Copenhagen, Denmark – Symphogen, a private biopharmaceutical company developing recombinant antibody mixtures, announced today that it closed an expansion of its previously announced €100 million financing attaining a total of a €141 million placement of preferred stock to a group of existing investors. Novo A/S and PKA led the expansion with investments of €20 million each, while Danica Pension, participated with its pre-financing ownership share of the additional financing. The proceeds of the financing will be used to advance and expand Symphogen’s proprietary oncology product pipeline of antibody mixture products addressing multiple targets in a single drug product.
Göran Ando, Chairman of the Board, noted:
“This additional financing emphasizes the strong support of our syndicate of investors and allows the company to further significantly expand its oncology pipeline of antibody mixtures, allowing us to build a broad pipeline of innovative cancer medicines.”
In conjunction with the financing, Dr. Anthony Tolcher, President and Co-Founder of START, joins Symphogen’s Board. Dr. Tolcher leads one of the world’s largest clinical Phase I and early drug development operations in cancer medicine with 3 locations in San Antonio Texas, Madrid Spain and Shanghai China.
Kirsten Drejer, PhD., Symphogen’s Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“We met an important goal last year when we partnered with Merck-Serono on our most advanced oncology asset. Going forward, we will continue to partner when appropriate as well as identify assets in our pipeline that we can advance to the market ourselves. A pro-forma cash position of more than €100 million and the addition of Dr. Tolcher to our Board allow us to execute on this strategic ambition. Dr. Tolcher not only strengthens our oncology drug development expertise, but brings strong insight into translational oncology drug development as a leading clinician in the field of oncology.”
Michael Nelleman Pedersen, Chief Investment Officer of PKA, said:
“Since our initial investment in 2011, Symphogen has delivered to our expectations and this additional investment provides unprecedented financial strength to develop and bring innovative cancer products to the market.”
Henrik Gürtler, CEO of Novo A/S, added:
“It is important to understand the significance of the investments of Danica Pension and PKA. This is Danica Pension’s first active investment in Symphogen, where they are participating independently rather than as a limited partner in a venture fund. Similarly, PKA, which first invested in Symphogen less than two years ago, has significantly increased its commitment to the company in this round. This is somewhat unusual in today’s venture investing arena. Both groups provide an important endorsement of the company’s focus, its ability to make strategic decisions and of course, to move programs through the clinic.”
About Symphogen A/S
Symphogen is developing next-generation antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and is dedicated to bringing truly innovative oncology products to the market. The company has advanced the frontier of antibody discovery by creating well characterized antibody mixtures that address multiple oncology targets in a single drug product. The company has matured its oncology pipeline and has currently brought two product candidates into the clinic. The company’s productive technology suite – capable of identifying, selecting and manufacturing optimal antibody mixtures – fuels Symphogen’s innovative pipeline. The lead oncology product, Sym004, was out-licensed to Merck KGaA in 2012 following phase 2 clinical data in late stage cancer patients. In total, the company has raised € 249 million in equity capital and employs 90 people, most of whom are based at Symphogen’s facilities in Copenhagen.
