Oxford Biomedica to raise £8.1m in placing

Biopharmaceutical company Oxford Biomedica plans to raise £8.1m in a placing of 128.4m shares at 6.3p with new and existing investors.

The placing, which is priced at a 10% discount to the 7p closing price on 22 February, is to provide adequate working capital for the group to continue to fund its investment in the product development pipeline.

The funds will also be used for the development of lentiviral vector manufacturing-related technology to enable Oxford to take advantage of a number of important catalysts expected during 2016.

Chief executive officer John Dawson said: “The funds raised as a result of this placing will help us to build upon our strong position by furthering the development of our product candidates, and continuing to build and invest in our world leading lentiviral manufacturing capabilities."

Lentiviral vectors in gene therapy is a method by which genes can be inserted, modified, or deleted in organisms using lentivirus.

At 1233 GMT, Oxford shares were down 4.7% to 6.67p.