TIDMSALV
RNS Number : 9979V
SalvaRx Group plc
22 April 2016
Press Release 22 April 2016
SalvaRx Group plc
("SalvaRx" or the "Company")
Investment in Intensity Therapeutics Inc and Convertible Loan
Note
SalvaRx (LON: SALV), a biotechnology company focused on
immunotherapy for cancer, is today pleased to announce its
investment in US-based Intensity Therapeutics Inc. ("Intensity"), a
private biotechnology company pioneering a new approach to treating
solid tumours. The Company has invested US$2 million in cash for a
9.2% interest in Intensity ("the Investment") as part of a Series A
funding round.
Intensity's platform, DfuseRx(SM) , identifies novel
formulations that can be comprised of currently approved and
effective cytotoxic or other anti-cancer agents for direct
injection into solid tumours. The Intensity products not only
directly kill tumour cells, but also improve the presentation of
tumour antigen to the immune system. Intensity's lead product,
INT230-6, shows strong efficacy in preclinical models against the
primary injected tumour without the devastating systemic exposure
normally associated with cytotoxic compounds. Moreover, this lead
compound can stimulate a potent systemic immune response that
affects distal tumours. It is hoped that INT230-6 will enter human
clinical trials before the end of 2016. As part of this process
Intensity is currently preparing an Investigatory New Drug ("IND")
filing with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a clinical
trial application for Health Canada.
Intensity has a collaborative research agreement with the
National Cancer Institute ("NCI") to explore these new drugs and
help determine their mechanism of action. The agreement with the
NCI provides Intensity with support through non-dilutive funds as
well as strong connections with one of the world's leading cancer
research institutions. At 31 December 2015 Intensity had net assets
of US$3.8 million.
Ian Walters, the CEO of SalvaRx commented: "This investment
provides SalvaRx with an opportunity to support the development of
an important oncology product that could begin clinical trials this
year. I have worked with Intensity as its Chief Medical Officer
since 2014 and during this time have been impressed by the high
quality of the pre-clinical data produced by its product
candidates. Intensity has worked with top-notch scientists to help
create a highly selective, potentially low toxicity treatment with
the ability to substantially impact many types of cancer."
Lewis H. Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity commented: "We are
very pleased with this investment by SalvaRx as part of our Series
A financing. Dr. Walters, who has been working with Intensity for
the past 20 months, leads our clinical trial preparation efforts
and has helped to build the company. As a result, we have advanced
our understanding of the Intensity technology and its medical
applications. With the funding and support from SalvaRx we are able
to further execute our strategic plans."
SalvaRx's investment in Intensity enhances its portfolio of
cancer immunotherapy candidates, which currently includes compounds
from iOx Therapeutics, a University of Oxford spin-out focused on
stimulating invariant natural killer T-Cells. SalvaRx's investment
in Intensity is designed to drive the development of Intensity's
technology into the clinic and help fulfill SalvaRx's mission of
promoting long term cancer survival using the body's own defence
system. The immune system can hunt other cancer cells in the body,
remove them and prevent recurrence. In the UK, 440 people die from
cancer every day. The market for cancer immunotherapies is
estimated to grow to $80 billion by 2020 (Global & USA Cancer
Immunotherapy Market Analysis 2020).
Convertible Loan
In order to facilitate its investment in Intensity, the Company
has issued US$1 million of zero coupon convertible unsecured loan
notes ("Loan Notes") to Jim Mellon, the Non-Executive Chairman of
SalvaRx and Greg Bailey, a Non-Executive Director of SalvaRx ("the
Noteholders"), who are both substantial shareholders in SalvaRx. Mr
Mellon and Dr Bailey are subscribing for US$0.5 million of Loan
Notes each. The Loan Notes have a term of three years, with a zero
coupon and may be converted in whole or in part at the Noteholder's
discretion at a price of 35.5p per ordinary share.
The Noteholders have undertaken not to convert their Loan Notes
in circumstances where (i) the conversion would result in the
Concert Party's holding (as defined in the Company's Admission
Document) in SalvaRx exceeding 74.66% on a fully diluted basis or
(ii) the percentage of shares in public hands would fall below
10%.
Related Party Transactions
The subscription by Mr Mellon and Dr Bailey for the Loan Notes
and the Investment constitute related party transactions under Rule
13 of the AIM Rules for Companies. Ian Walters is not considered to
be an independent director for the purposes of Rule 13. The
independent directors, namely Richard Armstrong, Kam Shah and Colin
Weinberg consider, having consulted with Northland Capital Partners
Limited, the Company's Nominated Adviser, that the terms of (i) the
subscription by Mr Mellon and Dr Bailey for the Loan Notes and (ii)
the Investment are in both cases fair and reasonable in so far as
the Company's shareholders are concerned.
-Ends-
SalvaRx Group plc
Ian Walters (Chief Executive) Tel: +1 203 441
5451
Northland Capital Partners Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20
Nominated Adviser and Broker 3861 6625
Matthew Johnson / Edward Hutton
(Corporate Finance)
John Howes / Abigail Wayne (Corporate
Broking)
Peterhouse Corporate Finance Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20
Joint Broker 7469 0932
Lucy Williams / Duncan Vasey
Media enquiries:
Abchurch Communications Limited
Jamie Hooper / Alex Shaw Tel: +44 (0) 20
7398 7712
salvaRx@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com
Britton Financial PR
Tim Blackstone Tel: +44 (0) 7557
051467
Notes to Editors
SalvaRx
SalvaRx was founded in 2014 to develop therapies within the
rapidly growing immuno-oncology market, which uses treatments
designed to boost the body's natural defences to fight the
cancer.
Immuno-oncology therapy is a fast growing and new therapeutic
area, a market expected to grow to $80 billion worldwide by 2020
(Global & USA Cancer Immunotherapy Market Analysis 2020).
SalvaRx's strategy is to invest in a portfolio of companies
involved in novel cancer immunotherapies and develop them up to
clinical proof of concept. SalvaRx provides portfolio companies
with operational support in addition to capital, either by managing
its portfolio companies directly or augmenting an existing
team.
Through its investment in iOx, SalvaRx is developing, under
licence from the Ludwig Institute, a series of molecules for cancer
immunotherapy. iOx has a clinical trial sponsorship agreement with
the University of Oxford to fund the first in human Phase I/II
clinical trial for its lead compound.
SalvaRx's management team has a proven track record of
discovering and commercialising drugs in the area of cancer
immunotherapy with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson.
The team is supported by an extended network of senior academic and
industry executives to promote commercial and scientific outcomes,
including licensing and partnering discussions. SalvaRx benefits
from an investment by Jim Mellon.
For more information please visit: www.salvarx.io
Intensity Therapeutics
Intensity Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2012 to pioneer a
new approach to treat solid tumour cancer using its DfuseRx(SM)
platform technology, which can address both the regional and
systemic aspects of cancer. Intensity's DfuseRx(SM) platform
technology can rapidly profile therapeutic agents and identify a
cell penetrating formulation of a given therapeutic agent for a
specific tumour type.
Intensity's formulations consist of proven, potent drug agents
formulated with a specially-matched, cell-penetration enhancing
compound; this approach increases the intracellular concentrations
of the active drugs throughout the tumours to a toxic level without
exposing the rest of the body to effective concentrations. Direct
injection of Intensity's product is sufficient to destroy a
patient's primary tumours, and the destruction of those tumors
trains the immune system to hunt metastases that are impossible to
treat directly. The dying tumours elicits an adaptive immune
response that can be further modulated with other
immunotherapies.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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