Abivax completes oversubscribed 49.2 million-euro cross-over financing

French clinical-stage biotech Abivax (Euronext Paris: ABVX) closed up 5.6% at 8.45 euros on Friday, after it announced the successful completion of an oversubscribed 49.2 million euros ($49.3 million) financing with high-quality US and European biotech specialist investors.

These investor were led by TCGX, with participation from Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners, Deep Track Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Invus, and Truffle Capital through the completion of two transactions: (i) a reserved capital increase of around 46.2 million euros through the issuance of 5,530,000 newly-issued shares with a nominal value of 0.01 euro per share, representing 33% of its current share capital, at a subscription price of 8.36 euros per share and (ii) the issuance of royalty certificates for an amount of 2.9 million euros (together with the Capital Increase).

Abivax chief executive Prof Hartmut Ehrlich commented: “With these new financial resources, we will pursue the company’s strategic priority to conduct and timely complete our late-stage global clinical Phase III program of obefazimod for the treatment of ulcerative colitis. Following the compelling results of the previous obefazimod maintenance studies in UC, we are confident to confirm its excellent safety and efficacy profile in the upcoming Phase III induction and maintenance studies. There is still a very high need for novel therapeutic management options that offer a constant and long-lasting improvement of the quality of life of patients suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases. Abivax is highly committed to fully exploit the anti-inflammatory potential of our lead compound obefazimod across different indications, starting with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis.”