Material Transfer Agreement

RNS Number:8873L
Henderson Morley PLC
16 January 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            16 JANUARY 2008


                              HENDERSON MORLEY PLC
                                     (AIM)

 Collaborative agreement between Australian Centre for Vaccine Development and
                              Henderson Morley plc


The Directors of Henderson Morley plc ("Henderson Morley" or "the Company") the
drug discovery company, are pleased to announce the signature of a material
transfer and collaborative research agreement with the Australian Centre for
Vaccine Development ("ACVD"), part of the Queensland Institute of Medical
Research.

The collaborative research agreement is to undertake the development of a
vaccine targeted at preventing Cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease the most important
preventable infectious disease of unborn children in the developed world. The
collaboration will use a combination of technologies from Henderson Morley and
ACVD. Each party shall bear its own development costs, and any new Intellectual
Property arising out of this collaboration shall vest jointly in Henderson
Morley and ACVD.

ACVD has a world class reputation for quality research and is at the forefront
in the discovery of candidate vaccine antigens as well as vaccine production and
the testing of potential vaccines and drugs at the cellular, animal model and
clinical levels.

Henderson Morley is developing PREPS and L-particles vaccine candidates based
upon non replicating herpes viruses that are DNA free.

The collaborative project will be using a CMV polyepitope antigen* developed by
the team at ACVD, incorporated into the PREPS and L-particles delivery vector,
to produce a new vaccine candidate targeted at numerous strains of  CMV.

Director of ACVD, Assoc Professor Rajiv Khanna, a global authority on the
development of a preventative vaccine against CMV, will be leading the
collaboration at ACVD. "I am very excited to be working on this important
vaccine program using PREPS and L-particles as a delivery vector for the
antigens developed by QIMR. Earlier studies, using a different viral vector were
very successful, and PREPS and L-particles offer advantages over this. I am
therefore optimistic for a successful outcome from this collaboration" quoted
Professor Khanna.

Executive Chairman of Henderson Morley, Andrew Knight, stated "We are very
pleased to be working with Professor Khanna and his team. He and his team have
an exceptional International reputation. The opportunity this collaboration
presents is highly significant both for the development of a successful vaccine
against CMV disease and for the Company."



                                      Ends

ENQUIRIES:

HENDERSON MORLEY PLC                                          Tel: 0121 442 4600
Andrew Knight, Chairman

BISHOPSGATE COMMUNICATIONS LTD                                Tel: 020 7562 3350
Maxine Barnes                                               Mobile: 07860 489571
Nick Rome

BREWIN DOLPHIN SECURITIES LTD                                Tel: 0113 241 0126
Neil Baldwin







Notes for editors

*polyepitope antigen - an epitope is the part of a molecule (usually a protein)
that is recognized by the immune system. In this case, a polyepitope is a
combination of proteins derived from several strains of CMV, that have been
joined together to make a single large antigenic molecule. A vaccine based upon
this polyepitope protein is intended to cause the production of immune responses
to several different strains of CMV virus.


CMV

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the most significant microbial cause of birth
defects, including brain damage and deafness, in developed nations, with 40,000
infected children born each year. (US government figures). One child every hour
becomes disabled due to congenital infection. No vaccine is currently licensed
for the prevention of CMV infection and The United States Institute of Medicine
has ranked the development of a CMV vaccine as a highest priority because of the
lives it would save and the disabilities it would prevent.

There are two important clinical settings where vaccination will have a
significant impact on health outcome. The first is the prevention of the
sequelae of congenital HCMV infection, and the second is in the prevention of
life threatening infections in those with a compromised immune system- usually
as a result of organ transplantation.




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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