a speciality pharmaceutical company which is focused on the development and commercialisation of differentiated drug products for gastrointestinal (‘‘GI’’) diseases and disorders.
The Company has a portfolio of product candidates derived from the Known Molecular Entity (‘‘KME’’) approach to drug re-profiling and development. KME is a re-profiling methodology used by the Company to identify existing therapeutic drugs which typically have been marketed for a number of years, have established safety profiles and can be developed for new clinical indications or with improved profiles in their existing clinical indications. In this way, the Company seeks to reduce the risk, time and cost of new product development as compared to the development of new chemical entities.
AGI has developed a range of product candidates to treat a variety of prevalent GI diseases and disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome, functional dyspepsia, ulcerative colitis and gastro-esophageal reflux disease. The Company is targeting areas of the GI therapeutic drug products market for its product candidates where there are currently unmet medical needs or where the effectiveness of existing drug therapies can be further improved.
The Company has six clinical stage product candidates which are either isomers or new drug delivery formulations of existing approved drugs, and which have established safety and tolerability profiles in their currently approved clinical indications. These product candidates are all in clinical development, including five Phase II trials.
AGI intends to complete its ongoing clinical trials and, dependent on the results of these trials, the Company will initiate Phase III development of a lead product candidate and will also seek to enter into licensing and development agreements with pharmaceutical companies so as to enhance the global market reach for its products and achieve optimal revenue and value opportunities for the Company.
Statements contained within this press release may contain forward-looking comments which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify such forward-looking statements by terminology such as 'may', 'will', 'could', 'forecasts', 'expects', 'plans', 'anticipates', 'believes', 'estimates', 'predicts', 'potential', or 'continue'. Predictions and forward-looking references in this press release are subject to the satisfactory progress of research which is, by nature, unpredictable. Forward projections reflect management's best estimates based on information available at the time of issue.
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