Le Lézard
Classified in: Health
Subject: ACC

Pharming Announces Significant Conversion of its Ordinary Convertible Bonds


LEIDEN, The Netherlands, December 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Bondholders convert 26% (?3.0 million) of their bonds into Pharming Shares 

Pharming Group N.V. ("Pharming" or "the Company") (Euronext Amsterdam: PHARM) announced today that it has issued a total of 10,563,380 new shares from within the amount allocated to conversion of the Ordinary Convertible Bonds (the "Bonds") to redeem ?3.0 million of the Bonds being converted by their holders, thereby reducing the outstanding amount of the Bonds to ?8.5 million.  

The number of shares issued represents 2.0% of the outstanding shares immediately before the issue, and the number of issued shares following this conversion is 546,159,377.

At the same time, holders of 1,634,483 warrants to acquire Pharming shares have exercised their warrants cashless, resulting in the issue of 1,264,664 new Pharming shares.  These warrants were responsible for some of the financial adjustment at the end of each quarter for the last four quarters, and therefore this exercise will further reduce the size of these IFRS adjustments.

As the conversion occurs within the fully diluted capital, there is no net effect on the available share capital ('headroom'), which is however improved slightly by the cashless exercise of warrants to 142,906,743 shares.

Dr Sijmen de Vries, Chief Executive Officer of Pharming, commented: "This early conversion is very good news for Pharming shareholders. It reduces by more than 25% the effect of these bonds on our quarterly net results, where the change in the underlying value of the conversion shares is responsible for the large non-cash financial adjustments under IFRS. This conversion also saves Pharming cash and improves the bottom line through reduced interest payments. The cashless exercise of the warrants will also serve to reduce the non-cash adjustments each quarter, and reduces the future dilution risk from these warrants."

About Pharming Group N.V. 

Pharming is a specialty pharmaceutical company developing innovative products for the safe, effective treatment of rare diseases and unmet medical needs. Pharming's lead product, RUCONEST® (conestat alfa) is a recombinant human C1 esterase inhibitor approved for the treatment of acute Hereditary Angioedema ("HAE") attacks in patients in Europe, the US, Israel and South Korea. The product is available on a named-patient basis in other territories where it has not yet obtained marketing authorization.

RUCONEST® is commercialized by Pharming in Algeria, Andorra, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Syria, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Yemen.

RUCONEST® is distributed by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (publ) (SS: SOBI) in the other EU countries, and in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Norway, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.

RUCONEST® is distributed in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Venezuela by Cytobioteck, in South Korea by HyupJin Corporation and in Israel by Megapharm.

RUCONEST® has recently completed a clinical trial for the treatment of HAE in young children (2-13 years of age) and is also evaluated for various additional follow-on indications.

Pharming's technology platform includes a unique, GMP-compliant, validated process for the production of pure recombinant human proteins that has proven capable of producing industrial quantities of high quality recombinant human proteins in a more economical and less immunogenetic way compared with current cell-line based methods. Leads for enzyme replacement therapy ("ERT") for Pompe and Fabry's diseases are being optimized at present, with additional programs not involving ERT also being explored at an early stage at present.

Pharming has a long-term partnership with the China State Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry ("CSIPI"), a Sinopharm company, for joint global development of new products, starting with recombinant human Factor VIII for the treatment of Haemophilia A. Pre-clinical development and manufacturing will take place to global standards at CSIPI and are funded by CSIPI. Clinical development will be shared between the partners with each partner taking the costs for their territories under the partnership.

Pharming has declared that the Netherlands is its "Home Member State" pursuant to the amended article 5:25a paragraph 2 of the Dutch Financial Supervision Act.

Additional information is available on the Pharming website: http://www.pharming.com

Forward-looking Statements 

This press release of Pharming Group N.V. and its subsidiaries ("Pharming", the "Company" or the "Group") may contain forward-looking statements including without limitation those regarding Pharming's financial projections, market expectations, developments, partnerships, plans, strategies and capital expenditures. 

The Company cautions that such forward-looking statements may involve certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive, political and economic factors, legal claims, the Company's ability to protect intellectual property, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates, changes in taxation laws or rates, changes in legislation or accountancy practices and the Company's ability to identify, develop and successfully commercialize new products, markets or technologies. 

As a result, the Company's actual performance, position and financial results and statements may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set forth in such forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which should be taken as of their respective dates of issue, unless required by laws or regulations. 

Contact:
Pharming Group N.V.
Sijmen de Vries, CEO, Tel: +31-71-524-7400
Robin Wright, CFO, Tel: +31-71-524-7400
FTI Consulting, London, UK:
Julia Phillips/ Victoria Foster Mitchell, T: +44-203-727-1136
LifeSpring Life Sciences Communication, Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
Leon Melens, Tel: +31-6-53-81-64-27

    PRN NLD


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