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LONDON (Alliance News) - Immunotherapy developer Scancell Holdings PLC said Wednesday that it will raise up to GBP8.0 million via equity issue and also announced a technology acquisition.
Scancell shares were down 20% on Wednesday morning at a price of 14.10 pence each.
Scancell is to enact a placing and subscription, offering shares at 12.00 pence each, raising GBP6.0 million. If this is successful it will then raise a further GBP2.0 million through an open offer.
Given the price, this suggests it is to place 50.0 million new shares in the placing and subscription.
The net proceeds will be used to start Scancell's SCIB1-checkpoint inhibitor phase 2 combination study in the fourth quarter of 2018; to support Cancer Research UK's SCIB2 development programme; the start a first-in-human study of Modi-1 in the first half of 2019; and to start pre-clinical Modi-2 development work.
The placing will be conducted through a bookbuild run solely by Panmure Gordon.
On the fundraise, Chief Executive Cliff Holloway commented: "With this proposed funding we can build on the strong phase 1/2 data for our lead ImmunoBody product, SCIB1, and commence the next phase of clinical development in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in melanoma."
"This funding will also enable the first candidate from our Moditope platform, Modi-1, to enter the clinic in several cancer indications with high unmet need, including triple-negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer and sarcoma."
Scancell also announced an acquisition on Wednesday. It has agreed to buy "a number" of monoclonal antibodies from the University of Nottingham as well as a proprietary technology to enable the modification of the constant region of a human antibody to allow direct tumour killing.
These, it said, will complement its existing cancer immunotherapy platforms, ImmunoBody and Moditope.
Scancell will be responsible for the management and maintenance of patent applications assigned to Scancell from the University, as well as for filing new patents.
The University will receive royalties on future licence revenue or sales received on the antibodies Scancell has bought.
Holloway said: "Prof Durrant and the team at NUTAC have developed a versatile method to generate high-affinity monoclonal antibodies against cancer cell glycans that, when coupled to a novel method of activating the immune system, have potential as a new class of cancer immunotherapy.
"We believe this platform complements our existing ImmunoBody and Moditope platforms, significantly broadening the strength and potential of Scancell's immunotherapy pipeline."
