VALLEY COTTAGE, N.Y., Aug. 5 NY-XTL-&-Presidio-lic
VALLEY COTTAGE, N.Y., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- XTL
Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq: XTLB, TASE: XTL) announced today an amendment
to its licensing agreement with Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for its
pre-clinical program in Hepatitis C focused on the NS5A target.
Under the terms of the amended license agreement, XTL will receive an
additional non-refundable payment of $2 million in return for a reduction in
future contingent payments. Under the revised agreement, XTL will now receive
up to $59 million upon reaching certain development and commercialization
milestones, a reduced royalty on direct product sales by Presidio, and a lower
percentage of Presidio's income if the program is sublicensed by Presidio to a
third party.
Ron Bentsur, XTL's CEO, commented, "This transaction provides us with
essential, non-dilutive capital as we head towards the completion and
announcement of results from the Bicifadine Phase 2b study, expected in Q4
2008, while still preserving meaningful potential economics from our
out-licensed pre-clinical Hepatitis C program." Mr. Bentsur added, "We have
the utmost confidence in Presidio's ability to move this program forward and
believe that this transaction further demonstrates Presidio's commitment to
the program."
"Given the progress Presidio has made since licensing XTL's NS5A program,
we are pleased to be able to take this option to pay down future milestone,
royalty, and sublicense income payments," stated Omar K. Haffar, Ph.D.,
President and CEO of Presidio, who added, "We believe this reduction in
contingent payments to XTL may provide us with additional opportunities to
unlock value through partnerships and collaborations potentially early on in
the development process."
ABOUT XTL BIOPHARMACEUTICALS LTD.
XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd. ("XTL") is engaged in the development of
therapeutics for the treatment of diabetic neuropathic pain and HCV. XTL is
developing Bicifadine, a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, for
the treatment of diabetic neuropathic pain, which is currently in a Phase 2b
study. XTL has out-licensed its novel pre-clinical HCV small molecule
inhibitor program. XTL also has an active in-licensing and acquisition program
designed to identify and acquire additional drug candidates. XTL is publicly
traded on the NASDAQ and Tel-Aviv Stock Exchanges (Nasdaq: XTLB; TASE: XTL).
ABOUT PRESIDIO
Presidio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company
focused on the discovery, in-licensing, development and commercialization of
novel therapeutics for viral infections, including HIV and HCV. Presidio has
raised over $27 million in financing from Panorama Capital, Baker Brothers
Investments, Bay City Capital, Ventures West, Nexus Medical Partners, and
Sagamore Bioventures LLC. For more information, please visit our website at
www.presidiopharma.com .
Cautionary Statement
Some of the statements included in this press release, particularly those
anticipating future financial performance, clinical and business prospects for
our clinical compound for neuropathic pain, Bicifadine, and for our compounds
from our pre-clinical hepatitis C program, growth and operating strategies and
similar matters, may be forward-looking statements that involve a number of
risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the
safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Among the factors that could cause our actual
results to differ materially is our ability to complete in a timely and cost
effective manner clinical trials on Bicifadine, which could directly impact
our ability to continue to fund our operations; our ability to meet
anticipated development timelines for all of our drug candidates due to
recruitment, clinical trial results, manufacturing capabilities or other
factors; the success of our drug development and marketing arrangements with
third parties; and other risk factors identified from time to time in our
reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our
annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
on March 27, 2008. Any forward-looking statements set forth in this press
release speak only as of the date of this press release. We do not intend to
update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances that occur after the date hereof. This press release and prior
releases are available at http://www.xtlbio.com . The information in our
website is not incorporated by reference into this press release and is
included as an inactive textual reference only.
SOURCE XTL Biopharmaceuticals Ltd.
