Neovacs raises €6m through private placement

At the end of July, French biotech company Neovacs has announced the private placement of more than 9 million shares at a price of €0.65 per share to US biotechnology institutional investors. By doing so, the company will raise more than €6m. This will allow the completion of the phase IIb study regarding lupus disease, and the phase IIa study for the treatment of dermatomyositis (DM) with Neovacs’ lead therapeutic vaccine, IFNα Kinoid. The new funds could also finance the end of the preclinical concept study in type 1 diabetes. “This capital increase follows the FDA acceptance of a new Investigational New Drug application to expand into the U.S. our IFNα Kinoid clinical development programme in dermatomyositis, which supports Neovacs’ development strategy in the U.S., a country with a very high prevalence of lupus and where dermatomyositis is an orphan disease“, states Miguel Sieler, CEO of Neovacs. The new shares to be issued would represent 17.62% of the share capital of the company.

Just two weeks ago, Neovacs received the acceptance of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its IND application for IFNα Kinoid to treat dermatomyositis. This allowed the company to initiate its phase IIa clinical trial in the US. The study is already running in European centres in France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. The aim is to evaluate the immunogenicity, tolerability, and biological and clinical efficacy of IFNα Kinoid in 30 adult patients. DM is a rare, autoimmune and inflammatory disease, which affects mostly children and is characterised by severe skin lesions and muscle weakness.