Scancell Holdings Plc (LON:SCLP) has raised £5mln in a strongly supported placing to fund clinical work on its pipeline of cancer immune-therapies.
The placing was priced at 10p per share with the bookbuild oversubscribed. Chairman John Chiplin applied for just over one million of the new shares.
Modi-1, the first product from its Moditope platform will receive a sizeable chunk of the money raised.
WATCH: Scancell raises £5mln in 'most successful round they've ever had', says CEO
Richard Goodfellow, chief executive, said: “Compelling pre-clinical data suggests that Modi-1 should be effective in up to 90% of patients with triple negative breast cancer, up to 95% of patients with ovarian cancer and up to 100% of patients with sarcoma.
“We expect to begin a phase I/II study in sarcomas, breast and ovarian cancers in Q3 2018 with first efficacy and safety data expected in Q3 2019.”
The Moditope platform works by using one the body’s key immune responses, CD4+ T cells, and harnessing them to eradicate tumours.
Moditope stimulates the production of killer CD4+ T cells that induce anti-tumour activity without toxicity.
Scancell added it also will use some of the money for its immunotherapy research, where its developing vaccines to stimulate dendritic cells already present at the site of the cancer.
The main function of these cells is to process antigens - foreign or toxic material - and alert the immune system.
Goodfellow added that funds will support SCIB1, the lead product from the Immunobody platform, where a submission of an Investigational New Drug application to the US FDA is expected in the third quarter this year.
Following that there will be an SCIB1 plus checkpoint inhibitor Phase II trial in Stage III/IV metastatic melanoma patients.
Shares rose slightly to 11.4p.
-- updates for placing result and share price --