Solvonis Therapeutics PLC (LSE:SVNS, OTC:SLVNF), the London-listed biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for addiction and psychiatric disorders, has raised £1.3 million through a share placing.
The company is issuing 1.08 billion new shares at 0.12p each. It said the fundraising included participation from a UK institutional investor joining its shareholder register for the first time, though it did not name the firm.
Proceeds will be spread across three programmes rather than concentrated on the company's lead asset.
The first is SVN-001, a combination of intravenous ketamine and a structured relapse-prevention therapy, currently in a Phase 3 trial in the UK for severe alcohol use disorder.
Solvonis intends to assess adding international trial sites, including in the European Union, subject to regulatory, ethics and operational approvals and the agreement of its study partners.
The stated aim is to include EU patient data in the Phase 3 dataset, which the company said could strengthen future regulatory submissions and commercial discussions in European markets.
Money will also fund SVN-002, an oral thin-film formulation of esketamine intended for supervised administration in clinics in the United States.
That programme is being advanced under the Food and Drug Administration's 505(b)(2) pathway, a route that allows a developer to rely partly on data from an already approved reference product.
Solvonis reported positive pharmacokinetic data from a preclinical bridging study in June and now wants to complete the remaining work required for an Investigational New Drug application, the submission needed before human trials can begin in the US.
The third programme, SVN-015, is a discovery-stage compound aimed at methamphetamine and cocaine use disorders.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse selected the compound this month for further evaluation under its Addiction Treatment Discovery Program, following early cardiac ion-channel and off-target screening results.
Solvonis stressed that the institute's support is not a cash grant and that the company retains ownership of the compound and its intellectual property.
Turner Pope Investments acted as sole bookrunner and has been appointed corporate broker with immediate effect, replacing Singer Capital Markets.
