Funding facility for ReNeuron
Article Date: Nov 26 2009
ReNeuron's stroke therapy has received conditional approval in the UK to go to Phase I clinical trial
Stem cell therapy concern ReNeuron has clinched a £5 million equity funding facility and cut interim losses by a third.
The Guilford-based company, whose ReN001 stroke therapy has received conditional approval by the UK Gene Therapy Advisory Committee to go to Phase I clinical trial, reduced its loss from £3 million to £2 million in the year to September after cutting research and development costs by 42 per cent to £1.1 million and reducing general and administrative expenses by 25 per cent to £888,000.
AIM-quoted ReNeuron, which raised £3 million at 3p in May and ended September with £2.1 million cash, has now agreed a £5 million, two year equity funding facility with its joint broker Matrix Capital, which it can tap at its discretion at prices related to the market. Chief executive officer Michael Hunt says the facility will provide enough working capital to take the company through to mid-2011. He argues it ‘greatly reduces the financial risk in the business’.
Hunt and ReNeuron chairman Professor Trevor Jones say the company is finalising supplementary data requested by the advisory committee as a condition for ReN001’s Phase I trial. They expect the trial to start in the first quarter of next year.
Floated at 195p in 2000, ReNeuron shares crumbled to only 2.75p within the past year. They have now bounced to 6p, valuing the company at £20.4 million and showing those who subscribed to May’s placing a 100 per cent paper profit. They could rally further if the clinical trial goes well.
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