Proposed Accelerated Bookbuild for Vendor Placing

RNS Number : 2043N

Immupharma PLC

21 October 2016

 

21 OCTOBER 2016

ImmuPharma PLC

("ImmuPharma" or the "Company")

Proposed Accelerated Bookbuild for Vendor Placing and Issue of Equity

ImmuPharma PLC (LSE:IMM), the specialist drug discovery and development company, is pleased to announce a proposed placing of 7,100,000 existing ordinary shares of 10p each ("Ordinary Shares") held by Lanstead Capital L.P. ("Lanstead") to new institutional investors (the "Vendor Placing").

The Company also announces a proposed placing of up to approximately £0.8 million (before expenses) via the issue of new Ordinary Shares (the "New Share Placing"). The proceeds of the New Share Placing will be used to provide the Company with additional working capital.

Both the Vendor Placing and the Placing are being offered by way of an accelerated bookbuild ("Bookbuild"), which will be launched immediately following this announcement. It is proposed that both the Vendor Placing and the Placing are executed at a price of 35p per share (the "Placing Price"). The Company's joint broker Northland Capital Partners Limited will be acting as sole bookrunner in connection with the Bookbuild.

It is expected that the finalisation of the Bookbuild will commence immediately following this announcement and a further announcement will be made to confirm its completion in due course.

The Company's Sharing Agreement with Lanstead ("Sharing Agreement"), which was announced on 5 February 2016, remains in place. Upon completion of the Vendor Placing, in recognition of the Company's positive share price performance since the start of the Sharing Agreement, Lanstead has conditionally agreed to accelerate the next six monthly settlements to ImmuPharma under the Sharing Agreement which will result in ImmuPharma immediately receiving approximately £1.5 million, which will be applied to the Phase III clinical trial of Lupuzor™ as previously announced. The remaining settlements under the Sharing Agreement will recommence in May 2017.

Mr Robert Zimmer, the Company's President and Chief Science Officer, has expressed an interest in subscribing for Ordinary Shares in the New Share Placing at the Placing Price.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 ("MAR"). In addition, market soundings (as defined in MAR) were taken in respect of the Placing with the result that certain persons became aware of inside information (as defined in MAR), as permitted by MAR.  This inside information is set out in this Announcement.  Therefore, those persons that received inside information in a market sounding are no longer in possession of such inside information relating to the Company and its securities.

-Ends-

For further information please contact: ImmuPharma plc (www.immupharma.org) + 44 (0) 20 7152 4080 Tim McCarthy, Chairman Lisa Baderoon, Head of Investor Relations Twitter: @immupharma         + 44 (0) 7721 413496 Panmure, Gordon & Co., (NOMAD & Broker) [phone] Freddy Crossley, Duncan Monteith, Corporate Finance Charles Leigh-Pemberton, Corporate Broking Northland Capital Partners Limited (Joint Broker) Patrick Claridge, David Hignell, Corporate Finance John Howes, Rob Rees, Corporate Broking [phone]

Notes to Editors

ImmuPharma PLC 

ImmuPharma is a pharmaceutical development company listed since 2006 on AIM of the London Stock Exchange (LSE:IMM), focusing on developing novel medicines with high sales potential in specialist markets with serious unmet need. ImmuPharma is led by a commercially focused Board and management team with extensive experience.

Lupuzor^™

Lupuzor^™ (also referred to as Forigerimod, or P140) is ImmuPharma's lead compound and a potential treatment for lupus (or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus), a chronic, potentially life-threatening auto-immune disease. Lupuzor^™ has a novel mechanism of action aimed at modulating the body's immune system so that it does not attack healthy cells, and avoids causing adverse side effects.  It has the potential to halt the progression of the disease in a substantial proportion of patients.

Lupuzor^™ has been granted Fast Track status by the US FDA and approval to start Phase III under Special Protocol Assessment (SPA).  This SPA was subsequently amended due to its strong safety and efficacy profile to allow for a reduced number of patients in the pivotal Phase III trial thereby reducing the projected cost and time of development considerably.

The pivotal Phase III clinical study is entitled "A 52-Week, Randomized, Double-Blind, Parallel-Group, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of a 200-mcg Dose of IPP-201101 Plus Standard of Care in Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus". It is a pivotal study designed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of IPP-201101 and as a last step prior to the filing of the drug for approval with the US Food & Drug Administration ("FDA") and the European Medicines Agency ("EMA").  For more information please visit: www.ClinicalTrials.gov/lupuzor

Commercial Opportunity

There are an estimated five million people globally suffering from Lupus, with approximately 1.5 million patients in the US, Europe and Japan (Source: Lupus Foundation of America). Current 'standard of care' treatments, including steroids and immunosuppressants, can potentially have either serious side effects for patients or limited effectiveness, with over 60% of patients not adequately treated. GSK's Benlysta is the first Lupus drug approved in over 50 years and paves the path to market for Lupuzor™. Based on conservative estimates, and taking into account that Benlysta is priced currently at approximately $35,000 per patient per year, Lupuzor™ would be entering a market with the potential for multi-billion dollar sales. For more information on Lupuzor™ please visit: www.lupuzor.com

 

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