Oncimmune Holdings PLC (LON:ONC) has secured an €8.5mln credit facility that will allow it “drive commercial adoption” of its lung cancer diagnostic.
It will be able to immediately draw down €5mln of the facility, provided by IPF Management, a specialist lender to the healthcare sector. The remainder can be tapped in six months.
As well as funding the push to take the EarlyCDT Lung device to market after a successful large-scale trial, the additional cash will also be used to fund research on other indications for the technology such as liver cancer.
"Last year we laid out our paths to value to accelerate growth and have been executing against this,” said chief executive Adam Hill.
“Fundamental to delivering our three-year forward strategy is the commercialisation of our portfolio of EarlyCDT diagnostic tests, the progression of our autoantibody service business, and helping other companies to develop their therapeutic products and target appropriate patient populations.
"By partnering with IPF, a leading growth debt provider specialising in the healthcare industry, we have strengthened our ability to deliver upon our strategic goals, enabling Oncimmune's growth at this exciting time."
The coupon on the debt is nine percentage points above the three-month Euribor interest rate, which currently sits at around 0.4%. The facility is for four years, but can be repaid early.
Oncimmune has also issued IPF a warrant, exercisable for seven years, that allows it to buy just over 2mln shares for 87p each.