Abzena : Funding update

Abzena plc

Funding update: Seeking to monetise royalty-bearing ABZENA Insideproducts

Cambridge, UK, 14 June 2018- Abzena plc (AIM: ABZA, 'Abzena' or the 'Company', and together with its subsidiaries, the 'Group'), a life sciences group providing services and technologies enabling the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products, provides an update on its fundraising activities.

At the time of the recent full-year results announcement on 4 June 2018, the Board noted that additional working capital will be required within the next twelve months to support the Group.

Abzena has recently been in market sounding discussions with institutional investors regarding a potential equity fundraising. In consultation with the Company's major shareholders, the Board has decided to prioritise the potential partial monetisation of its interests in certain ABZENA Insideproducts.

The Group has entered into a non-binding heads of terms agreement with an unconnected third party under which it would sell an interest in its entitlements to future royalties which may arise from certain ABZENA Insideproducts. The parties have now entered into a limited period of exclusivity for completion of due diligence and negotiation of definitive agreements. While there can be no assurance that the transaction will be completed, the Board believes that, if completed, the funds received will be sufficient for the Group's short term working capital needs.

The Board will continue to explore near-term funding options available to the Group including, but not limited to, equity and/or debt financing in order to satisfy the Group's ongoing working capital requirements.

The Company will provide further updates on this matter in due course.

This announcement is released by Abzena plc and contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 ('MAR'), encompassing information relating to the Group's fundraising activities, and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of MAR.

For the purposes of MAR and Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055, this announcement is being made on behalf of the Company by John Burt, Chief Executive Officer.

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Abzena (AIM: ABZA) provides proprietary technologies and complementary services to enable the development and manufacture of biopharmaceutical products.

The term 'ABZENA Inside' is used by Abzena to describe products that have been created using its proprietary technologies and are being developed by its partners, and include Composite Human Antibodies™ and ThioBridge™ Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs). Abzena has the potential to earn future licence fees, milestone payments and/or royalties on ABZENA Insideproducts.

Abzena offers the following services and technologies across its principal sites in Cambridge (UK), San Diego, California (USA) and Bristol, Pennsylvania (USA):

· Biology research studies, including immunogenicity assessment of candidate biopharmaceutical products and bioassay development;

· Protein engineering to create humanized antibodies and deimmunised therapeutic proteins;

· Cell line development for the manufacture of recombinant proteins and antibodies;

· Contract process development and GMP manufacture of biopharmaceuticals, including monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins for preclinical and clinical studies;

· Contract synthetic chemistry and bioconjugation research services, focused on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs);

· Proprietary site-specific conjugation technologies and novel payloads for ADC development;

· GMP manufacturing of ADC linkers, payloads & combined linker-payloads; and

· GMP analytical services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing projects.

For more information, please seewww.abzena.com.