ML signed the awaited deal for its inhaler drug last week. expect the announcement in a week.

I'm looking forward to picking up my tranch of the 19p Issue.

RNS Number:7759N
M.L. Laboratories PLC
20 June 2005
12:02

ML Laboratories PLC

New Licensing Agreement with Maxygen and Grant of US Patent for
Gene Expression Technology


St Albans, UK, 20 June 2005 -- ML Laboratories PLC (LSE: MLB) today announces
that Maxygen Inc has signed a commercial licence agreement for ML's UCOE
(Ubiquitous Chromatin Opening Element) gene expression technology.

ML also announces that the US Patent and Trademark Office has issued to ML a
second US patent for UCOE.

UCOEs improve the yield, consistency and stability of protein production in
cultured mammalian cells, allowing simpler and quicker generation of proteins at small scale for drug discovery, as well as quicker and easier isolation of
stable, highly productive cell lines suitable for larger-scale manufacture of
protein therapeutics. Further applications of the technology include gene
therapy, transgenics and generation of cell lines for drug screening.

ML has already licensed UCOEs to a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies in North America, Europe and Japan.

Licence Agreement with Maxygen

Based in Redwood City, California, Maxygen develops superior versions of
existing protein pharmaceuticals. Maxygen's technologies combine molecular
biology and protein modification to create novel biotechnology products.

In February 2003, Maxygen signed a research licence to ML's UCOE technology.
The licence agreement announced today allows Maxygen to use the technology for
the development and commercialization of its portfolio of therapeutic proteins.
The financial terms were not disclosed.

Grant of Second US Patent

The second patent (US6881556) awarded to ML for UCOE covers the use of DNA
elements that enhance the efficiency of protein production in mammalian cells by prevention of gene silencing. The original broad US patent (US6689606) was
issued in 2004.

Kieran Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of ML Laboratories, commented:

"The agreement with Maxygen and the granting of our second US patent for UCOE
are further validations of the value of this proprietary platform. UCOEs
represents an exciting opportunity and we believe that the developments
announced today will strengthen our offering as we seek to divest non-core
assets as part of the ongoing restructuring process."

Discussions regarding the divestment of non-core assets are currently
progressing.

The price has ticked up nicely on that news.