Acambis secures US govt smallpox contract; raises £40m in share placing
Acambis plc (ACM.L), the Cambridge-based vaccine development company, said it has raised£40m through a share placing fully underwritten by JPMorgan Cazenove and Piper Jaffray after news came through that it had secured a contract for smallpox vaccines with the US government.
The new share have been placed with existing and new UK and European institutional investors.
The placing was announced after news of the long-awaited award of a $425m, 10-year US Government contract for its ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine warm-base manufacturing..
Acambis will use the cash for capital and operational costs for its manufacturing facilities; deliver proof-of-concept data on ACAM-CDIFF vaccine against hospital- acquired C. difficile infections and, if appropriate, invest in a commercial-scale manufacturing capability; and further the Company's work towards submission of Investigational New Drug applications for new vaccines, including its herpes vaccine, as well as working capital.
CEO Ian Garland (pictured) said the day’s developments were "the next stage in the development of Acambis into a leading vaccine company developing novel vaccines.
“We are delighted with the support the shareholders have shown in supporting this placing. [It] will enable us to invest in manufacturing facilities for the US contract, progress our vaccine for hospital-acquired C.difficile infections and further our programme of new vaccines against influenza, genital herpes and other significant unmet medical needs."
The stock market didn’t get too excited by the double-edged news: a solid contract on the one hand offset by a swag of new shares. It marked the group’s shares up 0.5p to 122p, valuing the company at around £131.5m.
23 April 2008
