Krakow, Poland, May 5, 2011 / B3C newswire / - The largest Polish drug discovery company Selvita announced today it has entered into definitive agreements with investors in Poland to sell in a private placement 2,7 million shares of its stock at a price of PLN 5.5 per share, resulting in gross proceeds to the company of PLN 14,85 million ($ 5.5 million). The capitalization of the company after the issue will be around $ 21 million. Selvita expects its stock to be listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange NewConnect market in June 2011, subject to regulatory approvals.
Proceeds from the financing will be used primarily for the ongoing pre-clinical development of Selvita’s drug candidates including the potentially first in class compounds: SEL24 (Pim kinase inhibitor in oncology), SEL120 (anti-mitotic agent with a novel mechanism of action) and SEL113 (oncology and auto-immune disorders). The company will also expand its lab space for outsourcing of drug discovery projects which is the second pillar of Selvita’s business model.
“We are very happy with the closing of this funding round”, said Pawel Przewiezlikowski, the Chief Executive Officer of Selvita. “From the start of our company in 2007 we have grown a balanced portfolio of projects and services and built a strong customer base in the USA and Europe. Selvita is currently the largest independent drug discovery company in the region. We believe that our hybrid model allows us to offer the best of the Polish science to the global pharmaceutical market and takes full advantage of the country’s scientific base and its large pool of highly skilled researchers.”
The majority of the company shares will continue to be controlled by its management. The largest new shareholder will be Dr. Tadeusz Wesolowski, the founder of Prosper, one of the largest pharmaceutical distributors in Poland (currently part of Neuca group). Dr Wesolowski will also join Selvita’s supervisory board as its Vice President.
The Warsaw-based CC Group served as lead placement agent for the offering with Alior Bank acting as co-placement agent.
About Selvita - www.selvita.com
Selvita is a Polish, privately-owned, biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of breakthrough medicines to treat CNS, oncology and autoimmune disorders as well as provision of non-clinical research services. The company was established in 2007 and currently employs 115 people including 40 PhDs.
Selvita develops its own innovative drugs, which originate from research at Polish universities and later commercializes them with partners from the pharmaceutical industry. Selvita has currently several projects at early or late discovery stage and is expected to move its first candidates to the clinic in 2012.
The service part of the company delivers a comprehensive panel of products and solutions targeted at lowering the cost of, and accelerating, the introduction of new drugs to the market.
Since 2010, Selvita is also the owner of BioCentrum, which provides range of in vitro preclinical ADMET services, biochemistry services with special focus on protein engineering and recombinant protein production.
Selvita Group has experience in several areas of life sciences, and offers the following types of projects:
- Pre-clinical candidate projects derived from research at Polish universities
- Integrated drug discovery projects which include in silico modeling, and synthesis of a target-focused library, lead-optimization and preclinical development.
- Chemistry services, including contract synthesis, synthesis pathway design and optimization, analytical chemistry, as well as computational chemistry services.
- Biology services, including assay development such as ELISA and cytotoxicity assays, spectrophotometric, fluorescence and fluorescence anisotrophy measurements, as well as cell cycle arrest analysis and apoptosis/necrosis identification
- Advanced protein modeling solutions, based on our proprietary protein modeling platform, as well as services in computational chemistry.
Contact
Paulina Wolanin
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tel. : +48 668 111 456
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as ''anticipates,'' ``expects,'' ``plans,'' ``believes,'' ``intends,'' and similar words or phrases. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements related to Selvita’s research programs. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Selvita’s actual results to differ materially from the anticipated results and expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions based on current information and expectations and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in any of such statements due to various factors, including the risks and uncertainties inherent in clinical trials, and drug development and commercialization.