Future Planet Invests in Vaccitech’s Series B Financing

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Future Planet Capital has invested in a $168m Series B financing announced today by Vaccitech Ltd. Future Planet joins other leading investors including M&G Investment Management, Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and fellow existing investor, Oxford Sciences Innovation. As part of the Series B financing, $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech will convert into Series B shares, resulting in total gross proceeds to Vaccitech of $168 million before expenses.

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital, explained: “Our decision to support Vaccitech last year, before the results of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca trials were known, has been vindicated by the vaccine’s approval for emergency use by national and international regulators. The success of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has increased our confidence in Vaccitech’s immunotherapy platform and our continuing support is signalled by our investment today.”

Bill Enright, CEO of Vaccitech, said: “We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs. We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”

Ed Phillips, Head of Origination at Future Planet, concluded: “This is a concrete example of our vision in action – financing the best minds to address global challenges. We look forward to working with other entrepreneurs and businesses dedicated to solving global challenges in the future.”

Vaccitech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer; in 2020 it co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford, AZD1222, which is known as the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca.

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About Future Planet Capital

Future Planet Capital is a global impact-led venture capital firm built to invest in growth companies from the world’s top universities. The firm invests in leading entrepreneurs and businesses profitably addressing the world’s greatest challenges across Climate Change, Education, Health, Sustainable Growth & Security.

About Vaccitech Ltd.

Vaccitech is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer. The company’s proprietary platform comprises proprietary modified simian adenoviral vectors, known as ChAdOx1 and ChAdOx2, as well as the well-validated Modified Vaccinia Ankara, or MVA, boost vector, all of which lack the ability to replicate in humans. The combination of a ChAdOx prime treatment with subsequent MVA boost has consistently generated significantly higher magnitudes of CD8+ T cells compared with other technologies and approaches. The company has a broad pipeline of both clinical and preclinical stage therapeutic programs in viral infections, solid tumors and prophylactic viral vaccine programs. The company is also co-developing prophylactic products for MERS coronavirus and Herpes Zoster with international collaborators. Vaccitech co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford (now known as AZD1222), which is now approved for use in many territories and exclusively licensed worldwide to AstraZeneca through Oxford University Innovation, or OUI. Vaccitech is entitled to receive a share of the milestones and royalty income received by OUI from AstraZeneca. Vaccitech is backed by leading institutions, including M&G, GV, Sequoia Capital China, Gilead Sciences, Tencent, Korea Investment Partners and Oxford Sciences Innovation.

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