Assistant Managing Editor

Proximagen Neuroscience plc is aiming to raise £50 million (US$80 million) through the placement of 35.7 million shares, in what the firm said is one of the largest UK biotech financings in the past decade.

On top of that, the London-based company said it is placing the shares at a price of 140 pence each, representing only a small 2 percent discount to its Thursday closing bid price of 142.5 pence.

It's an impressive financing by any account, but particularly in the UK, where firms are struggling to bring in even modest funding rounds, many of which are raised at sizeable discounts. Last month, for instance, Vernalis plc, of London, managed to bring in £22.1 million in a fully underwritten placement of 799 million shares priced at 3 pence each, representing a whopping 26 percent discount. (See BioWorld Today, May 6, 2009.)

Last week, Synairgen plc, also of London, succeeded in bringing in £6.35 million in a placement of 37 million shares at a much smaller 4.2 percent discount.

Proximagen's offering includes participation from new and existing investors, including Upsher-Smith Laboratories Inc., which partnered with Proximagen last year to develop PRX1, an early-stage formulation of L-Dopa for Parkinson's disease. Under the terms of that deal, Minneapolis-based Upsher-Smith agreed to pay up-front and milestone payments of up to $232 million to Proximagen. (See BioWorld Today, July 15, 2008.)

Proceeds from the placement - expected to total about £49 million after expenses - will bring Proximagen's cash position to £57 million and are expected to support the company's acquisition and in-licensing strategy for building out a drug pipeline targeting central nervous system disorders over the next two to three years. The proceeds also will fund development of those programs. Proximagen has not disclosed any specifics, but said that "a number" of drug development programs already have been identified and are "under negotiation."

Spun out of King's College London in 2003, Proximagen aims to acquire and develop CNS programs to commercialization, though its goal is to partner or out-license programs to other partners to defray costs. In addition to Upsher-Smith, the firm has a preclinical deal with German pharma firm Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, and is working with the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Dublin, Ireland-based Elan Corp. plc to develop PRX4, a viral vector-based treatment for Parkinson's disease.

Shares of Proximagen (LSE:PRX) gained 1.25 pence Friday to close at 143.75 pence.

In other financings news:

• AIMM Therapeutics BV, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the Life Sciences Fund Amsterdam BV said they closed the company's undisclosed financing round to support work on its technology platform and to develop antibodies against viral and bacterial targets. The firm, a spinout of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam, is developing its first product against respiratory syncytial virus.

• XOMA Ltd., of Berkeley, Calif., is raising gross proceeds of $12 million in its second financing in less than a month. The firm entered a definitive agreement with certain institutional investors to sell about 10.4 million units - each unit comprising one common share and a warrant to purchase half a common share - priced at $1.15 per unit. Canaccord Adams Inc. and Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences acted as placement agents. Proceeds from the transaction, expected to close on or about June 10, are expected to support ongoing development of XOMA 052, an antibody targeting interleukin-1, as well as for other working capital and general corporate purposes. Last month, the company added about $10 million through the sale of 11.8 million units at 85 cents each. As of March 31, the firm had about $21.6 million in cash. Shares of XOMA (NASDAQ:XOMA) slipped 12 cents, or 10 percent, to close Friday at $1.06.