Commenting on the development, Selcia’s CEO Simon Saxby, stated: “There are several reasons underlying the demerger of Selcia IP, the ultimate goal of which is to exploit internally generated IP as efficiently as possible while not defocusing our attention from the needs of our clients and core CRO business. We want Selcia to remain completely independent of external shareholders, allowing us to be more flexible and creative in our agreements with CRO clients than many of our competitors. To date the IP projects have all been funded with proceeds from the core CRO activities, but now require additional external funding to progress to clinical studies as rapidly as we would like. Demerging our mitochondrial dysfunction and novel non-cyclosporin cyclophilin inhibitor molecule (NCCIM) programmes into Mitopharm Ltd, and our anti-infective programmes into Selcia Pharma Ltd, will also enable us to more easily raise investment from a variety of sources with interests in specific therapeutic areas without impacting the management and operation of our successful CRO business. We expect the continued development programmes to be outsourced to Selcia Ltd.

Having demerged the IP we are already in discussions with a number of potential partners for all of the IP programmes, with a number of compounds currently under evaluation by pharma companies. We expect to sign at least one licencing agreement for one of our NCCIM molecules in 2012. The demerger move is fully aligned with Selcia’s stated aim of creating long term value from IP licencing, royalties and milestone revenues that will ensure ongoing investment in further IP generation and increased stability for Selcia’s CRO business.”The demerger of the Selcia IP has been undertaken in compliance with all applicable UK laws and HMRC / regulatory requirements.

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