Tiziana Lifesciences Announces Intention to Demerge Its StemPrintER Genomics-Based Personalized Medicine Business as a Separate Listed Company

NEW YORK and LONDON, May 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tiziana Life Sciences plc (NASDAQ: TLSA, AIM: TILS), a clinical stage biotechnology company developing targeted drugs for cancer, inflammatory diseases and COVID-19, today announces that it intends to demerge its StemPrintER and SPARE (together "StemPrintER") genomics-based personalized medicine businesses into a separate company and effect a capital reduction to facilitate the spin-out and listing of StemPrintER as an independent entity. 

Following the Company's recent announcement concerning the trial conducted by scientists from the European Institute of Oncology in Milan in collaboration with the Royal Marsden Hospital and Queen Mary University in London on the Company’s stem cell biology-based genomic tool, StemPrintER, for the prediction of disease recurrence in breast cancer patients, the Company’s Board, which has been considering options for StemPrintER for some time, is pleased to announce that they consider that the results of the trial and the progress made substantiate the viability of StemPrintER as having the potential to be a standalone business and accordingly intend to proceed with steps for a spin-out, by way of demerger, and listing on a public market of a new independent genomics-based personalized medicine company focused on the StemPrintER business.

The rationale of this decision is that, as a standalone genomics-based personalized medicine company and separate legal entity, StemPrintER could:

• Secure separate financial resources, with the goal of enabling accelerated development of the StemPrintER genomic test;
   
• Separate StemPrintER from Tiziana’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical businesses so it may focus on the personalized medicine market; and
   
• Allow Shareholders to benefit from both Tiziana’s rapidly developing drug portfolio and the standalone value of StemPrintER as it progresses through its own development milestones and the path to commercialization and allow shareholders to receive the maximum potential value from StemPrintER as a standalone entity.

The Board is taking the necessary preliminary steps in preparation for a potential spin-out, including the incorporation of a new subsidiary to hold the relevant assets. The Company will also put proposals to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting to obtain the approval necessary for a capital reduction which will be required to implement the demerger.