LONDON (ShareCast) - Shares in Vernalis jumped after the drug group said cash resources will fund the company for the next two years as it announced the sale of Apokyn and its US operations to Ipsen for up to $17.5m.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ipsen will pay an initial cash consideration of $6.5m and further milestone consideration of up to $6m.

Ipsen has also agreed to take a $5m equity stake in Vernalis, at a subscription price of 7.26p per share, representing a 20% premium to the average closing price on the previous three trading days.

“Vernalis has six promising products in clinical development and collaborations with Novartis, Biogen Idec and Servier among others. We look forward to rebuilding significant shareholder value in the mid-term through progression of our promising R&D pipeline,” said executive chairman Peter Fellner.

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Skyepharma (SKP) 6.60p +14.98%
Vernalis (VER) 6.50p +10.17%
DRS Data (DRS) 20.50p +5.13%
Alphameric (ALM) 21.50p +4.88%
Domino Printing (DNO) 342.00p +3.64%
Biocompatibles International (BII) 174.00p +3.57%
Anite Group (AIE) 43.50p +3.57%
Axis-Shield (ASD) 315.00p +2.27%
Renovo Group (RNVO) 39.75p +1.92%
SDL International (SDL) 318.00p +1.92%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Plasmon (PLM) 5.25p -12.50%
Ark Therapeutics (AKT) 72.00p -6.80%
ProStrakan (PSK) 71.00p -5.33%
Phytopharm (PYM) 21.00p -3.45%
Emblaze (BLZ) 47.50p -3.06%
ServicePower (SVR) 9.50p -2.56%
Filtronic (FTC) 78.00p -2.50%
Phoenix IT Group (PNX) 326.00p -2.40%
Ricardo Group (RCDO) 325.00p -2.40%
Tadpole Technology (TAD) 1.73p -1.14%

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