Novo Holdings pours £53.5m into Oxford Biomedica

Gene and cell therapy company Oxford Biomedica announced on Tuesday that Novo Holdings has agreed to invest up to £53.5m in the group, in return for new ordinary shares representing up to 10.1% of the outstanding shares after the capital increase.

The London-listed firm said the proceeds would be used to repay its existing debt facility with Oaktree Capital Management in full, and to further develop its ‘LentiVector’ platform and proprietary product portfolio.

It said the price per new ordinary share to be paid by Novo Holdings was equal to the closing market price on 24 May.

The Oxford Biomedica board said the company was “at the centre” of the “rapidly-emerging” gene and cell therapy sector, by which “life-changing and curative” treatment had become a therapeutic reality.

Leveraging its LentiVector platform, the firm said it benefitted from a dual strategy to support its partners in the development and commercialisation of their gene and cell therapy programmes, while also pursuing the development of a proprietary product portfolio for later out-licensing.

That strategy had resulted in a number of partnerships, including with Novartis and Sanofi, as well as the out-licensing of OXB-102 to Axovant Gene Therapies.

The investment from Novo Holdings would enable Oxford Biomedica to take advantage of its leading position, and further exploit the growth opportunities in the sector, the directors added.

“Novo Holdings is a well-known and highly regarded long-term investor with significant expertise in working with innovative, life sciences businesses to unlock their growth potential,” said Oxford Biomedica chief executive officer John Dawson.

“This experience will be a great asset far beyond the financial commitment they have made to the group and their collaboration and support will be highly valuable as we seek to scale up our operations both on the platform and on the proprietary product portfolio.”

Robert Ghenchev, director at Novo Holdings, added that Oxford Biomedica was a “global scientific and manufacturing leader” within lentiviral vectors, which he described as one of the most established and well-validated technologies for delivering gene and cell therapies.

“This investment underscores Novo Holdings' commitment to supporting companies developing cutting-edge science that makes a real difference to patients and society.

“We are genuinely excited about this investment and look forward to working with Oxford Biomedica and supporting the group going forward.”