Immunovia announces completion of preferential rights issue of SEK 28.7 million, adding to previously SEK 189.9 million directed issue
(LUND, Sweden) ― Immunovia AB, the Swedish molecular diagnostics company, announces today that it has successfully completed its SEK 28.7 million rights issue of which the subscription period ended on Monday October 17th. The underwriters, who had guaranteed 52% of the rights issue, will thereby not be assigned any shares through their guarantee.
285,072 new shares, representing 86.5% of the rights issue of maximum 329,451 new shares, were subscribed with preferential rights. Demand for excess shares by rights holders amounted to 184,969 new shares, of which only 44,379 new shares could be allocated. The total demand for the offering amounted to approximately SEK 40.9 million, reflecting an oversubscription rate of 43%.
The total amount, which is a record for a diagnostics company on Stockholm’s NASDAQ First North market, will be used primarily to initiate trials among diabetic patients which important new research shows are at high risk for pancreatic cancer. The trials will use Immunovia’s IMMrayTMPanCan-d blood-biomarker-based microarray test.
Pancreatic cancer continues to have the lowest survival rates among the major forms of cancer. Today it is very clear that the main focus should be early detection of stages I & II pancreatic cancer in order to improve conditions for survival. Around 10% of pancreatic cancer cases have genetic and hereditary causes, and persons in this risk group can be clearly identified for regular surveillance.
However, the vast majority (90%) of pancreatic cancer cases do not have the hereditary link and because the entire population cannot be monitored regularly, a first selection must be made.
Immunovia CEO Mats Grahn commented: “Recent research shows that patients aged over 50 suffering from diabetes also have up to 8 times greater risk than normal of developing pancreatic cancer. There is a growing consensus that the size of this group makes it a logical target for surveillance. This has led both public authorities and health institutes in several countries to initiate research programs to identify and assess the best ways to reduce fatality through early detection of pancreatic cancer among the diabetes risk group. We believe PanCan-d provides the perfect diagnostic and surveillance tool and are already in active negotiations to bring together the various research strands into an international consortium.”
The directed rights issue attracted several Swedish and Institutional investors including Handelsbanken Fonder, Ålandsbanken Fondbolag (which has been institutional investor in the company since the company's IPO in December 2015), E. Öhman J:or Fonder and Banque Internationale á Luxembourg.
“We see these successful emmisions both as an indication of confidence in our technology and in our commercialization approach,” continued Grahn. “In additional to the diabetes program, we will deploy the new funds to expand the geographical markets in the commercialization of IMMrayTM PanCan-d for high risk individuals in familiar pancreatic cancer. A smaller portion will be used to develop tests from the IMMrayTM platform for other cancer forms and the autoimmune disease Lupus (SLE).”
For further information, contact:
Mats Grahn, CEO Immunovia AB
Phone: +46 (0)70-532 02 30
E-mail: mats.grahn@immunovia.com
About Immunovia
Immunovia AB was founded in 2007 by investigators from the Department of Immunotechnology at Lund University and CREATE Health, the Center for Translational Cancer Research in Lund, Sweden. Immunovia’s strategy is to decipher the wealth of information in blood and translate it into clinically useful tools to diagnose complex diseases such as cancer, earlier and more accurately than previously possible. Immunovia´s core technology platform, IMMray™, is based on antibody biomarker microarray analysis. The company is now performing clinical validation studies for the commercialization of IMMray™ PanCan-d that could be the first blood based test for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In the beginning of 2016, the company started a program focused on autoimmune diseases diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring. The first test from this program, IMMray™ SLE-d, is a biomarker signature derived for differential diagnosis of lupus, now undergoing evaluation and validation. (Source: www.immunovia.com)
Immunovia’s shares (IMMNOV) are listed on Nasdaq First North in Stockholm and Wildeco is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.immunovia.com.