Header updated on 24th April 2008

Market has been looking for an announcement re a licensing deal for Cetilistat, the obesity drug; instead it has been hit with the withdrawal of Renzapride, colonitis drug, following an unauspicious performance at Phase III. Folloiwng has been edited to reflect the situation

Alizyme is a speciality biopharmaceutical company that has been developing product categories for inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders, obesity and supportive cancer care . It is currently trading at a five year low of around 27p with a market cap. of around 60m. Prudential owned a near 20% stake (reduced in sale today?) There was good institutional taku-up of a placing in March rasing 10m at 50p; no wonder there has been "angry" selling. The directors hold 3.34million shares or about 1.7% of the equity (of which Tim McCarthy, CEO has 1.1million); thus, after some 10 years of development effort, they must be comletely focused on the success of the company and multiplying the value of their holdings (but with real doubts about their marketing competence). Alizyme had previously raised capital sums in the past three years at around 70p and 100p so it was somewhat surprising to see the share fall through its 70p support level. Clearly one reason is the current disaffection with the biopharm. market. Another has to be disappointment for the failure of the CEO, Tim McCarthy, to deliver on his expectation that 2007 would be a transformative year. The key question is whether 2008 will be that year and when is it likely to happen? The following points are relevant:

1. Alizyme did sign one deal in late-2007: with Prometheus Labs (U.S.) for the Colal-Pred, at a potential market of $250m, the smallest potential of their four products. Prometheus pay $2.5m up-front with a total of $15m payable upon future development milestones. They are responsible for all US development costs and will pay Alizyme undisclosed royalty rates which will increase with net sales. The deal was followed by a Japanese licensing agreement (which also gave Alizymen access to additional potential drug candidates).

2. This perhaps sets a precedent for subsequent deals for their other products. Cetistat (obesity) has an estimated potential of $1 billion p.a. sales and ATL-104 (mucositis) has a potential of $500m sales. The U.S. FDA has encouraged AZM to also launch a Phase III exercise for Cetistat for all diabetes sufferer because of positive II results for diabetes sufferers who also suffer from obesity.

3. Whilst the development programmes for the other drugs are on-going and appear to be satisfactorily funded from present resources, this is not the case for Cetilistat. The "Product and Company Update statement" (7th Jan 2008) says that 'the Phase III development programme is now ready to commence following the conclusion of a commercial deal'. So, perhaps for the first time, the development programme would be delayed if there was not a funding deal in either the U.S. or Europe. The reason for the sp shooting to nearly 200p in 2004 was the signing of a deal with Takada of Japan for some $50M development funding.

In response to a question at the Conference to report the Renzapride fiasco, McCarthy seemed pleased that there were six potential bidders for Cetilistat; however, that implies any announcement is some time away. When it comes, however, taking a line from the Takada and Prometheus deals it would seem likely that there would be of the order of $100m funding to support development. Of course, the major cash flow will be from licensing of actual sales. The analysts do their own discounted cash flow exercises; those seen tend to dwarf current valuations of the company.

There is not a strong argument for jumping in unless and until the sp establishes a baseline. Given the peaks in the sp, the time will probably come when there will be a very significant jump. An alternative scenario, is that management continue to rpove their level of incompetence and a buy-our results. Clearly the strength of the company is in their biochemists.

Eric

Hope your right Krackett, has I have been sitting waiting for profits a lot longer than that, lol.

All good things Kivver.....

It will fly, you just wait a bit longer :-)

In The Times today: Tiddler to watch

Keith Redpath, the JM Finn biotech analyst, believes that Alizyme is close to announcing development partners for its key irritable bowel, colitis and obesity treatments and that the shares up 7p at 90p are not pricing this in. It has enough cash to last until the end of 2008. He initiates coverage with a 106p price target.

Alizyme PLC
07 November 2007


For Immediate Release 7 November 2007


ALIZYME PLC


TR - 1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTERESTS IN SHARES

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing
shares to which voting rights are attached:

Alizyme plc

2. Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):

A acquisition or disposal of voting rights

3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation:

Legal & General Assurance Group Plc (L&G)

4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.)

Legal & General Assurance (Pensions Management) Limited (PMC)

5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or
reached:

17/10/2007

6. Date on which issuer notified:

06/11/2007

7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:

From 3% - 4% (L&G)



8. Notified details:

A: Voting rights attached to shares

Class/type of Situation previous to Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
shares the Triggering
transaction
if possible
using the ISIN Number of Number of Number of Number of voting % of voting
CODE Shares Voting shares rights rights
Rights Direct Direct Indirect Direct Indirect
Ordinary
Shares 7,823,400 7,823,400 8,227,102 8,227,102 4.1%
GB 2p
GB0000374289

B: Financial Instruments

Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Type of Expiration Exercise/ Number of voting rights that may % of
financial date Conversion be acquired if the instrument is voting
instrument exercised/ converted. rights
Period/
Date
n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

Total (A+B)

Number of voting rights % of voting rights
8,227,102 4.1%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the
financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable

n/a

Proxy Voting:

10. Name of the proxy holder:

n/a

11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:

n/a

12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:

n/a

13. Additional information

Legal & General Group Plc (Direct and Indirect)
(Group)
Legal & General Investment Management (Holdings)
Limited (LGIMH) (Direct and Indirect)
Legal & General Investment Management Limited
(Indirect) (LGIM)
Legal & General Group Plc (Direct) (L&G) (8,227,102- 4.1% = LGAS, LGPL & PMC)
Legal & General Investment Management Legal & General Insurance Holdings
(Holdings) Limited (Direct) (LGIMHD) Limited (Direct) (LGIH)
(7,234,549-3.61%=PMC)
Legal & General Assurance (Pensions Legal & General Assurance Society
Management) Limited (PMC) (7,234,549-3.61% Limited (LGAS & LGPL)
= PMC)
Legal & General Pensions Limited
(Direct) (LGPL)

14. Contact name:

David Campbell, Finance Director

15. Contact telephone number:

+ 44 (0) 1223 896000

For further information, please contact:

David Campbell, Finance Director
ALIZYME plc Tel No: + 44 (0) 1223 896000


Further information on Alizyme can be found on the Company's website:

www.alizyme.com

How can we tell if these RNS's are buy or sells??? Whatever is happeneing the market doesnt seem to take much notice??

How can we tell if these RNS's are buy or sells??? Whatever is happeneing the market doesnt seem to take much notice??

Kivver, ditto, ditto, lol.

Normally, I look at the previous RNSs to see whether they held more shares or less. In this case it actually says from 3% - 4% in the RNS

7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:

From 3% - 4% (L&G)

On the 18/05/07 .L & G went from 4% - 3%

The way i read it is


5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or
reached:

17/10/2007

6. Date on which issuer notified:

06/11/2007

7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:

From 3% - 4% (L&G)

The threshold REACHED (gone foward?) or CROSSED (gone backward) has reached BETWEEN 3% - 4% (maybe). I just cant see why it doesn't say BOUGHT or SOLD and stop all this mucking around!!!!!!!!!! I thought the RNS was supposed to bring all things out into the open CLEARLY.

Neil, I dont think it clearly says one way or the other (i think it is buy though,,,i hope)

Bluelady, i cant help thinking I know you, lol!!

Kivver, looking at the two RNSs relating to Legal & General Group Plc (Group)

RNS 21st May 2007.

http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200705211115379373W.html

If you look at 7. it says Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:

From 4% - 3% (L&G)

If you look at 8.B it says total number of voting rights..... 7,823,400

% voting rights............. 3.90%


RNS 7th November 2007

/http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200711071338222090H.html

If you look at 7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached:

From 3% - 4% (L&G)

If you look at 8.B it says total number of voting rights.........8,227,102

% voting rights....... 4.1%

You will be able to see that under 8.A the phrase 'situation previous to the triggering transaction' where there were 7,823,400 shares (the same number for the 21st May RNS) . There are now 8,227,102 shares after the 7th Nov RNS. In May L & G had 3.9%, now they have 4.1%.

This clearly says that the RNS for 7th November is a buy, so stop all this hoping and thinking, lol.

Or to keep it really simple when the RNS says the threshold crossed/reached is 3% - 4%, it means there are more shares ;0).

BROKERWATCH Alizyme upgraded to 'Buy' at Investec over partnering deal promise
AFXU


LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Alizyme has been upgraded to 'Buy' from 'Hold' by Investec because of the stock's recent historic lows and the management's commitment to achieving a deal since a reshuffle this time last year.

The company's shares have been consistently below its 10 pct target price, while the management has a 'live or die' attitude to securing a partnering deal, Investec said.

Investec expects a short-term spike in the value of the shares on a deal announcement, but a long-term increase in share value will depend on the terms of any deal. The company needs a cash injection to take its Cetilistat obesity product into Phase III trials, Investec said.

At 11.30am, Alizyme shares were 80.5 pence, up 1.5 pence.

julian.hofmann@thomson.com

jh1/rw

An interesting read.

Studies warn on rimonabant and depression, value of anti-obesity drugs
AFX


PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Findings from two medical studies published in the UK have raised concerns about the higher risk of depression among patients taking Sanofi-Aventis' rimonabant drug, and pointed to limited long-term weight loss from rimonabant and two other anti-obesity drugs currently on the market.

A paper to be published in Saturday's issue of The Lancet presents results from a study of rimonabant -- which is marketed as Acomplia -- by a research team headed by Arne Astrup, a professor at the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

The team analysed four trials in which 4,105 patents were either given a 20mg daily dose of rimonabant or a placebo.

Over one year, patients on rimonabant realised weight loss 4.7 kilos (10.3 pounds) higher than counterparts in the placebo group. But they were also 40 pct likelier to experience 'adverse' or 'serious adverse' events, according to Astrup's study.

Specifically, patients on rimonabant were two-and-a-half times likelier to stop taking the drug because of depression than those on placebo, and three times likelier to discontinue the treatment because of anxiety.

The findings are significant because individuals with a history of depression -- a phenomenon common among the severely obese -- were excluded from the trial, the authors said.

'We recommend increased alertness by physicians to these potentially severe psychiatric reactions,' the paper argues.

Earlier this year, Sanofi-Aventis withdrew its new drug application for rimonabant in the US after being rejected by a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel in view of evidence of patients suffering from depression. The company said it expects a four-year delay before gaining US approval for the drug.

It is also facing a lawsuit from an institutional investor claiming the pharmaceutical group made concealed data concerning the drug's propensity to cause depression.

In Europe, rimonabant been approved by the EU with an indication for treating obesity, and is now on sale under the Acomplia brand in a number of countries.

However, Sanofi-Aventi has updated its labelling of the drug in Europe with a contraindication for patients suffering from depression or taking anti-depressants.

Sanofi-Aventis announced this week that European Commission has endorsed a positive opinion from the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) for Acomplia to carry type 2 diabetes trial results on its European label instructions.

The news followed Sanofi's announcement in September that it aims to submit Acomplia for worldwide approval in 2009 as a treatment for type 2 diabetes.

In a separate paper published online Friday by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Canadian researchers said rimonabant and two other anti-obesity drugs, orlistat -- made by Roche Holdings AG's and marketed in most countries by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) -- and Abbott Laboratories' sibutramine, were of only limited effect in terms of weight loss over the long term.

The researchers reviewed data from 30 trials in which obese volunteers -- average weight 100 kilos (220 pounds) -- took either anti-obesity drugs or a placebo for a year or more.

The three drugs reduced weight by less than 5 kilos (11 pounds), equivalent to a loss of less than 5 pct of total body weight. At the same time, the researchers found that patients taking the weight-loss pills were significantly more likely to achieve 5-10 pct weight loss, compared to those who took the placebo.

The three drugs had various beneficial side effects but all had adverse effects, including, in rimonabant's case, an increase in depression and anxiety, they said. The authors also noted that no trials examined rates of death and disease as a result of taking anti-obesity pills and called for trials to looking into this aspect.

In an accompanying editorial in the BMJ, Professor Gareth Williams argued against anti-obesity drugs being licensed for sale without prescription.

Non-prescription sales of anti-obesity drugs already exists in the US and as GSK has applied to sell orlistat over the counter throughout Europe, he said.

Global sales of anti-obesity drugs reached 1.2 bln usd in 2005, the BMJ said.

tfn.paris@thomson.com

gt/jlc

RNS today re deal with Prometheus in US:

Link to Alizyme RNS

If above doesn't work, then copy and paste this:
http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200711290701577410I.html

Webcast at 10:00 this morning.

Hopefully a taste of things to come!

Hi Neil: yes, I guess at last they are proving that they can do deals!

Its a good start to the best case scenario, small deals to prime the SP, followed by the big deals......i'm getting carried away again.
Fingers crossed.

sp not exactly running away with joy this morning though. It'll be interesting to listen to the webcast later.

SP now flat! ?????????????????

Hmmm - heading back to - well, could be back to 72p I guess. Blast! Need to find a rocket to blast under them I reckon. Still, now that they've done the deal announced today, and from listening to the Q&A on the webcast, there will be plenty more to come.

Time... Patience...

May need to shift funds elsewhere in the meantime. I just so hate sps that have a habit of sliding in the wrong direction.

I'm going back in to cryofreeze! wake me up when logic returns. :0)