ExpreS2ion – Interim report for the first quarter 2020 published

Hørsholm, Denmark, May 20, 2020 – ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB (“ExpreS2ion”) hereby announces that the company's interim report for the first quarter 2020 is published. The interim report is available as an attachment and on ExpreS2ion's website (www.expres2ionbio.com). Below is a summary of the report.

CEO Bent U. Frandsen comments

“Our decision to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is a great, albeit highly accelerated, example of Expres²ion’s new strategy. It will not always be this fast, but we believe we are now prepared in ExpreS²ion to develop our own pipeline.”

First quarter (01/01/2020 to 31/03/2020)

• Group turnover amounted to 2,829 (2,721) KSEK
• Result after financial items amounted to -5,935 (-4,956) KSEK
• Net income amounted to -5,234 (-4,341) KSEK
• Net income per share* amounted to -0.37 (-0.36) SEK
• Cash flow from operating activities amounted to -7,878 (-3,412) KSEK
• Equity ratio** amounted to 12.4 (64.2) %.
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 6,194 (10,139) KSEK.

Numbers in parenthesis are the numbers from the same period in 2019.

*The Group’s net income per share: The net income for the period divided with the average number of shares for the period. For the period January to March 2020, the average number of shares amounted to 13,988,828. As of 31/03/2020, the total number of shares in ExpreS²ion Biotech Holding AB was 15,202,015. Please note that the number of shares after the period has increased to 15,929,691 as a result of conversion of part of the loan from Modelio Equity AB.

**Equity ratio: Shareholder’s equity divided by total capital.

Significant events during the first quarter

• On January 7, ExpreS²ion announced that its joint venture AdaptVac ApS has been granted a US patent covering its core technology platform. This confirms the overall patentability and proprietary protection of AdaptVac’s entire pipeline and future projects. In particular, this consolidates the position of the AV001 breast cancer vaccine for which a specific divisional U.S. patent was issued in 2018.

• On February 6, ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS announced the initiation of a Wuhan Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) vaccine program. ExpreS²ion will produce viral antigens needed for diagnostics and vaccine research, focused on internal vaccine development efforts. The program’s first stage has a timeline of two-three months and is contained within ExpreS²ion’s existing budget.

• On February 24, ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS announced that the Company will lead a consortium of European expert entities in applying for the EU Horizon 2020 and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) grant calls for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Coronavirus vaccine development. The consortium includes all the bench-to-bedside expertise required for rapid clinical development of the COVID-19 vaccine that is already under development by ExpreS²ion.

• On February 25, ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS announced that a consortium led by the Company’s joint venture AdaptVac has been awarded a 0.6 MEUR Eurostars grant, of which AdaptVac directly receives 1.3 MDKK (1.8 MSEK). The grant will support pre-clinical safety and efficacy studies of AV001 (HER2-cVLP) in pet dogs with spontaneous cancer and non-human primates as part of the breast cancer vaccine clinical development program for AV001 (HER2-cVLP). ExpreS²ion expects to receive 0.7 MDKK (1.0 MSEK) from this grant.

• On February 26, ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS announced that the Company has signed an Option to License Agreement with AdaptVac ApS whereby ExpreS²ion may call an option to exclusively license in AV001 (HER2-cVLP), a preclinical-stage novel breast cancer vaccine candidate, which ExpreS²ion plans to develop towards human clinical studies. According to the agreement, ExpreS²ion has the right to call the option to license in AV001 within 12 months. The option price entails no upfront fee and can maximum amount to DKK 1.2M (SEK 1.7M) during the full option term.

• On February 26, ExpreS²ion published its year-end report for 2019. The report is available on ExpreS²ion’s website (www.expres2ionbio.com).

• On February 26, Expres²ion announced that the Company has received written confirmation from warrant holders that these parties will exercise all of their warrants of series TO 3. ExpreS²ion will thereby be allocated approximately 9.6 MSEK before issue costs. In connection with this share issue 1.5 MSEK of the loanprovided by Modelio Equity ABwill also be converted into new shares at the same share price as the warrants (SEK 6,00).

• On March 6, ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS announced that the consortium has been awarded an EU Horizon 2020 grant for the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Coronavirus vaccine development programme. The award funding amounts to 2.7 MEUR (28 MSEK), of which ExpreS²ion directly is funded with 0.88 MEUR (9.3 MSEK).

• On March 16, Expres²ion announced a rearranged event schedule due to Coronavirus travel restrictions.

• On March 31, ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS announced that the international next-generation influenza vaccine consortium INDIGO, led by the University of Amsterdam with ExpreS²ion as a participating member, has been awarded a 10.0 MEUR Horizon 2020 grant from the EU. ExpreS²ion’s participation is directly awarded 0.6 MEUR (approx. 6.7 MSEK) of this grant, which is estimated to be recognised as revenue evenly from H2 2020 through H2 2021.

Significant events after the end of the period

• On April 21, ExpreS²ion announced that 1.75 MSEK (excluding accrued interest) of the loan provided by Modelio Equity AB will be converted into new shares at a price of SEK 6.4925 (corresponding to the last 15 trading days volume-weighted average share price).

• On April 21, the shareholders of ExpreS²ion were invited to attend the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, May 26, 2020, at 4:00 p.m. at Clarion Grand Hotel, Stortorget 8, in Helsingborg.

• On April 24, ExpreS²ion announced that its joint venture AdaptVac and AGC Biologics, a global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) for Biopharmaceuticals enters into a partnership for the scale-up and cGMP manufacture of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the PREVENT-nCoV consortium. The partnership between AdaptVac and AGC Biologics has the potential to advance the initiation of the first clinical trial to the end of 2020.

• On May 4, ExpreS²ion announced that 1.75 MSEK (excluding accrued interest) of the loan provided by Modelio Equity AB (“Modelio”) will be converted into new shares at a price of approximately SEK 9.06 (corresponding to a 10% discount off the last 15 trading days volume-weighted average share price). Following this conversion there is no remaining outstanding 5 MSEK bridge loan to Modelio. In parallel, a new combination of a loan and a loan facility totaling up to 6.5 MSEK provides new working capital funding to the Company.

• On May 5, ExpreS²ion published its annual report for the financial year 2019. The report is available on the Company’s website (www.expres2ionbio.com).

• On May 6, ExpreS²ion announced that its joint venture AdaptVac has entered into an exclusive head of terms agreement with Bavarian Nordic, a global leader in the development, manufacture and commercialization of life-saving vaccines, to license the COVID-19 vaccine. The parties seek to enter into the final license agreement within the next two months. Upon execution of a final license agreement, Bavarian Nordic will pay AdaptVac an initial upfront payment in addition to future development and sales milestones and royalties. ExpreS²ion will retain a portion of the future milestone payments and royalties of AdaptVac’s revenue stream.

Certified Adviser

Svensk Kapitalmarknadsgranskning AB

Telefon: +46 11 32 30 732

E-post:

ca@skmg.se

 

For further information about ExpreS²ion, please contact:

Bent U. Frandsen, CEO
Telephone: +45 4256 6869
E-mail: buf@expres2ionbio.com
 

This press release contains information that ExpreS²ion is obligated to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication through the agency of the contact person set out above on May 20, 2020.

About ExpreS²ion

ExpreS²ion Biotechnologies ApS is a fully owned Danish subsidiary of ExpreS²ion Biotech Holding AB with company register number 559033-3729. ExpreS²ion has developed a unique technology platform, ExpreS², for fast and efficient non-clinical development and production of complex proteins for new vaccines and diagnostics. ExpreS² is regulatorily validated for clinical supply. The platform includes functionally modified glycosylation variants for enhanced immunogenicity and pharmacokinetics. Since 2010, the Company has produced more than 300 proteins and 40 virus-like particles (VLPs) in collaboration with leading research institutions and companies. Since 2017, ExpreS²ion develops novel VLP based vaccines through its joint venture AdaptVac ApS. For additional information, please visit www.expres2ionbio.com and www.adaptvac.com.