Full Press Release Details
This Announcement contains inside information
for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014. Upon the publication of this Announcement, this inside information is
now considered to be in the public domain.
("Midatech" or the "Company")
Purported Termination of MTX110 License
Midatech Pharma PLC (AIM: MTPH.L; Nasdaq:
MTP) (the "Company"), a drug delivery technology company focused on improving the bio-delivery and bio-distribution of
medicines announces that last night it received a letter purporting to terminate the agreement between Secura Bio Inc. ("Secura
Bio") and Midatech Limited, a subsidiary of the Company, dated 5 June 2017 (the "Letter"), related to the licence
of certain patents of panobinostat, the active pharmaceutical ingredient of Midatech's development product codenamed "MTX110"
("Licence Agreement"). The Company regards the purported termination as entirely without merit and will take all available
action to protect its rights and assets.
Midatech Limited entered into the Licence
Agreement with Novartis AG, the inventor and owner of certain patent rights relating to panobinostat, to develop MTX110 for
the treatment of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and other brain cancers. Following the sale of panobinostat to
Secura Bio, the Licence Agreement was novated effective as of 18 February 2019 to Secura Bio. Secura Bio markets panobinostat as
a combination therapy for multiple myeloma under the brand Farydak .
Letter purporting to terminate the Licence
In the Letter, Secura Bio purports to terminate
the Licence Agreement, alleging that the Company proposed a liquidation of the Company in its press release issued 20 April 2020.
The Letter further alleges that the Company has discontinued R&D.
As set out in more detail below, Midatech
strongly refutes these grounds for termination and in particular confirms that Midatech's MTX110 R&D is ongoing (as previously
announced) and that neither the Company nor Midatech Limited is in the process of liquidation, nor is a liquidation of the Company
or Midatech Limited proposed.
Position of the Company
The position asserted by Secura Bio is
incorrect and entirely without merit. In its press release dated 31 March 2020, the Company announced that it had initiated a strategic
review and was terminating further in-house development of another of its development products codenamed "MTD201". In
addition, the Company announced the closure of its Bilbao manufacturing facility which was dedicated to MTD201. In the press release
dated 20 April 2020, the Company further announced that it had appointed Noble Capital Markets Inc. to assist the Board in evaluating
its options including partnering or selling its assets, technologies or the Company.
Midatech has three ongoing clinical trials
of MTX110 and the Company plans to use the proceeds of the 4.3 million fundraising announced on 18 May 2020 to continue
to fund the clinical programme of MTX110 in DIPG.
The Company has not shut down its R&D
and is not proposing a liquidation of the Company or Midatech Limited. The opposite is true; the Company has raised additional
capital to fund its continuing operations within the last month.
The Company has invited Secura Bio to withdraw
the purported letter of termination and indicated in the strongest language that it will vigorously pursue any and all remedies
available to it, including claims for monetary damages based on Secura Bio's unlawful termination. The Company has also reserved
its rights in law and equity against Secura Bio and its agents including, without limitation, its rights in the UK to recover all
losses (together with its costs and expenses) caused by Secura Bio's intentional efforts to cause harm to it and adversely
to affect Midatech's market position.
Commenting, Stephen Stamp, CEO and CFO
of Midatech, said "MTX110 is an important and valuable asset of Midatech and we continue to invest in it. The purported reasons
for termination of the License Agreement are self-evidently false. Our strategic review process, which is designed to create value
for shareholders, remains ongoing."
For more information, please contact:
(UK) Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)
Emma Earl (Corporate Finance)
Investments (TPI) Limited (Joint Broker)
Limited (Financial PR and UK Investor Relations)
Edison Group (US Investor Relations)
Joseph Green/ Laine Yonker
Tel: (646) 653-7030/ 7035
Midatech Pharma PLC (dual listed on LSE
AIM: MTPH; and NASDAQ: MTP) is an R&D company focused on Making Medicines Better' by improving delivery of drugs
in the body. The Company combines existing medications with its proprietary and innovative drug delivery technologies to provide
compelling oncology and rare disease products that have the potential to powerfully impact the lives of patients undergoing treatment
for life threatening diseases.
The Company has developed three in-house
technology platforms, each with its own unique mechanism to improve delivery of medications to sites of disease. All of the Company's
technologies have successfully entered human use in the clinic, providing important validation of the potential for each platform:
By improving biodelivery and biodistribution
of approved existing molecules, Midatech's unique R&D has the potential to make medicines better, lower technical risks,
accelerate regulatory approval and route to market, and provide newly patentable products. The platform nature of the technologies
allows the potential to develop multiple drug assets rather than being reliant on a limited number of programmes.
Midatech's headquarters and R&D facility
is in Cardiff, UK. For more information please visit www.midatechpharma.com
in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of legislation in the United Kingdom
and/or United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate
to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements regarding
the purported termination of the License Agreement,the strategic review and formal sale process.
be made to those documents that Midatech shall file from time to time or announcements that may be made by Midatech in accordance
with the London Stock Exchange AIM Rules for Companies ("AIM Rules"), the Disclosure and Transparency Rules ("DTRs")
and the rules and regulations promulgated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which contains and identifies other important
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any projections or forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking
statements by or concerning Midatech are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above. Except as may
be required under the AIM Rules or the DTRs or by relevant law in the United Kingdom or the United States, Midatech does not undertake
any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements because of new information, future events or otherwise