Advanced Oncotherapy has raised £14.9m from a new share issue, which will be used to progress verification and validation of its next generation proton beam therapy LIGHT system while work is halted at its Harley Street site and Daresbury Laboratory during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The company temporarily closed its Harley Street site and Daresbury Laboratory on 26 March in the wake of government guidance and said this was likely to delay the treatment of its first patients, currently scheduled for 2021.
In the meantime, it has shifted its focus to finalising the documentation required for the LIGHT System to gain regulatory approval.
It said new and existing investors had subscribed to the issue of 59,550,000 new ordinary shares at 25p per share, including a number of directors who have invested £190,000 in 760,000 subscription shares.
In addition, some directors have agreed to receive shares in lieu of salaries, fees and bonuses owed and 780,100 new ordinary shares have been issued as non-cash consideration to certain financial advisers in lieu of fees.
CEO Nicolas Serandour said: ‘Given the current difficult equity market conditions, we are extremely pleased to announce this fundraising of c.£15m backed by both new investors and existing shareholders. The funds raised will allow Advanced Oncotherapy to continue with the key development activities needed to obtain regulatory approval for our first LIGHT system at the Daresbury Laboratory including documentation and software development. We shall update the market on these and further developments in our pipeline for commercial orders in due course. The proton therapy market remains under-developed because of current high costs and a significant unmet medical need due to the rising population. We continue to believe that our LIGHT System will help address these issues for patients across the world once approved.’
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