On May 18, 2016 AVEO Oncology (NASDAQ:AVEO) reported that it has closed its previously announced private placement of 17,642,482 units, consisting of one share of common stock and a warrant to purchase one share of common stock, at a price of $0.965 per unit, for gross proceeds of approximately $17 million (Press release, AVEO, MAY 18, 2016, View Source;p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2169231 [SID:1234512500]). The transaction was led by New Enterprise Associates and included New Leaf Venture Partners and Perceptive Advisors, among other institutional investors. Certain members of the Company’s management team and Board of Directors also participated in the financing.
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Piper Jaffray & Co. served as the exclusive placement agent for the financing.
Concurrent with the closing, the Company also announced that it entered into an amendment to its 2010 loan and security agreement, with Hercules Capital, Inc. Pursuant to the loan amendment, the Company borrowed an additional $5.0 million from Hercules. If specified conditions are met, AVEO may borrow an additional tranche of $5.0 million from Hercules in the first half of 2017 and repayment of principal on AVEO’s loans may be deferred to begin in 2018.
"We expect that proceeds from our private placement and amended loan agreement, together with our existing resources and certain anticipated operational milestone payments, will allow us to fully fund our U.S. tivozanib development strategy, including through at least pivotal Phase 3 TIVO-3 top-line data and a tivozanib-PD-1 inhibitor combination trial," said Michael Bailey, president and chief executive officer. "Securing funding for these studies, which we look forward to initiating in the near term, represents an important step forward toward our goal of making tivozanib available to patients with renal cell cancer in North America. We also look forward to upcoming decisions on marketing applications in the EU, submitted by our partner EUSA Pharma, and Russia, submitted by our partner Pharmstandard, for tivozanib as a treatment for first line renal cell cancer. We believe that these potential milestones, along with progress in our partnership-driven pipeline, could enable us to create meaningful shareholder value."
The securities sold in the private placement have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or applicable state securities laws, and accordingly may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. AVEO has agreed to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering the resale of the shares of common stock and the shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of the warrants issued in the private placement.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state. Any offering of the securities under the resale registration statement will only be by means of a prospectus.