All the original Phytopharm patents and rights will revert to Phytopharm. In addition, Unilever has granted Phytopharm a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license, with the right to sub-license, to any Unilever patents, intellectual property rights and know-how connected with the Hoodia program.
Phytopharm and Unilever will work together to facilitate an orderly handover, under which Unilever will meet all costs of the Hoodia program through to December 31, 2008. Unilever will continue to support the handover process during the first half of 2009 and facilitate Phytopharm taking forward a proportion of the area under cultivation. In addition, Unilever will make available existing stocks of dried Hoodia and extract for Phytopharm to take over at its option.
Alistair Taylor, chairman of Phytopharm, said: Although it is disappointing that the collaboration with Unilever on Hoodia did not reach a successful conclusion, we are pleased to have agreed termination terms with Unilever which enable us to take the product forward with another partner.
Phytopharm continues to believe strongly that there are alternative product formats and applications for the commercialization of Hoodia. We will seek to identify potential partners in the areas of veterinary and orphan pharmaceutical products, as well as functional foods.