Scancell Holdings announces placing to raise £5m

Developer of immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, Scancell Holdings, announced a proposed placing of new ordinary shares in the company with existing and new institutional and professional investors on Thursday, to raise up to £5m.

The AIM-traded firm said the net proceeds of the placing would be used to support its clinical development pipeline of “novel” cancer immunotherapies, in particular to initiate clinical development of the first product from the Moditope platform, Modi-1, and to continue to support the pipeline arising from the ImmunoBody platform.

It said the placing was within the company's existing allotment authorities granted at its prior annual general meeting.

The chairman of the company was expected to participate in the placing, the board said, with the intention to acquire approximately one million placing shares.

“We continue to make significant progress with both our ImmunoBody and Moditope platforms and believe that success in further clinical studies should add significant value to the company,” said chief executive officer Richard Goodfellow.

“This proposed funding will principally allow us to begin clinical development of Modi-1, the lead product from our Moditope platform.”

Dr Goodfellow said “compelling” preclinical data suggested 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.

“Additionally, we will use funds for ongoing support of SCIB1, the lead product from our Immunobody platform, as we prepare to submit an Investigational New Drug application to the FDA in Q3 2017 ahead of our planned SCIB1 plus checkpoint inhibitor Phase II trial in Stage III/IV metastatic melanoma patients.”