Date: 2013-01-31
Type of information: Private placement
Company: Verona Pharma (UK)
Investors: Darwin Strategic Limited (UK)
Amount: £1.1m and £5.0m
Funding type: private placement, equity financing
Planned used: The net proceeds of the Placing and drawdowns under the EFF will be used: To finance a larger and longer duration bronchodilator study of RPL554 in COPD patients; - To finance an RPL554 bronchodilator dose-response study in COPD patients; - To finance comparator studies of RPL554 against other bronchodilators used as standard of care in COPD patients; - To finance a further VRP700 study, first referred to on 8 December 2011, to confirm VRP700’s activity in chronic, severe cough patients; and - To provide working capital for the Company until completion of the larger and longer duration RPL554 bronchodilator study.
Others: Verona Pharma has announced a placingof approximately 29.0 million ordinary shares of 0.1 pence in the capital of the company at 4 pence each (the “Placing Price”) to raise approximately £1.1 million before expenses. The Board also announces that the Company has entered into a £5.0 million equity financing facility (“EFF”) with Darwin Strategic Limited (“Darwin”), a company majority owned by funds managed by the Henderson Volantis Capital Team, a subsidiary of Henderson Global Investors who also hold a 9.35 per cent interest in the Company.
Since its admission to trading on AIM in 2006, Verona Pharma has raised £10.6 million of equity capital from its shareholders. With these funds it has developed two “first in class” drugs to treat unmet needs in respiratory disease; RPL554, which is targeted at Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (“COPD”) and asthma, and VRP700, which is targeted at chronic, severe cough. Each of these drugs has passed into Phase IIa trials, having successfully concluded pre-clinical and clinical Phase I studies.
Verona has demonstrated that RPL554 delivers clinically significant bronchodilation in COPD and asthma, and has a unique mechanism of action which is expected to be complementary to existing treatments. It has also been demonstrated to be well tolerated by patients with no evidence, at current dosage levels, of beta2-agonist-like side effects, anti-cholinergic drug-like side effects or PDE-4-like side effects.
Verona has also demonstrated in an investigator led Phase IIa study that VRP700, with a novel mechanism of action, creates significant activity in the treatment of chronic, severe cough.
Taking into account the progress achieved in the development of its proposed drugs and the significant unmet respiratory disease needs described above, the Board has refined Verona’s strategy to focus initially on developing RPL554, with nebulised delivery, to treat severe COPD, and on developing VRP700 to treat chronic, severe cough. The Directors believe that this focus on significant unmet market needs will afford the greatest prospect of accelerating shareholder value accretion.
Whilst these target indications will represent the near term focus of Verona, the Company will in due course focus on broadening the therapeutic use of RPL554, including its anti-inflammatory potential and use in treating asthma, and on progressing its early stage NAIPS research programme, any of which could lead to significant further value accretion, albeit in the longer term.
The net proceeds of the Placing and drawdowns under the EFF will be used: To finance a larger and longer duration bronchodilator study of RPL554 in COPD patients; - To finance an RPL554 bronchodilator dose-response study in COPD patients; - To finance comparator studies of RPL554 against other bronchodilators used as standard of care in COPD patients; - To finance a further VRP700 study, first referred to on 8 December 2011, to confirm VRP700’s activity in chronic, severe cough patients; and - To provide working capital for the Company until completion of the larger and longer duration RPL554 bronchodilator study.
Therapeutic area: Allergic diseases - Inflammatory diseases - Respiratory diseases
