News

ARDANA APPOINTS TWO NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS TO THE BOARD

Edinburgh, UK, 29 June 2004: Ardana Ltd, the emerging pharmaceutical company focused on reproductive health, today announces the appointments of Dr David Moran and Dr John Brown as Non-Executive Directors, with immediate effect.

Dr David Moran has worked in the pharmaceutical sector for over 35 years and has been involved with a number of successful drug registration programmes. He started his career at Beecham Pharmaceuticals in the fields of anti-infective and immunological research, later holding senior roles in drug development at Beecham and then at SmithKline Beecham, and leaving the company as Vice President of Worldwide Clinical Operations in 1993. He went on to become Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Beaufour IPSEN Pharmaceuticals where he led the consolidation and restructuring of a new pan-European and US R&D organisation. More recently, Dr Moran has acted as an independent advisor to a variety of emerging pharmaceutical and investment companies, work that was undertaken whilst David was Principal Associate at Mansford Associates, a private healthcare consultancy. Dr Moran is currently a member of the Bloomsbury Seed Fund Advisory Board.

Until late 2003, Dr John Brown was Chief Executive of the FTSE 250 biotech company Acambis plc, a leading producer of vaccines to treat and prevent infectious disease. Dr Brown joined Acambis as Finance Director in 1995 and was appointed CEO in 1997. In 1999 he was responsible for the $20 million acquisition of OraVax Inc, a Boston, US-based vaccines company, together with a £23 million rights issue. In 2001 he led Acambis' successful bid for the second US smallpox vaccine supply contract to the US government in partnership with Baxter International. Dr Brown managed Acambis through the flotation process and on to profitability. Dr Brown currently Chairs the Governing Council of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and is a Non-Executive Director of a number of private and public biotech companies.

Simon Best, Chairman of Ardana, commented:

"John was a Non-Executive Director of my previous company, Roslin BioMed. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with him again and to have both his and David's expertise to draw upon. Both have a fantastic range of experience within the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors and will make significant contributions to Ardana at this key stage in our development. I am delighted to welcome them to the Board."

For more information please contact: Simon Best, Ardana 44 (0)131 226 8550

Julia Phillips / Francetta Carr, Financial Dynamics (corporate and financial media relations) 44 (0)20 7831 3113

Nicki Brimicombe, NB Public Relation, (trade and technical media relations) 44 (0)1883 732353

Notes for Editors

Ardana Limited is an emerging pharmaceutical company focused on reproductive health. It aims to become a leading source of clinical and commercial innovation in the $20 billion human reproductive health market, which is growing at 9% per annum. In addition to Striant™ SR, which Ardana recently launched in the UK as a treatment for men with primary or secondary hypogonadism, the company has just secured marketing and manufacturing rights in Europe and EFTA for Invicorp®, a patented combination drug treatment for male erectile dysfunction. Ardana also has a rich development portfolio including the Gonadotrophin Releasing Hormone (GnRH)-antagonist, Teverelix LA, in Phase II trials in patients with prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia; Chronodyne® (terbutaline) which is in Phase I/II trials for endometriosis-related infertility (being developed in collaboration with Columbia Laboratories (NASDAQ: CBRX) and a reformulation of the GnRH analog 'Leuprorelin' which has completed Phase II trials for prostate cancer. www.ardana.co.uk

Ardana's therapeutic interests encompass androgen replacement, prostatic disease, infertility, sexual dysfunction and obstetrics. The company has exclusive rights to commercialise research by the Medical Research Council (MRC)'s Human Reproductive Sciences Unit (HRSU) in Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been at the forefront of this area of research for the last 30 years. The HRSU contributes a significant number of early stage development projects to the Ardana development portfolio, which complement later stage and marketed products. The MRC employs nearly 100 staff at the Unit, which currently receives total annual funding of £3.8 million.

Ardana has raised £43.4 million in four funding rounds. Ardana investors include DVC Deutsche Venture Capital, Albany Venture Managers Limited and 3i Bioscience Investment Trust, Merlin Biosciences Limited, MVM Limited (MVM), Techno Venture Management (TVM), ABN-AMRO Participates, 3i Group plc, ISIS Equity Partners plc, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Ltd, Saffron Hill Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation and Green Highlander, LLC.

back to top

Archived News