Date: 2012-06-29
Type of information: Private placement
Company: Oxford Biomedica (UK)
Investors:
Amount: up to £16 million
Funding type: private placement
Planned used: The proceeds will be used to continue to develop Oxford BioMedica’s LentiVector® platform infrastructure in particular to build on its growing ophthalmology portfolio. Ophthalmology is a high growth market estimated to be worth €13.4 billion in 2011, increasing to €16 billion worldwide by 2016 (source: Visiongain). Oxford BioMedica currently has four ocular products in a revenue-generating partnership with Sanofi, three of which are in Phase I/II clinical trials.
Others: Oxford BioMedica, a leading gene-based biopharmaceutical company, has announced that it t intends to raise gross proceeds of up to £16 million (approximately £14.5 million net of expenses) through the issue of up to 641,037,353 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each (“New Ordinary Shares”) through a firm placing and open offer at 2.5 pence per New Ordinary Share.
It is intended that 440,000,000 New Ordinary Shares will be issued through the firm placing (the “Firm Placing”) to raise gross proceeds of £11.0 million and up to 201,037,353 New Ordinary Shares will be issued through the open offer (the “Open Offer”) to raise up to £5.0 million (together the “Placing and Open Offer”).
The Issue Price of 2.5 pence represents an 11.1 per cent. premium to the closing price of 2.25 pence per ordinary share on 28 June 2012 (being the last business day prior to the date of this announcement).
The Placing and Open Offer is subject to Shareholder approval and a prospectus incorporating a notice of general meeting is expected to be approved by the UK Listing Authority and posted to shareholders on or around 5 July 2012. It is expected that the general meeting will be held on or around 23 July 2012.
On 29 June 2012, Oxford BioMedica announced that Sanofi has elected to exercise its options to acquire two exclusive worldwide licenses for the Company’s ocular products StarGen™ and UshStat® for a total option payment of $3 million. The options give Sanofi the right to enter into further development and commercialisation agreements for StarGen™ and UshStat®. The option exercise supports Oxford BioMedica’s relationship with Sanofi and further validates the LentiVector® platform. Outside of the agreement with Sanofi, there are currently two additional ocular programmes; one for glaucoma which is in pre-clinical development, and another for uveitis which is at the research stage. Oxford BioMedica plans to progress Glaucoma-GT and Uveitis-GT towards clinical development with the opportunity to out-license both assets for later-stage development.
The Company is also pursuing initiatives to secure future funding, over and above the Firm Placing and Open Offer, for ProSavin® and TroVax®, and its technology, via non-dilutive grants, collaborations and strategic alliances with commercial, academic and clinical groups.
* On July 25, 2012, Oxford Biomedica has announced that the Company has received valid acceptances in respect of 23,362,652 Open Offer Shares from Qualifying Shareholders. This represents approximately 11.6 per cent. of the Open Offer Shares offered. All eligible applications received from Qualifying Shareholders will be allocated their pre-emption entitlements and all eligible applications under the Excess Application Facility will be allocated their Open Offer Shares as applied for.
Therapeutic area: Ophtalmological diseases - Rare diseases - Genetic diseases
