REG - N4 Pharma PLC - Directorate Changes

N4 PharmaAnnouncement

08/01/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 4808S  N4 Pharma PLC  08 January 2025

 

8 January 2025

N4 Pharma plc

 

("N4 Pharma" or the "Company")

 

Directorate Changes

 

N4 Pharma plc (AIM: N4P), the biotech developing Nuvec®, its proprietary gene
delivery system to enable advanced therapies for cancer and other diseases, is
pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Alastair Smith as an independent
Non-Executive Director of the Company with immediate effect. In addition,
David Templeton has retired as a Director of the Company with immediate effect
due to personal reasons.

 

Alastair was the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Avacta Group
plc ("Avacta"), an AIM-listed biotech company established as a spin-out from
Leeds University in 2005 and listed on the London Stock Exchange AIM market in
2006.

 

Over his tenure, Avacta grew into one of the leading AIM biotech companies
comprising two divisions: a clinical stage oncology drug company advancing its
proprietary pre|CISION(TM) tumour targeting platform 1  and a diagnostics
business executing an M&A-led growth strategy in Europe focused on
healthcare professionals.

 

Alastair joins the Company's remuneration and audit committees.

 

As part of his remuneration package, Alastair has been granted options over 5
million ordinary shares in the Company at an exercise price of 0.75p per
share. The options vest in three equal tranches on the first, second and third
anniversaries from the date of grant. The options have a term of ten years
from the date of grant.

 

Nigel Theobald, Chief Executive Officer, N4 Pharma, commented: "We are
delighted to welcome Alastair to the Board of N4 Pharma. His experience in
having founded and grown a start-up to become one of the UK's leading life
science businesses will be invaluable in supporting the commercialisation of
Nuvec® and advancing our pipeline of innovative therapies.

 

"On behalf of my fellow Directors and everyone involved with N4 Pharma, I
would like to thank David for all he has contributed over his years with the
Company. Whilst he will be sorely missed, his work on dual loading of Nuvec®
and its potential for oral delivery has left us with a true point of
difference and a clear path towards Phase 1 clinical trials. We wish him all
the best for the future."

 

Alastair Smith commented: "I am delighted to be joining the Board of N4
Pharma. I see strong parallels between N4 Pharma and Avacta; both building a
pipeline of therapies that are strongly differentiated by a proprietary
platform technology and offer additional opportunities for early
commercialisation through licensing.

 

"N4 Pharma's Nuvec® platform has the potential to solve a critical issue in
the gene therapy market, a delivery system that can target multiple nucleic
acids to specific tissues, and with the potential for oral delivery. This is
hugely valuable and has the potential to make Nuvec® the delivery platform of
choice for the gene therapy industry.

 

"I believe that Nuvec® will allow the Company to build a differentiated drug
pipeline to drive long-term value and generate commercial progress through
platform licensing deals and partnerships in the near term."

 

The following information is disclosed pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule Two
paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in relation to Dr David Alastair
Maclaughlin Smith, aged 58:

 

 Current Directorships/Partnerships         Past Directorships/Partnerships (within 5 years)
 Sparta BioDiscovery Limited                Avacta Group plc

                                            Avacta Animal Health Ltd

                                            Avacta Animal Health Inc.

                                            Avacta Analytical Limited

                                            Affimer Limited

                                            Avacta Ltd

                                            Avacta Life Sciences Limited

                                            Avacta Life Sciences Inc.

                                            Avacta Group Trustee Limited

                                            Avacta Finance (Jersey) Limited

                                            AffyXell Therapeutics

                                            Crossco (1127) Limited

                                            Launch Diagnostics Holdings Limited

                                            Launch Diagnostics Ltd

                                            Coris BioConcept SrL

                                            Coris Holdings SrL

 

 1 Avacta's lead clinical programme, AVA6000, based on the Company's
proprietary tumour targeting platform pre|CISION™, is a modified form of the
established chemotherapy doxorubicin. pre|CISION™ is designed to release the
active chemotherapy only in the tumour tissue, thereby sparing healthy tissue
and improving the safety and tolerability of this effective anti-cancer
therapy. AVA6000 is in the late stage of Phase I clinical trials in patients
with locally advanced or metastatic selected solid tumours and has been shown
to dramatically reduce the severity and frequency of doxorubicin toxicities.

 

For more information please contact:

 

 N4 Pharma plc

 Nigel Theobald, Chief Executive Officer                      Via N4 Pharma Investor Hub

 Luke Cairns, Executive Director                              Sign up at investors.n4pharma.com (https://investors.n4pharma.com/)

 Investor questions on this announcement                      https://investors.n4pharma.com/link/VyEJpe

                                                            (https://investors.n4pharma.com/link/VyEJpe)
 We encourage all investors to share questions

 on this announcement via our investor hub
 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP                               Tel: +44 (0) 20 3470 0470

 Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker

 Matthew Johnson/Caroline Rowe (Corporate Finance)

 Vadim Alexandre/Abigail Wayne/Rob Rees (Corporate Broking)
 Turner Pope Investments (TPI) Limited                        Tel: +44 (0) 20 3657 0050

 Joint Broker

 Andy Thacker/James Pope
 Northstar Communications Limited                             Tel: +44 (0) 113 730 3896

 Investor Relations

 Sarah Hollins

 

About N4 Pharma

N4 Pharma is a biotech company developing Nuvec®, its proprietary gene
delivery system, to enable advanced therapies for cancer and other diseases.

 

RNA therapeutics are set to impact the treatment of a wide range of diseases
and Nuvec® has several key advantages for RNA gene delivery including the
ability to deliver multiple RNA therapies in a single particle, ease of
manufacturing, protection of the RNA payload to allow for oral delivery, no
unwanted immune response and excellent stability and storage.

 

N4 Pharma is building out its preclinical data set and working towards
first-in-human clinical data to support significant licensing deals for its
Nuvec® platform with gene therapy partners.

 

N4 Pharma's lead programme, N4 101, is an oral anti-inflammatory product for
inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) which serves as a proof-of-concept programme
showcasing all the benefits of the Nuvec® platform. With an estimated 10
million people globally suffering from Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis,
the IBD treatment market was worth $20.4bn in 2023 and is expected to grow by
a CAGR of 3.9% to over $27.6bn by 2030, driven by both increased incidences of
the disease and development of new treatments.

 

For further information on the Company visit www.n4pharma.com
(http://www.n4pharma.com) or sign up at
https://investors.n4pharma.com/auth/signup
(https://investors.n4pharma.com/auth/signup) .

 

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging
managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them.

 

 1    Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely
      associated
 a)   Name                                                         Alastair Smith

 2    Reason for the notification
 a)   Position/status                                              Non-Executive Director
 b)   Initial notification /Amendment                              Initial notification

 3    Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction

    platform, auctioneer or auction monitor

 a)   Name                                                         N4 Pharma plc
 b)   LEI                                                          213800I841D2RKMFK955
 4    Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of

    instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each
      place where transactions have been conducted
 a)   Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument  Options over Ordinary Shares of 0.4p each

      Identification code

                                                                   Identification code (ISIN) for N4 Pharma plc ordinary shares: GB00BYW8QM32

 b)   Nature of the transaction                                    Issue of options over ordinary shares of 0.4p each

 c)   Price(s) and volume(s)                                        Price(s)             Volume(s)
                                                                   0.75p exercise price  5,000,000

 
 d)   Aggregated information

      - Aggregated volume                                          n/a

      - Price
 e)   Date of the transaction                                      8 January 2025
 f)   Place of the transaction                                     Outside a trading venue

 

d)

Aggregated information

- Aggregated volume

- Price

 

n/a

e)

Date of the transaction

8 January 2025

f)

Place of the transaction

Outside a trading venue

 

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