Arovella Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:ALA) has completed a A$1.655 million placement to new and existing institutional and sophisticated investors.
Firm commitments have been received for $1.5 million to at $0.020 per share. A further $155,000 will come from board and management, subject to shareholder approval.
The placement attracted strong support from institutional and sophisticated investors, including specialist life sciences institutional investor Merchant Group.
The issue price of the placement represents a 9.3% discount to the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of shares traded on ASX over the 15-day period ending January 16, 2023.
Arovella managing director and CEO Michael Baker said: “It is terrific to receive such strong support from our long-term investors in this capital raising and we look forward to delivering value to all our shareholders.
"We have had a transformative 18 months, secured new technologies and team members and created an exciting strategic collaboration with Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF).
"The funds from the placement will allow us to progress our pipeline of innovative cell therapies, which we look forward to progressing through pre-clinical and clinical trials, towards commercialisation.”
Use of funds
The money raised will go towards manufacturing Arovella’s lead iNKT cell therapy product, ALA-101, in preparation for first-in-human clinical trials and to advance its DKK1-peptide targeting monoclonal antibody. This expands Arovella’s pipeline to target multiple myeloma and potentially solid tumour cancers.
During the past 18 months, the biotechnology company focused on developing its invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform has completed its transition to a cell therapy company with its efforts now being realised.
Arovella expects to release several key data readouts to the market over the remainder of this financial year. These include:
- in vitro (test tube) data showing the activity of ALA-101 in combination with Imugene’s onCARlytics product against solid tumour cells;
- in vivo data showing the activity of ALA-101 in combination with Imugene’s onCARlytics product against solid tumours in mice;
- validation of DKK1 as a novel cancer target for Arovella’s ALA-104 program; and
- in vivo data showing the activity of ALA-104 against multiple myeloma
“We are delighted at the level of support we have received for this placement. We look forward to developing our products through clinical trials and, ultimately, taking them to market.”