Verona Pharma has announced that it is looking to raise up to £14 million through a placing, subscription, and open offer of more than 630 million new ordinary shares, conditioned on approval of shareholders. A general meeting will be held on March 24 2014. According to the company, the proceeds would be used for development of its inhaled dual phosphodiesterase (PDE) 3/4 inhibitor and an inhaled antitussive.
Verona CEO Jan-Anders Karlsson commented, “I am delighted at the strong demand for shares from institutions in both the UK and US for this proposed fundraising, which was significantly oversubscribed. We intend to progress our lead pipeline asset, RPL554 in further Phase 2 studies, as soon as possible, through the next significant value inflection point. We believe this novel bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory drug has the potential to be an important new option for the treatment of acute COPD, our initial target indication, where currently used treatments are not sufficiently effective. We also believe that RPL554 could be used as a maintenance treatment in patients with moderate to severe forms of the disease. The funds raised will also be used to add significant value to VRP700 by performing pre-clinical work and further important Phase 2 clinical studies in patients with intractable cough. Additionally, we continue to expect data from a proof of principle clinical trial with VRP700 in patients with chronic cough in mid-2014.”
The company said that it plans to use the money for three trials of RPL554 for severe COPD and preparation for Phase 2b studies in hospitalized COPD patients. Part of the proceeds would also go toward a dose-finding study of VRP700. Data from both sets of studies is to be reported in 2015, Verona said.
Read the Verona Pharma press release.
