Targovax raises €21m in private placement

According to Targovax’ CEO Øystein Soug, the company “prepared and set up five new clinical trials in five indications in 2016. 2017 will be an even more important year as we start harvesting the data from these trials.” Accordingly, R&D cost are expected to increase for Targovax’ clinical candidates TG01, a cancer vaccine triggering immune responses vs. seven mutated p21RAS cancer peptides, and ONCOS-102, an GM-CSF-expressing, replication-incompentent virus that specifically targets cancer cells and induces T-cell reponses to transduced cells.

In the completed private placement, Targovax raised 10 million new shares at a price of NOK20. According to the Oslo-based company, the net proceeds of NOK200m (about €21m) are sufficient to finance five data read-outs from clinical trials through 2018, in addition to the three planned data-read outs in H2 2017. Furthermore, the company said it will use the proceeds for CMC development in preparation for future pivotal clinical studies.

Following registration of the share capital increase pertaining to the private placement, the company will have a share capital of NOK 5,219,971.90, divided into 52,199,719 shares, each with a nominal value of NOK 0.10. Subject to completion of the private placement, the Board of Directors intend to carry out a subsequent repair offering of up to NOK40m in which shareholders in the Company as of 8 June 2017, will receive subscription rights at the same price as in in the private placement. HealthCap VL.P and Norwegian Radium Hospital Research Foundation contributed in the placement.