ImmuPharma raises £3.55m to fund research pipeline

The AIM-traded firm said the money was being raised through the issue of 32,272,727 new shares at a price of 11p each, using the maximum amount of existing authorities to allot shares.

It also entered into a sharing agreement with Lanstead Capital Investors.

The company said Alora Pharmaceuticals had subscribed for 10,909,091 new shares to raise £1.2m, being the parent company of Avion Pharmaceuticals, with which ImmuPharma signed a licence and development agreement in November 2019 for the exclusive rights to ‘Lupuzor’ in North America.

Lanstead Capital, meanwhile, had subscribed for 20,000,000 new shares to raise £2.2m.

Finally, it was placing 1,363,636 new ordinary shares to raise £0.15m.

The board noted that the issue price represented an 80% premium to the closing mid-market price of its ordinary shares on 17 December.

It explained that the £2.2m gross proceeds of the Lanstead subscription would be pledged by the company under a sharing agreement entitling it to receive back those proceeds on a pro rata monthly basis over a period of 24 months, subject to adjustment upwards or downwards each month depending on its share price at the time.

The monthly settlement amounts for the sharing agreement were structured to start two months following admission.

ImmuPharma said the sharing agreement provided the opportunity for the company to benefit from positive future share price performance.

The company said it had also agreed to issue to each of the subscribers and placees warrants on the basis of two warrants for each subscription and placing share, exercisable for 10 years at a price of 11p.

ImmuPharma said the proceeds of the subscriptions, placing and sharing agreement would be used primarily to fund investment into its research and development pipeline, general working capital, and cash expenses associated with the subscriptions, placing and sharing agreement of £0.19m.

“Our corporate repositioning since the board changes in August continues at pace,” said chief executive officer Tim McCarthy.

“These have been recognised by our long term shareholder Lanstead, a firm supporter of ImmuPharma since 2016.

“We are also delighted that our partner, Alora Pharmaceuticals has also recognised the shift in the company's investment and corporate proposition, supporting this fundraising at a significant premium to our current share price, together with Lanstead and another long standing institutional investor.”

McCarthy said the ImmuPharma team remained “committed” to reaching key milestones over the coming period.

“This includes taking our lead product Lupuzor into its pivotal phase 3 study in 2022, progressing our further late stage asset CIDP, where we are now gaining interest from potential partners to expedite this programme, and also our earlier stage assets including BioAMB within our anti-infective portfolio.

“We look forward to sharing further value enhancing newsflow over the next period.”

At 1438 GMT, shares in ImmuPharma were up 19.18% at 7,27p.