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Cytos revives lead program in $40M financing deal with Amgen,
venBio
March 21, 2012 — 7:53am ET | By Ryan McBride
Swiss biotech Cytos has scraped together $40 million to advance its
pipeline of immunotherapies, giving itself much-needed capital
after a cash crunch last summer forced the company to ax most of
its staff.
And now the biotech has the funds to propel its lead
drug CYT003 into a Phase IIb trial for allergic asthma.
VenBio led the new financing, which includes equity, debt and
warrants, and was joined by a syndicate of backers that includes
biotech giant Amgen ($AMGN) and the investment firms Abingworth and
Aisling Capital. The deal includes CHF 23.75 million in equity and
CHF 13.25 million in convertible notes, and the transaction wraps
up the restructuring of debt that the company announced last
year, according to its release.
Amgen and the
rest of the syndicate will own a 54% stake in Cytos at the close of
the deal, with an even greater stake in the offing if notes are
converted and warrants exercised.
Cytos and its investors in the new financing deal have agreed to
bring new blood to the company's board of directors, including
Arthur Krieg, CEO of RaNA Therapeutics, John Berriman, deputy
chairman of Algeta, Kurt von Emster and Paul Brooke of venBio, as
well as Joe Anderson of Abingworth. Thoref Spickschen, who was
elected vice chairman in 2010, won't be running for reelection to
the board, according to the company's release.
The financing and terms of the deal are
expected to be up for approval at the company's next annual
shareholder meeting.
"Amgen recognizes there is significant unmet medical need for the
treatment of asthma and we are pleased to support the ongoing
development of CYT003, a novel immunotherapy based treatment
approach which has already generated promising data in a number of
earlier clinical studies," Sean Harper, Amgen's executive vice
president of R&D, said in a statement.
Indeed, if CYT003 turns out to be a winner in the blockbuster
market for allergy meds, the syndicate will make out like bandits
with their bet on Cytos.
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/cytos-revives-lead-progra…