Britain's Immunocore raises $320 mln in record financing round

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, July 16 (Reuters) - Britain's Immunocore completedEurope's largest ever financing round by a private life sciencescompany on Thursday, raising $320 million from investorsincluding Eli Lilly & Co, Malin and WoodfordInvestment Management.

The Oxford-based biotech compnay said it will use theproceeds to accelerate its pipeline of new medicines it callsImmTACs, next-generation cancer drugs that fight tumours in waysantibody drugs cannot.

The investment by some of the healthcare sector's "mosthighly regarded international institutions" is anotherendorsement of that technology, Immunocore Chief Executive EliotForster said in a statement.

"This funding will be invaluable in assisting us to continuethe rapid advancement of IMCgp100 in the clinic," he said,referring to its most advanced drug, used to treat melanoma andwhich produced positive Phase I and II trial data in April.

Immunocore's drugs exploit the power of T-cell receptors --a part of the immune system -- to recognise changes that occurinside cells during cancer or viral infection. ImmTACs thenactivate the immune system to kill targeted cells.

Traditional antibody-based therapies only recognise changeson the surface of cells.

Analysts believe that such treatments to exploit the powerof the body's immune system may extend patients' livessignificantly and generate tens of billions of dollars in annualsales.

The funding represents further support for Immunocore'stechnology, having already signed research and licensingagreements with Lily, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.

Immunocore said the new funding was comfortablyoversubscribed and a number of its existing investors took part.

Irish life sciences investment firm Malin, which raised 330million euros ($360.3 million) in one of Europe's biggest lifescience stock market debuts in March, said on Thursday that itwould seek to raise an additional 42 million euros via a privateplacement.

It will sell the shares at 10.99 euros, above the 10euro-per-share issue price in March, to help with its $80million investment in Immunocore and said expressions ofinterest had already been received from existing shareholders.

"From a Malin shareholder perspective, the opportunity to beinvolved in Immunocore is a significant one, and one that wehave to take very seriously," Malin CEO Adrian Howd, who willjoin the Immunocore board, told Reuters.

"This has probably been one of the most overly subscribedand highly validated rounds I've ever seen for a relativelyearly stage biotech company. We have really landed somethinghere that is of huge potential value."

Adaptimmune Therapeutics, which co-owns T-cellreceptor engineering technology with Immunocore, launched aninitial public offering in the United States recently and has amarket capitalisation of $1.2 billion.($1 = 0.9159 euros)

(Editing by David Goodman)