ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB: Publication of Year-End Report 2019

Hørsholm, Denmark, February 26, 2020 – ExpreS2ion Biotech Holding AB (“ExpreS2ion”) hereby publishes its Year-End Report for the period January – December 2019. The report is available as an attached document to this press release and on the company’s website (www.expres2ionbio.com). Below is a summary of the report.

CEO Bent U. Frandsen comments

”In 2019, while reaching the highest revenues ever of SEK 13.8 million, a 56% annual increase, we were able to take several important steps towards becoming a more commercially and pipeline-driven company. We did this while also solidifying our position as a world-class producer of complex proteins for vaccine development, including work for several malaria vaccine projects. Being able to achieve all of this in one year as a small biotechnology company with limited resources is quite an achievement. However, a lesson to be learned is that our research-based progress was not always easy for the market to evaluate, and as a listed company we must strive to maximize shareholder value.”

Fourth quarter (01/10/2019 to 31/12/2019)

• Group turnover amounted to 3,611 (1,434) KSEK, which is an increase of 152 % compared to Q4 2018.
• Result after financial items amounted to -6,948 (-6,104) KSEK.
• Net income amounted to -6,342 (-5,585) KSEK.
• Net income per share* amounted to -0.47 (-0.47) SEK.

Twelve months (01/01/2019 to 31/12/2019)

• Group turnover amounted to 13,829 (8,868) KSEK, which is an increase of 56 % compared to Q1-Q4 2018.
• Result after financial items amounted to -19,087 (-18,853) KSEK.
• Net income amounted to -16,703 (-16,822) KSEK.
• Excluding extraordinary expenses related to operating AdaptVac and the change in executive management net income amounted to -12,032 (-14,646) KSEK.
• Net income per share* amounted to -1.27 (-1.46) SEK.
• Cash flow from operating activities amounted to -12,691 (-12,879) KSEK.
• Equity ratio** amounted to -5.8 (39.6) %.
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 5,418 (6,255) KSEK.

Numbers in parenthesis are the numbers from the same period in 2018.

*The Group’s net income per share: The net income for the period divided with the average number of shares for the period. The average number of shares for Q4 2019 amounted to 13,602,015. For the period January to December 2019, the average number of shares amounted to 13,202,015. During Q2 2019 a directed share issue was registered which increased the number of shares by 1,600,000. As of 31/12/2019, the total number of shares in ExpreS²ion Biotech Holding AB was 13,602,015.

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

Significant events during the fourth quarter

• On October 16, ExpreS²ion announced that the Company is increasing its working capital by securing a combination of a bridge loan and a loan facility of up to SEK 8 million in total. This will enable ExpreS²ion to further expand its business activities in line with the growth numbers reported for Q1 and Q2 2019.

• On October 17, ExpreS²ion announced that its joint venture company AdaptVac ApS (“AdaptVac”) has been awarded an InnoBooster grant by the Danish Innovation Foundation worth 0.8 MDKK (approx. 1.2 MSEK). The grant provides further resources for the development of safe and effective treatment for dogs diagnosed with DER2+ cancer. The project will also generate supportive data for AV001, AdaptVac’s preclinical human HER2+ breast cancer program.

• On October 24, ExpreS²ion launched a new tailormade S2 cell line, HighMan-S2™, after several years of research and development. This is the first member of ExpreS²ion’s new functionally modified S2 product line, GlycoX-S2™, which utilizes and expands the advantages of the ExpreS² platform in the development of new, effective vaccines and immunotherapies.

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• On December 12, ExpreS²ion announced that the Company has been awarded SEK 2.7 million as part of the Horizon 2020-funded OptiMalVax grant consortium, led by Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, to establish monoclonal Drosophila S2 cell banks for two new malaria vaccine candidates.

• On December 20, ExpreS²ion announced that the Company’s Board of Directors has appointed Bent U. Frandsen as the new Chief Executive Officer of ExpreS²ion, succeeding Dr. Steen Klysner as of December 20, 2019. Bent has been with ExpreS²ion since March 2016 and has served as the Company’s Chief Business Officer since August 2018.

Significant events after the end of the period

• On January 7, ExpreS²ion announced that its joint venture company 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 announced 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 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 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 announced that the company has signed an Option to License Agreement (“Agreement”) with AdaptVac 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.

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 February 26th, 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.