LONDON (Alliance News) - Immunotherapy developer Scancell Holdings PLC said Wednesday that it raised GBP7.5 million via a placing of 57.4 million shares and a subscription of 5.0 million shares at a price of 12.0 pence each.
Scancell shares were down 23% on Wednesday afternoon at a price of 13.50 pence each.
Scancell will now enact an open offer for up to 16.7 million shares at the same price as the placing and subscription to raise up to GBP2.0 million.
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 was conducted through a bookbuild run solely by Panmure Gordon.
Chairman John Chiplin took part in the placing, subscribing for 900,000 shares, giving him a total of 2.0 million shares, reflecting a 0.5% interest in the company.
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."
Scancell Holdings (SCLP)