Imperial Innovations Announcements

Imperial Innovations Group plc
13 March 2008
13 March 2008

Imperial Innovations Group plc

("Imperial Innovations")

Thriving fortnight for the Imperial Innovations therapeutics portfolio
Imperial Innovations Group plc (AIM: IVO) is pleased to note the significant
progress in three of its portfolio therapeutics companies. Within a period of
just two weeks the following announcements have been made:

? PolyTherics signs agreement with Celtic Pharma

? Circassia Initiates Phase II Clinical Study

? Thiakis Initiates Clinical Trial

PolyTherics, an innovative biopharmaceutical company has signed a collaboration
agreement with Celtic Pharma, a global private equity investment fund focused on
the biopharma industry. PolyTherics' proprietary drug modification technologies
will be used to enhance some of the pharmaceutical products being developed by
Celtic Pharma. PolyTherics also recently announced the expansion of its
collaboration with Biocompatibles International, a leading medical technology
company in the field of drug device combination products. In June 2007
PolyTherics raised £2.3 million. Imperial Innovations has a 20% holding in
PolyTherics, which was founded in 2002.

Circassia Ltd, a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on controlling
immune system responses, has initiated a Phase II Clinical Study with its
anti-allergy technology, ToleroMune. Circassia is conducting the study in the
field of cat-dander allergy, a condition which affects approximately 17% of
Americans and 9% of Europeans, and aims to complete the trial in the coming
months. Circassia's anti-allergy products have the potential to help over 150
million allergic rhinitis sufferers in the U.S and Europe. Circassia completed a
£11 million funding round in January 2008 following a £6 million funding round
the previous year. Imperial Innovations has a 13.2% holding in Circassia, which
was founded in 2006.

Thiakis Ltd, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of peptide
hormones for the treatment of obesity, has successfully commenced a clinical
trial of TKS1225, the company's novel oxyntomodulin analogue, for obesity
treatment. The trial will initially focus on safety and tolerability before
investigating the effects of TKS1225 on appetite and food intake. Preclinical
models have demonstrated that TKS1225 has the potential to provide a major new
treatment option for obesity. Thiakis raised £10 million Series A funding in
October 2006. Imperial Innovations has a 24.5% (fully converted) holding in
Thiakis, which was founded in 2004.

Susan Searle, CEO Imperial Innovations said, "We are delighted to see all three
companies making considerable and rapid progress towards commercialisation. This
is testament to the strength of their technologies and focused
commercially-minded management. As with all our technology companies, Imperial
Innovations has played an integral role in the foundation and development of
Circassia, Thiakis and PolyTherics and continues to provide support and
investment as they grow and reach important milestones like these."

-Ends-
For more information contact:
Imperial Innovations
Susan Searle, Chief Executive Officer +44 (0)20 7594 6591
Lucy Ahfong, Marketing Communications Executive +44 (0)20 7594 6644
M:Communications
Harriet Totty / Eleanor Williamson +44 (0)20 7153 1530
JPMorgan Cazenove (NOMAD to Imperial Innovations)
Steve Baldwin +44(0)20 7588 2828
Notes to Editors

About Imperial Innovations

Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology transfer and
commercialisation companies. The company was founded in 1986 and its ordinary
shares admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc in
July 2006, raising £25 million at an offer price of 365p and £1 million by means
of a public offer. In November 2007, the company raised a further £30 million by
means of a placing of new ordinary shares with investors.
The company's integrated approach encompasses the identification of ideas,
protection of intellectual property, development and licensing of technology and
formation, incubation and investment in technology businesses. A wide range of
technologies are commercialised within the areas of healthcare, energy,
environment and emerging technology trends.
Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in
74 technology businesses and is managing 133 commercial agreements as of 31 July
2007. Imperial Innovations also commercialises technologies originating from
outside Imperial College through incubation contracts with the Carbon Trust and
WRAP and has commercialisation contracts with a number of multinational
corporations including BAE Systems.
www.imperialinnovations.co.uk

About PolyTherics

Founded in 2002, PolyTherics is a spin-out company from Imperial College London
and the London School of Pharmacy that is dedicated to using biomedical polymers
to optimise pharmaceuticals for the treatment and cure of the world's most
important diseases.

PolyTherics has developed and patented an innovative approach to PEGylation,
known as TheraPEGTM, to prolong the half-life of proteins for use in drug
development. PEGylation is the process by which Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) is
attached to proteins and peptides to modify their pharmacokinetic properties for
therapeutic application.

PEGylation increases the time that a compound remains in the bloodstream before
being metabolised or excreted by the body, thereby improving its half-life and
potentially reducing treatment frequency, decreasing side effects and improving
patient compliance. For example, PEGylated interferon treatments for Hepatitis C
can be administered once rather than three times per week.

PolyTherics received initial funding of £850,000 from the Wellcome Trust (now
Catalyst Biomedia) and the Bloomsbury BioSeed Fund. The Company secured a
further investment of £2.3 million from Imperial Innovations Group plc, Longbow
Capital LLP and The Capital Fund in June 2007.
For more information please visit http://www.polytherics.co.uk
About Circassia Ltd

Circassia is a specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on developing
medicines designed to control immune system responses. The company has a highly
experienced management team with a proven track record in product development
and commercialisation, and having successfully completed two substantial
fundraising rounds is backed by a syndicate of world-class venture capital and
institutional investors.
Circassia's lead products target allergies and utilise its proprietary T-cell
epitope desensitization technology, which was originally developed at Imperial
College London. The company is also developing its ToleroTrans organ
anti-rejection technology, which uses a similar approach to down-regulate immune
responses in transplant patients. Circassia has a number of ongoing development
programmes, with the most advanced against cat dander allergy having
successfully completed a phase II clinical trial.
For more information please visit www.circassia.co.uk
About Thiakis Ltd

Thiakis is focused on the development of novel therapies for the treatment of
obesity and other metabolic diseases. The Company's core technology, derived
from the research of Professor Steve Bloom at Imperial College London, is based
on the peptide hormones oxyntomodulin and PYY(3-36), which are released by the
intestines in response to food ingestion, and serve to regulate appetite as part
of the body's own natural energy balancing mechanisms. The Company's lead
development compound is a more potent and long lasting oxyntomodulin analogue,
TKS1225, currently in clinical development. Thiakis' intellectual property has
been licensed from Imperial Innovations (AIM: IVO). In August 2006, Thiakis
raised £10 million from a syndicate of venture capital investors, led by
established biotech funds Novo A/S and Advent Venture Partners; Imperial
Innovations made a significant investment in Thiakis in this financing round and
The Royal Society also participated.
For more information please visit www.thiakis.com

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange