Open Orphan PLC (LON:ORPH) said its hVIVO division has opened a new quarantine clinic in East London.
The new 19-bedroom Whitechapel Clinic is directly opposite the Queen Mary BioEnterprise Innovation Centre (QMB), which houses hVIVO's state-of-the-art FluCamp.
The converted former boutique hotel will be used as an additional unit for human challenge trials and volunteer recruitment screening. There are quarantine rooms across three floors, with each level fully converted to include a nurses’ station.
"Our newest quarantine unit greatly increases our capacity to facilitate hVIVO's pipeline of upcoming studies,” said chairman Cathal Friel in a statement.
“Our QMB clinic is now close to full capacity until December 2021, and as such, the newly renovated, state of the art Whitechapel Clinic will allow us to increase our study capacity substantially in the year ahead.
"We have leased the entire former Whitechapel Hotel and managed to convert the space on a very cost-efficient basis which is now almost fully booked to capacity for the first half of this year.
“This new facility will be run at the same high standard as our QMB site, and volunteers will be expertly supervised by our highly trained nurses and doctors in a safe and controlled clinical environment.”
In a separate statement, Open Orphan said it had received notice of exercise of warrants by investors who participated in the Venn loan note financing in December 2018 over 1,349,349 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the capital of the company at a price of 0.1p per share for 477,703 ordinary shares and at a price of 2.2 p per share for 871,646 ordinary shares.
The gross proceeds of this exercise received by the company amounts to £19,653.91.