Int.biotech. Regulatory News (IBT)

INTERNATIONAL BIOTECHNOLOGY TRUST PLC

(the "Company")

Portfolio Update as at 29 May 2024

The Company announces that it has been informed that there has been a material adjustment to the valuation of an investment in one of the unquoted portfolio funds managed by SV Health Managers LLP in which the Company is invested. 

The net asset value ("NAV") of the Company will therefore increase by £7.2 million ($9.2 million) which corresponds to a 19.2 pence per share uplift in NAV and will be incorporated into today's unaudited NAV (calculated on the AIC basis).

This announcement follows today's announcement from Merck regarding the acquisition by Merck of EyeBio, a portfolio company in SV Health Managers LLP's Biotech Crossover Fund ("SV BCOF"), for $1.3 billion with an additional $1.7 billion in potential milestone payments. SV BCOF accounted for 2.5% of the Company's NAV as at 28 May 2024 and following this uplift in the value of SV BCOF, it will account for 5.2% of the Company's NAV.

EyeBio, a clinical stage ophthalmology biotech company chaired by SV Health Managers LLP's Senior Partner Kate Bingham DBE, announced positive Phase 1b/2A data in February 2024 which showed its product Restoret to be well tolerated in patients with diabetic macular oedema and neovascular age-related macular degeneration and demonstrated impressive results in the reduction of retinal thickness and improved eyesight.

Kate Cornish-Bowden, Chair of International Biotechnology Trust plc said, "We are delighted with this news. We made our initial investment in SV BCOF in early 2022 and this is the second significant acquisition in the SV BCOF portfolio since then, following Takeda's acquisition of Nimbus in February 2023."

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