Chimeric Therapeutics secures $10.1m to fund clinical trial pipeline

Clinical stage cell therapy company Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX: CHM) has secured up to $10.1 million under a staged private placement over a 24-month period with US firm Lind Global Fund II.

Lind will make an initial advance payment of $3.1 million for use as working capital to support Chimeric’s clinical trial pipeline and therapy portfolio.

This includes Chlorotoxin CAR-T to treat glioblastoma; CDH17 CAR-T for neuroendocrine tumours, colorectal cancer and gastric cancers; and the CORE NK platform for patients with advanced colorectal and blood cancers.

The remainder will be funded in minimal increments of $1 million subject to mutual agreement and shareholder approval.

The initial payment may be used for subscription shares to a deemed value of $3.41 million within two years of the advance payment date.

Chimeric will pay Lind a $93,000 commitment fee on the date of the advance payment, representing approximately 3% of the payment.

Confidence in technologies

Executive chairman Paul Hopper said Chimeric was pleased to be partnering with Lind.

“The funds being injected into the business under the placement agreement demonstrates confidence in Chimeric’s technologies and will further strengthen our ability to develop and progress our clinical trial pipeline,” he said.

Lind manages institutional funds which provide growth capital to small and mid-cap publicly-listed companies in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

It makes direct investments of up to $45 million in syndicated equity offerings and selective on-market buys.

Since 2011, Lind has completed more than 150 direct investments totalling $2.25 billion in transaction value.

Share purchase plan

Chimeric will top up its placement equity with $12.6 million secured through a recently-completed share purchase plan.

New shares were offered at the lower of $0.04 and the price representing a 5% discount to the volume weighted average price during the five trading days up to 16 June.

Chimeric received applications for $1.5 million worth of new shares under the plan, priced at $0.035 per share.