Due to Oversubscription, Offering Increased to $2,700,000
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LONDON, Ontario, July 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sernova Corp. (“Sernova” or the “Company”) (TSX-V:SVA) (OTCQB:SEOVF) (FSE:PSH) is pleased to announce that it closed $2,000,000 of its non-brokered private placement announced on June 26, 2018. In addition, as the Company has received over-subscriptions of $404,000, it is increasing the total amount of the non-brokered private placement offering of up to $2,700,000 for a total offering of 10,800,000 Special Warrants at $0.25 per Special Warrant. The Company plans to close the balance of the placement on July 20, 2018.
“We are pleased with the strong support from our longstanding as well as new investors including one of Canada’s most prestigious institutional funds who enthusiastically led this placement,” said Dr. Philip Toleikis, President and CEO of Sernova Corp. “We believe Sernova is the first in world to demonstrate survival and vascularization of human islets in a patented, implantable prevascularized device in our first assessment in humans and we are thrilled with our outstanding next-step clinical development program initiated at the University of Chicago for which this funding is primarily focussed.”
Net proceeds from the private placement will be used to support funding of Sernova's FDA cleared US Phase I/II regenerative medicine clinical trial and to advance corporate/academic collaborations utilizing the Company’s platform technology to treat diabetes, hemophilia and other serious disease conditions, as well as for general corporate purposes.
In the first closing on July 13, 2018, Sernova issued 8,000,000 Special Warrants at $0.25 per Special Warrant for gross proceeds of $2,000,000. Each Special Warrant will convert, for no additional consideration, into one Unit (“Unit”) on the earlier of the third business day after a receipt of a final prospectus qualifying the conversion is issued and the day after the expiry of the four-month statutory hold period. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one common share purchase warrant, with each warrant exercisable into one share at a price of $0.35 per share for a 24 month exercise period, subject to abridgement of the exercise period (after the expiry of the 4 month hold period) on 30 days notice to holders in the event that the twenty-day volume weighted price of the shares exceeds $0.50 per share.
Also, in respect of the first closing, the Company compensated finders by way of cash fees of $35,875 and 143,000 non-transferable finder warrants, each such finder Warrant will be exercisable into one share at $0.35 per share for a period of 24 months. The Company may also compensate finders on a portion of the increased private placement consisting of 7% in cash and 7% in finder warrants, or a combination thereof.
Completion of the private placement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issued in connection with the private placement will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months.
This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and all applicable state securities laws, or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.
About Sernova’s Cell Pouch Technologies
The Cell Pouch is a novel, proprietary, scalable, implantable prevascularized macroencapsulation device for the long-term survival and function of therapeutic cells (donor, stem cell derived cells and xenogeneic cells) which then release proteins and/or hormones as required to treat disease. The device is designed to eliminate concerns of fibrosis upon implantation by incorporating with tissue, forming highly vascularized tissue chambers for the transplantation and function of therapeutic cells. The device with therapeutic cells has been shown to provide long-term safety and efficacy in small and large animal models of diabetes and has been proven to provide a biologically compatible environment for insulin-producing cells in humans.
About Diabetes
Type1 Diabetes (T1D) is a life-threatening disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks and kills the pancreatic cells that produce insulin—a hormone that is essential for life because of its role to help the body use glucose. The existing standard of care for patients with TID is suboptimal. To date, there is no cure for T1D, and people living with the disease are dependent on exogenous insulin therapy to help keep their blood-sugar levels from spiking too high, which can lead to long-term complications such as kidney and heart diseases or an acute, potentially deadly health crisis. Present-day insulin therapy is, however, an imperfect treatment method that requires people with T1D to carefully monitor their blood sugar throughout the day and take multiple, calculated doses of insulin based on food intake, exercise, stress, illness and other factors. A miscalculation or unexpected variable leading to high or low blood sugar episodes are daily threats, and only a third of people with T1D achieve their long-term blood glucose targets, placing them at risk for T1D-related health complications.
About Sernova Corp
Sernova Corp is developing regenerative medicine therapeutic technologies using an implantable medical device and immune protected therapeutic cells to improve the treatment and quality of life of people with chronic metabolic diseases such as insulin-dependent diabetes, blood disorders including hemophilia, and other diseases treated through replacement of proteins or hormones missing or in short supply within the body. For more information, please visit www.sernova.com
For further information contact:
Philip Toleikis, Ph.D., President and CEO
Tel: (604) 961-2939
Philip.toleikis@sernova.com
www.sernova.com
Ray Matthews & Associates
Tel: (604) 818-7778
ray@raymatthews.ca
www.raymatthews.ca
Forward-Looking Information
This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could” or “should” occur. Although Sernova believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements, are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Sernova’s management on the date such statements were made, which include our belief about the conduct and outcome of clinical trials and that Sernova will be able to raise additional capital to fund its clinical programs including its planned US clinical trial. Sernova expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.