Amphion Innovations plc Annual General Meeting Trading Update
London, UK, 8 June 2006 - The Annual General Meeting of Amphion Innovations plc (LSE: AMP), the developer of companies in the life sciences and medical technology sectors, will be held in London today. We are providing the following trading update summarising promising progress made regarding some of our Partner Companies following on from the preliminary results announcement of 8 March 2006:
Durham Scientific Crystals, Ltd.
We are delighted to announce that Durham Scientific Crystals (DSC) this past month won the prestigious North East Business Association's Regional Innovation Company of the Year Award for 2006, sponsored by Barclay's Bank. DSC had previously won the North East Business Association's regional "Technology Company of the Year" award in 2005, sponsored by O2. Based in England's North East region, DSC is advancing world-leading technology developed at Durham University, dedicated to the field of medical imaging.
DSC also recently won a development contract worth £680,000 (approximately US $1.3 million) from Cenamps (the Centre of Excellence for Nano, Micro and Photonics Systems) to create a new product. DSC will retain rights to both the product and the IP resulting from its creation.
Says Mike Pitkethly, CEO of Cenamps, "Durham Scientific Crystals has demonstrated a continued ability to innovate boldly and with great success. Cenamps is delighted to support the continued development of a regional company that has world-wide potential."
Motif BioSciences, Inc.
Motif recently announced a relationship with the Shafallah Centre for Children with Special Needs, which opened last month in Doha, Qatar. Motif BioSciences, Inc., played an instrumental role in the design and development of the Shafallah Centre's Genetics Medical Centre, assisting in the procurement, identifying leading instrument vendors, and assisting in the installation of a first-of-its-kind genetics laboratory dedicated to conducting research on disorders that afflict the children of Qatar.
Motif is delighted to today announce the hire of Zaki Hosny as deputy chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Hosny comes to Motif from Merck and Company, Inc., where he most recently held the position of vice president of marketing and operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In that role, he was responsible for the development of marketing strategies for the entire product portfolio of the region. Prior to that he was the vice president and regional director for Merck's mid-European region, and during that time he successfully supervised business units with sales of over $1 billion.
Axcess International Inc.
AXCESS International, Inc., a leading provider of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems, last week completed an additional capital raise of $1.2 million, bringing the total raised in the recent campaign to $3.5 million. The funds are to be used in part to complete the development of a new RFID product designed to further exploit AXCESS' existing markets utilising asset, personnel, and vehicle tagging. AXCESS booked record RFID revenue of $453,563 for the first quarter of 2006, an increase of 88% from the same quarter in 2005 and 9% from the fourth quarter of 2005. On 6 June 2006, AXCESS announced a solution for managing and securing critical computer assets which hold privacy data. The ActiveTag™ RFID solution is applicable to data centres, record departments and enterprise operations where computer assets must be accounted for and protected to be in compliance with Federal and State Laws.
Supertron, Inc.
Supertron presented at the May 2006 show of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), where they displayed the first-ever commercially available superconducting coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. The products had an outstanding reception and Supertron expects them to ship later in 2006.
WellGen, Inc.
Amphion mourns with great sorrow the sudden and unexpected passing last week of Dr. David Evans, CEO of WellGen. Our thoughts remain with his co-workers and his family. WellGen today announces the addition to its management team of Steve Sisk as director of clinical operations. Steve Sisk has a background including more than 10 years of pharmaceutical and biotech industry experience (including Novo Nordisk, Nektar Therapeutics and Applied Biosystems) involving CRO management and negotiations, clinical study planning and the execution and direction of large cross-functional development teams. Steve received his BS in plant genetics from Cornell University and his MS from the University of Wisconsin, where he specialised in plant biochemistry and natural products drugs.
Richard Mansell-Jones, Chairman of Amphion, said:
"We are delighted with the strong progress made by our Partner Companies since the March release of our preliminaries. We look towards the remainder of 2006 with great confidence."
For further information please contact
Amphion Innovations plc
Richard Morgan, Chief Executive
+1 (212) 210-6224
Aaron Kwittken, Media Relations
+1 (646) 747-7144
Financial Dynamics
Ben Atwell / John Gilbert
+44 207 269 7169
About Amphion Innovations plc
Amphion Innovations plc is quoted on AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the symbol AMP. Amphion's business is the formation, financing, management and development of life sciences and technology companies, working in partnership with corporations, governments, universities and entrepreneurs seeking to commercialise their intellectual property.
On the web: www.amphionplc.com
