BioWorld Today Correspondent

BioInvent International AB topped its cash reserves by raising $22.1 million in a private placement directed at international institutional investors and certain Swedish investors.

The Lund, Sweden-based company issued 6, 109,568 new shares, priced at SEK22.30 per share, which, it said, represents a discount of 5 percent on the volume-weighted average share price on May 31. The transaction took the form of an accelerated bookbuilding procedure, which was completed immediately after the markets closed Tuesday.

The newly issued shares comprise just over 9 percent of the company's enlarged equity base of 67,205,257 shares.

Existing shareholders responded Wednesday by nudging the stock down to a one-year low of SEK22.20. By mid-afternoon, the stock (STOCKHOLM:BINV) had edged back to SEK22.60, 5.8 percent off on the previous day's close of SEK24.

The transaction boosts BioInvent's reserves to around SEK300 million (US$48.5 million). It exited the first quarter with SEK161.9 million in cash. Since then it and its partner, Leuven, Belgium-based Thrombogenics NV, shared a €4 million ($5.8 million) milestone from Switzerland-based Roche Holdings AG, on the strength of their angiogenesis-inhibiting antibody TB-403 (RG7334) entering a Phase Ib/II trial in patients with glioblastoma multiforme. The same antibody is also undergoing a Phase Ib trial in hepatocellular carcinoma.

The new funding is intended to support the company's existing clinical pipeline, and will also enable it to pick up on attractive licensing opportunities.

"It's strengthening the balance sheet and increasing financial flexibility," CEO Svein Mathisen told BioWorld Today.

The company currently has four antibodies in clinical development, as well as a clutch of earlier stage programs that are nearing the clinic. "We are approaching certain value inflection points [that will be based on] important data – it's important that we meet those targets," Mathisen said.

Its most immediate clinical milestone will come in the second half of this year, when it is due to report on a Phase I trial of BI-505, an unpartnered antibody that binds Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1 or CD54), which is in development for multiple myeloma.

"We will not do a thing on the partnership front before we have the data," Mathisen said.

If the product's potential lies in a combination therapy, there may be a rationale for doing a deal. But there could also be a rationale for developing the antibody on a solo basis, as monotherapy. "This is data driven. We will wait to see the data," he said.

Data from a Phase II trial of BI-204, which binds oxidized forms of the low-density lipoprotein apoB100, are due in the first half of 2012. The antibody is being assessed for its potential to reduce the risk of heart attack in patients with acute coronary artery disease. The start of the trial triggered a $15 million milestone payment from Genentech Inc. (now part of Roche AG) in the last quarter.

Data from a Phase IIb trial of the Factor VIII inhibitor TB-402 in preventing thrombosis in 600 patients undergoing hip surgery are due in the second half of the year. As they have already done with TB-403, BioInvent and Thrombogenics are seeking a larger partner to take on TB-402.

"We're looking for partnerships now. We'd very much like to get a partnership before we start a Phase III trial," Mathisen said.

International investors, in the U.S. and continental Europe, took the majority of shares on offer, although certain Swedish investors were also included in the transaction. Mathisen said that about 20 percent of the company's investor base is now external to Sweden, which, he said, helps spread international awareness about the company.

In other financing news:

• Esperance Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Baton Rouge, La., closed a $7.5 million Series B financing to support development of its lead cancer candidate, EP-100. The round was led by Sanofi with an investment of $4.5 million, including $1.5 million in clinical and regulatory services, and included Louisiana Fund I, Themelios Ventures, Research Corporation Technologies and Advantage Capital Partners/Louisiana Technology Fund, plus current and new private investors.