Proveca Raises £4 Million Led By Catapult Ventures To Launch Children’s Drug Sialanar In Europe And Accelerate Children’s Medicines Pipeline

Manchester, UK – 29th March 2017. Proveca, a European paediatric speciality pharmaceutical company, today announced that it has raised £4m to fund the commercial launch of Sialanar™ and the development and commercialisation of its paediatric product portfolio. Sialanar™ is a treatment for chronic pathological drooling in children, launched in the UK by Proveca, to be followed by the rest of Europe. The investment was led by Catapult Ventures, managers of the GM&C Life Sciences Fund, alongside Kreos Capital, a leading European provider of growth debt financing.

The investment comes soon after the EU-wide PUMA (Paediatric Use Marketing Authorisation) regulatory approval of Sialanar™ (glycopyrronium, oral solution) for the symptomatic treatment of severe sialorrhoea (chronic pathological drooling) in children and adolescents with chronic neurological disorders. The investment will enable Proveca to develop sales and marketing capabilities in Europe.

Proveca was founded by Dr Simon Bryson and Dr Helen Shaw who each have extensive experience in the development and licensing of medicines for children - having secured two of the current three Paediatric Use Market Authorisations (PUMAs) approved to date.

Dr Simon Bryson said "Helen and I are pleased to welcome Catapult Ventures and Kreos Capital as investors in Proveca as we launch Sialanar™ across the Europe and advance our paediatric medicines portfolio. This is a significant milestone in enabling Proveca to deliver its business plan, which will make a significant contribution to addressing the unmet medical needs of children."

Dr Gareth King, Life Science Partner at Catapult Ventures said "We're delighted to have led this investment in Proveca and are excited by the potential to help build a leading European specialty pharmaceutical company focused on medicines for children."

Aris Constantinides, General Partner at Kreos Capital said "Proveca is a high-growth company poised for significant revenue growth with its UK launch of Sialanar and rapid international expansion. It is just the kind of exciting company that Kreos looks to invest in and I look forward to working with the Proveca team and equity investors Catapult Ventures and Albion Ventures."

Dr Christoph Ruedig, Partner at existing investor Albion Ventures said “We are looking forward to working with Catapult Ventures and Kreos Capital and grateful for their support. Proveca is committed to becoming the leading medicines company focused on children and the fundraising will help accelerate that vision.”

Proveca was advised on the deal by Dr Tim Wilson of Longcross Advisers and legal advisor was Amy Wright at 3volution. The GM&C Life Sciences fund legal advisor was Melanie Yeomans at Ward Hadaway and Kreos Capital was advised by Richard Bloomfield at Bird & Bird.

Contacts:
Gareth King, Life Science Partner
E: gareth@catapult-ventures.com
T: 01625 344300 M: 07720 051988

Anthony Cornwell or Danae Quek at Four Communications
Tel: 020 3761 4427 or albion@fourbroadgate.com

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Notes to Editors:

About Proveca

Proveca is a leading pharmaceutical company in the development and licensing of medicines specifically designed for children and adolescents and is currently developing innovative, child-friendly medicines in the fields of epilepsy, cardiology and neurology.

About GM&C Life Sciences Fund

Managed by Catapult Ventures, the GM&C Life Sciences Fund is a seed and early stage venture capital fund targeting life sciences businesses located in the Greater Manchester and Cheshire & Warrington region.

The Fund is the result of a collaboration between Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Cheshire East Council, and Manchester Science Partnerships and can be invested in ‘Life Science’ businesses across the following sectors:

• Pharmaceuticals • Biotechnology • Diagnostics • Life Science contract research organisations (CRO) • Healthcare technologies • Medical devices

With contributions from both private and public sector partners, the size of the Fund, at launch, is around £31m. Full details can be found at: www.gmclifesciencesfund.com

About Catapult Ventures

Catapult Ventures is an independent venture capital fund manager that has been investing in UK businesses across a range of sectors since 2002. Catapult’s owners operate a number of discrete funds on behalf of public and private sector investors with a total of c. £130m under the owners’ management. Notable realisations (over 4x return) include Blackstar Amps (4.3x), R5 Pharmaceuticals (4.7x), Whelan Refining (4.7x), QEK (4.5x), Lumora (5x), Oxford Cryosystems (5.2x), Systems Integration (4.9x) and Accutronics (9.1x). Catapult also invested in Abzena (AIM: ABZA) which listed in 2014.

About Kreos Capital

Kreos Capital is the leading provider of growth debt financing to high-growth companies in Europe and Israel. Since 1998, as the pioneer growth debt provider across Europe and Israel, Kreos has completed over 450 transactions and committed more than EUR 1.7 billion in 15 different countries. Kreos is dedicated to supporting management teams and their equity investors with flexible loan structures for all stages of a growth company’s development and to addressing the needs for growth capital, working capital, acquisition financings, lower mid-market buy- outs, roll-up strategies, banks re-financings as well as pre- and post-IPO financings. Kreos’s most recent fund, Kreos V, was launched in January 2016 and has EUR 400 million of equity commitments from top-tier institutional investors. The Kreos global team has extensive debt financing, management and equity investing experience, covering the pan-European market from its locations in London, Tel Aviv and Stockholm.

About Albion

The wider Albion group has just under £1 billion funds under investment management or administration and is a long term investor in UK businesses, from start-ups through to FTSE 100 companies. Funds managed by Albion Ventures LLP invest between £250,000 and £12 million into high growth businesses.

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