Nov 12, 2018   SOURCE: PR NewsWire

Arix Bioscience plc: Arix Participates in Harpoon $70m Series C Investment Round

LONDON, November 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

This Announcement Contains Inside Information Within the Meaning of the EU Market Abuse Regulation No.596/2014 

        
        - Arix's total interest in Harpoon increases to GBP20.2 million from GBP9.4 million 
        - Uplift of GBP4.7 million to Arix's most recent valuation 
        - Arix invests $8.0 million (GBP6.1 million[1]) to retain a stake of 11.3% 

Arix Bioscience plc ("Arix") (LSE: ARIX) a global healthcare and life science company supporting medical innovation, today announces that it has invested $8.0 million (GBP6.1 million[1]) in the $70 million (GBP53 million) Series C financing ("the financing") of Harpoon Therapeutics, Inc. ("Harpoon"), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engagers.

The funding round resulted in a write-up of Arix's initial investment in Harpoon to GBP14.1 million, a GBP4.7 million uplift to Arix's most recent valuation of GBP9.4 million [2]. Following the transaction, Arix's total interest in Harpoon has increased to GBP20.2 million, including the GBP6.1 million ($8.0 million) Series C investment.

Arix retains an 11.3% stake on a fully diluted basis and Arix's Mark Chin will continue to serve on Harpoon's board of directors.

As announced by Harpoon, new global institutional investors OrbiMed, Cormorant, Ridgeback Capital Investments, Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV) and NS Investment joined the Series C financing round. Additionally to Arix, Harpoon's existing investors MPM Capital, Oncology Impact Fund, New Leaf Venture Partners and Taiho Ventures, LLC also participated in the financing.

Proceeds from the financing will be used to support further advancement of Harpoon's immunotherapy programs based on its TriTAC (Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct) and ProTriTAC (Protease-activated Tri-specific T Cell Activating Construct) platforms, which are designed to harness the natural power of the body's immune system to fight cancer and other diseases.

Harpoon's lead product candidate, HPN424, is currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, or mCRPC. Harpoon also plans to initiate Phase 1 clinical trials in for HPN536 (a mesothelin-targeting TriTAC) for the treatment of mesothelin-expressing tumours, and HPN217 (a BCMA-targeting TriTAC) for the treatment of multiple myeloma, in 2019. Additionally, Harpoon expects to advance its first ProTriTAC product candidate into IND-enabling studies in 2019.

About Arix Bioscience plc 

Arix Bioscience plc is a global healthcare and life science company supporting medical innovation. Headquartered in London and with an office in New York, Arix Bioscience sources, finances and builds world class healthcare and life science businesses addressing medical innovation at all stages of development. Operations are supported by privileged access to breakthrough academic science and strategic relationships with leading research accelerators and global pharmaceutical companies.

Arix Bioscience plc is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. For further information, please visit http://www.arixbioscience.com

About Harpoon Therapeutics 

Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing a novel class of T cell engagers that harness the power of the body's immune system to treat patients suffering from cancer and other diseases. T cell engagers are engineered proteins that direct a patient's own T cells to kill target cells that express specific

proteins, or antigens, carried by the target cells. Using its proprietary Tri-specific T cell Activating Construct(tm) (TriTAC), platform, Harpoon is developing a pipeline of novel T cell engagers, or TriTACs, initially focused on the treatment of solid tumours and hematologic malignancies. Harpoon recently announced its second technology platform, ProTriTAC, that applies a prodrug concept to TriTAC in order to create T cell engagers that are designed to be preferentially active in the tumour microenvironment.

For more information, please visit http://www.harpoontx.com.

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1. All amounts shown are at an exchange rate of GBP 1.00 : USD 1.31

2. 30 June 2018 valuation of GBP5.2 million, plus further GBP4.2 million invested in July 2018 

        

        Enquiries 
        For more information on Arix, please contact: 

        Arix Bioscience plc 
        Charlotte Parry, Head of Investor Relations 
        +44 (0)20-7290-1072 
        charlotte@arixbioscience.com 

        Optimum Strategic Communications 
        Mary Clark, Supriya Mathur, Hollie Vile 
        +44-203-714-1787 
        optimum.arix@optimumcomms.com 

        Burns McClellan (US Media & IR Enquiries) 
        Lisa Burns, John Grimaldi, Bill Slattery Jr., Nancie Steinberg 
        +1-212-213-0006 
        arix@burnsmc.com

 

SOURCE Arix Bioscience plc