Patrys to receive funding of $15 million

Melbourne biotech Patrys announced today that it has secured funding of up to $15 million over the next three years to develop its lead natural human anti-body candidates into treatments for various cancers.

Singapore venture capital (VC) fund Advance Opportunities Fund (Advance) will give Patrys a minimum of $4 million for the first 12 months of the arrangement with an option to extend this by $1 million. A further two tranches of $5 million each will be provided over the next three years assuming the consent of both parties.

Part of the money will fund a large-scale clinical trial of Patrys' natural human antibody PAT-SM6 for the treatment of melanoma next year. This would follow a preliminary trial soon to commence at Royal Adelaide Hospital. Patrys also intends to commence manufacturing of its PAT-SC1 human anti-body this year in preparation for a Phase IIb trial targeting gastric cancer patients, while a third antibody PAT-LM1 is also being prepared for clinical trials expected to take place in the second half of next year and involving patients with a number of different cancers.

The investor, Advance, is an institutional investment fund managed by Singaporean based Value Capital Asset Management. Under the terms of the agreement announced today Advance will subscribe for structured notes, which it may elect to convert to ordinary shares using one of two pricing formulas. The first would see notes converted at a 35 percent premium to the weighted average price of Patrys shares at the beginning of each respective $5 million tranche. The second option is for the conversion of notes at a 15 percent discount to the weighted average price of Patrys shares at the time of the actual future conversion.

Commenting on the announcement Patrys Chief Executive Officer, Dan Devine said: “This facility secures an important source of funds at an exciting phase of the Company’s development as Patrys advances several lead products through various stages of clinical development."

Jason Fisher, a partner with Advance Opportunities Fund said that Patrys has the potential to be major player in the massive global cancer market.

“Internally, it has multiple products with upcoming clinical milestones, an experienced management team, and a very novel and promising human antibody platform and pipeline,” he said.”

“These factors point to great opportunities for value growth.”

Patrys shares closed today up 9.09 percent to $0.12.