Fusion Antibodies announces £3m share placing to help fund Covid-19 work

Northern Ireland contract research company Fusion Antibodies has announced a £3 million share placing to expand its mammalian antibody library to include Covid-19.

The funding will also support its existing work in oncology and be used for general working capital.

Some 3.3 million new shares will be issues at 90 pence each in two tranches, the company said. Demand for the shares came from both existing shareholders and new investors, with the placing oversubscribed. To satisfy demand, Fusion said a further 547,235 existing ordinary shares that were subject to lock-in and orderly market agreements were sold on behalf of selling shareholders to investors at the placing price.

The new shares account for 13 per cent. of the issued share capital of the company.

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Shareholders will need to approve £1 million of the share placing at a general meeting on May 15th.

"We are delighted to be able to announce this oversubscribed placing which will help us in our critical work. In these currently extremely challenging times, we now have the resources to undertake the additional proof-of-concept work on the Mammalian Antibody Library Discovery Platform in respect of COVID-19, as well as for our existing oncology targets, whilst continuing to support our clients in their vital role," said Paul Kerr, chief executive of Fusion Antibodies. "We remain confident that our products and services can help to accelerate finding a solution to this global health crisis."

Established in 2001 as a spin-out from Queen’s University, Fusion is a Belfast-based contract research organisation providing a range of antibody engineering services for the development of antibodies for both therapeutic drug and diagnostic applications.