Four Clinical Trials in Progress; New Drug Candidates in Laboratory Testing

E-Therapeutics plc (AIM:ETX), the drug discovery and development company, today announces its half year results for the six months ended 31 July 2014.

Operational highlights

Cancer trials for lead cancer drug ETS2101 continue

• Phase I trials ongoing for UK and US studies in a variety of solid tumours and brain cancer
• Primary endpoint of Phase Ia trials met; drug is well tolerated at concentrations likely to be effective and update to market expected in Q4 2014
• Well advanced in the design of the phase Ib/II study, initially in hepatocellular and pancreatic cancers
• Phase I study of oral form starting the fifth cohort of healthy volunteers; completion expected Q4 2014

Progress on other programmes – ETS6103 and ETX1153c

• Phase IIb trial of ETS6103 in major depressive disorder expanded to enrol an additional c.140 patients; unblinding of the trial expected in H2 2015
• ETX1153c against C.difficile – actively looking for external funding to enable resumption of development

Accelerated rate of drug analysis by Network Pharmacology Discovery platform

• Approx. 1,000 molecules across three discovery projects being tested in vitro (FY2014: c.100 molecules)
• Processing speeds now 20 times faster than two years ago
• Significant step change in productivity of discovery process

Financial highlights

• Cash and liquid resources remain strong at £37.0 million at 31 July 2014 (31 January 2014: £43.1 million)
• Hall year loss before tax of £5.3 million (six months to 31 July 2014: loss of £3.1 million) as spend increased in both Discovery and Development activities
• During the period, appointment of new Finance Director, Steve Medlicott and plans for the Chairman, Professor Oliver James to retire at the end of 2014

Professor Malcolm Young, CEO of e-Therapeutics, said:

"As our clinical programmes continue apace in four current clinical trials, a further key change for the Company in the period has been the tangible acceleration in processing speeds and productivity of our Discovery platform based on network pharmacology. Over the past two years, we have been fortunate to receive significant funding to invest in the discovery engine. We are now seeing the results of this investment, from network analysis processing speeds that are 20 times faster to a greatly enhanced database of protein interaction and compound bioactivity data. We will select the most promising compounds and expect them to enter preclinical development by the end of H2 2015 to enter the clinic in 2017.

"Professor James has indicated that he will retire at the end of 2014. On behalf of the Company, I would like thank Oliver for his long and sterling service to the Company, and wish him a pleasant retirement. A further announcement about succession will be made in due course.

"e-Therapeutics is in a strong position to deliver shareholder value as it capitalises on fully functioning drug discovery and clinical development programmes with a strong balance sheet. We look forward to providing further updates in the short term on our development programmes and in the medium term on our discovery activities.”

For the full release, please visit the company website at www.etherapeutics.co.uk.