Shares in Amryt Pharma PLC (LON:AMYT) rose 15% after said it secured a €20mln European Investment Bank facility that will help fund a late stage clinical study of a potentially breakthrough treatment for a rare skin disease.
The cash will pay for a phase III trial of Episalvan, to demonstrate efficacy and safety, which is expected to get underway in the first-quarter of 2017.
Early data from patients with Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) will be available by mid-2018 with full commercial launch of the product expected the year after.
READ: Today's announcement in full
READ: The Big Picture on Amryt
WATCH: CEO Joe Wiley speaks to Proactive's Andrew Scott
EB is an inherited disorder where the skin becomes very fragile. The market for the new treatment is thought to be worth US$1.5bn a year.
The funding package is important as it spares investors dilution that would have come if Amryt issued shares to bankroll the development of Episalvan.
The loan, which can be drawn in three tranches, will also pay for the early development of AP 102, created to tackle a very rare neuroendocrine disease.
Chief executive Joe Wiley called the EIB deal a “significant milestone for Amryt [that] represents a material endorsement of our potential from a leading European investment body”.
“We remain very excited about the potential of Episalvan to treat Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare and distressing hereditary skin disorder that affects about 500,000 patients worldwide,” he added.
“Currently, there is no available treatment for EB and we believe that Episalvan, a topical gel, has a compelling clinical profile.”
At 3.15pm the shares were up 1.58p at 15.33p, valuing the business at £33mln.