Bridge Loan from Three Existing Investors;
New Financing Planned for 1st Quarter 2010;
Company continues to implement its breakthrough drug discovery programme for
therapeutic antibodies to G-Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCR)
Copenhagen and Oslo, January 4th, 2010
Affitech A/S, (Nasdaq OMX: AFFI), the antibody medicines company, today
announced it has secured a bridge loan from three existing investors, Braganza
AS, Ferd AS and Verdane Private Equity AS, allowing the Company to proceed with
ongoing discussions regarding a proposed larger refinancing in the first
Quarter of 2010, and to continue with the transformation of Affitech into an
internationally competitive antibody therapeutics business.
Bridge Loan
The bridge loan, combined with existing cost containment programmes, provides
finance to allow the company to continue its ongoing discussions with new
prospective investors with an interest in Affitech's recently introduced
discovery strategy focused on generating therapeutic antibodies targeting
chemokine receptors (a class of GPCR molecular targets considered to be of key
potential importance in the treatment of cancer, inflammatory diseases and
other disorders)
The loan provides the Company with a draw down facility, if required, as
Affitech continues discussions regarding a new financing of the Company, which
is planned to be finalised before the end of the 1st Quarter of 2010. The loan
covers up to 9.33 M DKK to be accessed by the company in up to 3 separate
amounts. Each draw down, if required, carries an underwriting fee of 60% of
the loan amount and pays monthly interest at 2%. The draw down of the first
tranche is entirely at the Company's discretion whilst subsequent draw downs,
once requested by the Company, are at the discretion of the lenders.
Commenting on the Bridge Loan, Dr Robert Burns, Affitech's CEO, said:
“This loan facility provides Affitech with the time to complete its refinancing
and implement our plan to industrialise our anti-GPCR discovery platform. This
platform is expected to deliver multiple novel antibody therapeutic programmes
in 2010 and beyond which we intend to develop further with pharmaceutical
partners.”
Strategic Focus on GPCR Targets
The Affitech business strategy is now focused on the discovery and development
of novel therapeutic antibodies targeting GPCR molecules (G protein coupled
receptors). Many of the most clinically and commercially significant drugs in
the pharmaceutical marketplace target GPCRs. Within the broad family of GPCR
targets, Affitech has selected initially the chemokine receptor sub-group
against which to develop therapeutic antibodies and the company currently has
multiple pre-clinical programmes in this novel anti-chemokine receptor arena.
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For more information please contact:
Affitech:
Robert F Burns, PhD
CEO
Tel # +45 50 99 76 42
About Affitech
Affitech AS is a publically traded (Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen exchange) human
therapeutic antibody company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark with R&D
facilities in Oslo, Norway. The company utilizes a range of proprietary
antibody technologies for the discovery of fully human antibodies for
application in oncology, inflammation and other disease areas. CBAS™ (Cell
Based Antibody Selection) is Affitech's premier discovery engine for the
isolation of lead antibodies to cell surface molecules in situ. Several of the
Company's proprietary product candidates were generated by CBAS™. Further
information is available at www.affitech.com.
