Vivalis raises over €30 in oversubscribed rights issue

Funding

Vivalis has maintained the recent good form of life sciences companies on the Euronext in Paris, raising €30.3 million in a rights issue.

The proceeds will support Vivalis’ objective of developing a portfolio of proprietary monoclonal antibody products, and the further commercialisation of its Humalex antibody platform technology.

Franck Grimaud, CEO, said, “We are very pleased about the success of this capital increase despite difficult market conditions. The fact that around 97 per cent of all subscription rights have been exercised demonstrates our shareholders’ confidence in the balanced business model put in place at Vivalis.”

The fundraising is vindication of the decision to acquire the Humalex platform in the €25 million acquisition of fellow French biotech Humalys, earlier this year. That led Nantes-based Vivalis to seal a deal in infectious disease with Sanofi-Aventis in which it will generate antibodies for treating infectious diseases for onward development by Sanofi. Vivalis received an up front payment of €3 million, plus a potential €35 million in milestones for each product, and royalties on sales.

In return, Sanofi-Aventis gained exclusive access to the Humalex platform to develop antibodies against the pathogens that cause a number of (unspecified) infectious diseases.

Sanofi is an existing licensee of Vivalis’ cell culture technology, called EB66, which is used for the manufacture of recombinant human proteins.

As owner of the Humalex platform, the EB66 cell line and bio-manufacturing facilities, Vivalis has an integrated offering spanning from the discovery of antibodies to the production of pre-clinical and clinical batches. Vivalis plans use this to accelerate its development by developing a portfolio of proprietary products as well as signing other licensing deals for the Humalex discovery platform.