20 September 2001

Egalet a/s announces USD 13.3 million financing through a Nordic Fund Raising

Egalet a/s, a Danish drug delivery company, today announces the completion of a 106.9 million DKK (USD 13.3 million) financing in a private placement. The investors include Bio Fund from Finland, Dansk Kapitalanlæg A/S, Danske Bank A/S from Denmark and QueQuoin Holdings Ltd. from Jersey. Danske Securities was the sole lead manager of the offering.

The proceeds from the offering will enable Egalet a/s to strengthen the organisation and expand the production capacity to reach the necessary critical mass in the areas of research, development, and manufacturing within drug delivery.

Jan Quistgaard, Chief Executive Officer of Egalet a/s commented: “We are very proud to present the new investors. The new funding will give Egalet a/s a unique possibility to speed up the development of the Egalet^® Technology and to attract further strong customers in order to position Egalet a/s as the leading Scandinavian drug delivery company”.
"Egalet is the most promising oral drug delivery concept we have seen, and I’m happy to join the team together with our Danish colleagues”, says Seppo Mäkinen, Senior Partner from the lead investor BioFund.

Egalet in brief:
Egalet a/s was established in 1995 with QueQuoin Holdings Ltd. as the majority shareholder and is based on the technology invented by Daniel Bar-Shalom, Director of Innovation & Research. Essentially, the technology builds upon a principle in which the medicine is incorporated into a polymeric matrix that is eroded by body fluids at a constant speed. The Egalet^® tablet is made by an injection moulding technique that is simple and involving only a few steps.
Drug delivery products currently reach the market largely as a result of a joint collaboration between a drug delivery company supplying the technology and a pharmaceutical company supplying the drug. The pharmaceutical company will tend to provide a large proportion of the collateral to support development of the product through to market launch and, in exchange, will own the majority of marketing rights, with drug delivery companies receiving a royalty on sales.
Egalet a/s has started efforts to license the Egalet^® technologies to major companies following the first partnership agreement and will in the future actively pursue additional development and licensing agreements.

"Bio Fund Management Ltd. is one of Europe's leading venture capital companies focusing in biotechnology.  It is privately owned venture capital company and invests mainly in enterprises that are operating in the field of pharma, medtech, nutrition and environment.  The territorial main focus is in the Nordic Countries."

"Dansk Kapitalanlæg A/S is the largest venture capital company in Denmark. The company has venture capital of almost DKK 2 billion. Since 1984 Dansk Kapitalanlæg has invested in 154 companies with more than 13,000 employees and annual turnover of more than DKK 13 billion. The investments are focused on companies with growth and earnings potential and is not limited to specific sectors. Currently, the portfolio consists of 70 companies with turnover totalling about DKK 4 billion and around 5,000 employees. The company is listed, and shareholders with holdings of 5% or more of the company’s share capital are: Danske Bank Aktieselskab, Nordea Companies Denmark, Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension, PFA Pension, LD Pension, Danica Forsikring and Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker A/S."

"QueQuoin Holdings Ltd. has been a majority shareholder in Egalet a/s since 1995. QQH is a venture capital company primarily focusing on investments in life sciences." .