OctoPlus announces further efficiency measures
LEIDEN, NETHERLANDS -- 09/24/09 --
- Revenue guidance maintained for the year -
OctoPlus N.V. ("OctoPlus" or the "Company") (Euronext: OCTO), the drug delivery company, announces today that it will reduce its work force by approximately 25% while retaining its revenue guidance for the year. Reductions will occur across all areas of the Company and have taken place in consultation with the Company's Works Council. The reduced headcount will not impact OctoPlus' targeted revenues for 2009: the Company maintains its revenue guidance of EUR 19 million.
2009 has seen OctoPlus successfully change its strategy to a drug delivery service based business. This was illustrated by a number of contract announcements over the past months showing both validation and international adoption of OctoPlus' controlled release technology and which in turn will lead to ongoing short term revenues and long term potential royalties.
Simon Sturge, CEO of OctoPlus comments: "These efficiency measures will enable us to operate more competitively and will help to broaden our client base, which will diversify our revenue sources in both drug delivery and pharmaceutical services, aside from our current revenue stream from Locteron. These steps will enhance our ability to build a profitable service organisation although these reorganizational changes will prevent us from being operationally cash flow positive in the second half of the year. The measures taken today will streamline the company going forward."
For further information, please contact: Rianne Roukema, Corporate Communications: telephone number +31 (71) 524 1071 or send an e-mail to Investor Relations at [email protected].
About OctoPlus
OctoPlus is a drug delivery service company committed to the creation of improved pharmaceutical products that are based on OctoPlus' proprietary drug delivery technologies and have fewer side effects, improved patient convenience and a better efficacy/safety balance than existing therapies. OctoPlus focuses on the development of long-acting, controlled release versions of known protein therapeutics, other drugs, and vaccines on behalf of its clients.
The clinically most advanced product incorporating our technology is Biolex Therapeutics' lead product Locteron®, a controlled release formulation of interferon alpha for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. OctoPlus licensed Locteron exclusively to Biolex in October 2008. Locteron is being manufactured for Biolex by OctoPlus and is currently in Phase IIb clinical studies.
In addition, OctoPlus is a leading European provider of advanced drug formulation and clinical scale manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, with a focus on difficult-to-formulate active pharmaceutical ingredients.
OctoPlus is listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext under the symbol OCTO. For more information about OctoPlus, please visit our website www.octoplus.nl.
This document may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the business, financial performance and results of OctoPlus and the industry in which it operates. These statements are based on OctoPlus' current plans, estimates and projections, as well as its expectations of external conditions and events. In particular the words "expect", "anticipate", "predict", "estimate", "project", "plan", "may", "should", "would", "will", "intend", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We caution investors that a number of important factors, and the inherent risks and uncertainties that such statements involve, could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. In the event of any inconsistency between an English version and a Dutch version of this document, the English version will prevail over the Dutch version.