Allergy Therapeutics plc (LON:AGY) has raised £10.6mln to fund the expansion of the phase III clinical trial of its grass pollen-induced hay fever immunotherapy.
The AIM-quoted firm placed 40mln new shares at 26.5p each – slightly below yesterday’s closing price of 28p.
READ: AGY full-year revenues to rise despite weak pollen season
“Allergy Therapeutics is poised for a transformational period of growth both with our marketed products and our R&D pipeline,” said chief executive Manuel Llobet.
“With this successful placing and subscription, we will expand our planned phase III PQ Grass trial, scheduled to start in H2 2019, including a project to analyse pollen trends in the US to maximise the exposure of patients to grass pollen.
“We will also support the Acarovac phase II trial and, looking further out, further progress our diversified pipeline of patient-friendly, convenient to use products including Polyvac Peanut.”
Earlier this year, Allergy hailed the “extremely positive results” from the phase II trial of PQ Grass, with those taking the drug showing “a highly statistically significant” reduction in symptoms compared to patients in the placebo arm of the study.
READ: AGY readies PQ Grass for phase III trial
Allergy already has a treatment for grass pollen-induced allergic rhinitis – a fancy term for hay fever. But this new formulation is an injection which includes an adjuvant to help boost the body’s immune response.
One of the key target markets for PQ Grass is the US, where it would be the first immunotherapy injection to be registered and where peak grass vaccine sales could be US$300-$400mln a year.
As well as funding the late-stage PQ Grass trial, the cash will also be used to part-fund the phase II study of Acarovac, the company’s dust mite allergy treatment.
Allergy share dipped 2.5% to 27p on Thursday morning.
--Updates for completion of placing, share price--