Ryvu Therapeutics Announces Closing of Equity Offering with Gross Proceeds Over PLN 250 Million

KRAKOW, Poland, Dec. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ryvu Therapeutics [WSE:RVU], a clinical-stage drug discovery and development company focusing on novel small molecule therapies that address emerging targets in oncology, announced the completion of its public offering of 4,764,674 Series J common shares (“Public Offering”).

• As a result of the Public Offering, Ryvu has obtained gross proceeds of PLN 250.3 million from institutional and individual investors as well as BioNTech and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).
• The transaction was the largest public offering of shares on the Polish capital market since February 2022 and the largest-ever capital-raising transaction by a Polish biotechnology company.
• Considering all funds secured – including collaboration payments, European Investment Bank funding, and grants - the Company will have approximately PLN 500 million at its disposal to implement its development plans for 2022-2024.

“We are pleased with the results of the offering. There was a very high interest from investors. Both existing Ryvu shareholders and new investors took part in the transaction. Not only financial investors but also industry investors, such as BioNTech and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, invested in the Company, which supports the potential of Ryvu’s pipeline, including our lead RVU120,” said Pawel Przewiezlikowski, co-founder, the largest shareholder and CEO of Ryvu Therapeutics.

BioNTech received 1,917,437 shares or approximately 40% of the shares issued as part of the Public Offering. BioNTech is a global immunotherapy company and has gained recognition by developing the first approved Covid-19 vaccine. As part of the collaboration previously announced on November 30, 2022, BioNTech committed to investing EUR 20 million in this share issue, which subsequently was converted to an investment of approximately PLN 94 million.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Therapy Acceleration Program^® (LLS TAP) acquired 80,181 shares in the equity issue for approximately PLN 4.5 million. LLS TAP has been supporting the development of RVU120 since 2017. This equity investment by LLS TAP was the result of an amendment to the existing partnership whereby certain future contingent funding milestone payments due to Ryvu were converted to this equity investment.

Ryvu’s Chief Executive Officer, Pawel Przewiezlikowski, bought 182,000 shares in the share issue for approximately PLN 10 million. Augebit FIZ fund, whose investment committee includes Dr. Tadeusz Wesolowski, one of the first investors in Ryvu and a member of the Supervisory Board, bought 240,000 shares for approximately PLN 13 million.

The allocation of the offered shares took place on December 22, 2022. The expected listing date of the Series J shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange is expected in January 2023 pending regulatory approvals.

The Company will use the funds raised in the public offering to implement its Development Plans for 2023-2024, focused on maximizing the value of the Company for the Shareholders:

• broad development of RVU120,
• support of development of SEL24 by the Menarini Group,
• focus on synthetic lethality projects,
• acceleration of the portfolio of early-stage projects.

The Investment Firm and Global Coordinator in the process and transaction was Trigon Dom Maklerski, and the co-bookrunner was Biuro Maklerskie mBank. The Company’s legal advisor in this transaction was Chabasiewicz Kowalska i Wspólnicy. Blume Advisory was responsible for communications with the capital market.

About BioNTech

Biopharmaceutical New Technologies (BioNTech) is a next-generation immunotherapy company pioneering novel therapies for cancer and other serious diseases. The Company exploits a wide array of computational discovery and therapeutic drug platforms for the rapid development of novel biopharmaceuticals. Its broad portfolio of oncology product candidates includes individualized and off-the-shelf mRNA-based therapies, innovative chimeric antigen receptor T cells, bispecific immune checkpoint modulators, targeted cancer antibodies and small molecules. Based on its deep expertise in mRNA vaccine development and in-house manufacturing capabilities, BioNTech and its collaborators are developing multiple mRNA vaccine candidates for a range of infectious diseases alongside its diverse oncology pipeline. BioNTech has established a broad set of relationships with multiple global pharmaceutical collaborators, including Genmab, Sanofi, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, Regeneron, Genevant, Fosun Pharma, and Pfizer. For more information, please visit www.BioNTech.com.

About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Therapy Acceleration Program^® (TAP)

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society^® (LLS) is a global leader in the fight against cancer. The LLS mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS TAP is a strategic venture philanthropy initiative that builds business alliances and collaborations with biotechnology companies to identify potential breakthrough therapies with the ability to change the standard of care. LLS TAP funds late-stage preclinical studies, and proof of concept or registrational clinical trials to help advance therapeutics along the drug development and approval pathway. LLS TAP accepts funding applications on a rolling basis from companies with innovative science that has a high potential to improve patient lives. To learn more, visit https://www.lls.org/therapy-acceleration-program. Follow LLS on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Ryvu Therapeutics

Ryvu Therapeutics is a clinical-stage drug discovery and development company focused on novel small-molecule therapies that address emerging targets in oncology. Internally discovered pipeline candidates make use of diverse therapeutic mechanisms driven by emerging knowledge of cancer biology, including small molecules directed at kinase, synthetic lethality and immuno-oncology targets.

Ryvu’s most advanced programs are RVU120 — a selective CDK8/CDK19 kinase inhibitor with potential for the treatment of hematological malignancies and solid tumors currently in phase I clinical development for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, and phase I/II for the treatment of r/r metastatic or advanced solid tumors — and SEL24 (MEN1703), a dual PIM/FLT3 kinase inhibitor licensed to the Menarini Group, currently in phase II clinical studies in acute myeloid leukemia. Ryvu Therapeutics has signed multiple partnering and licensing deals with global companies, including BioNTech, Exelixis, Galapagos, Menarini group and Merck.

The Company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Kraków, Poland. Ryvu is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and is a component of the sWIG80 index. For more information, please see www.ryvu.com.

Disclaimer

This press release is solely for information purposes. This press release is by no means intended, whether directly or indirectly, to promote the offering, subscription or purchase of any securities, in particular Company’s shares and is not an advertisement or promotional material prepared or published for the purpose of promoting any securities or their offering or subscription or for the purpose of encouraging an investor, whether directly or indirectly, to subscribe for or acquire any securities.

This press release is not to be used or considered as, does not constitute or form part of, an offer to or solicitation of an offer to sell, purchase, exchange or transfer any securities or invitation to subscribe for any securities in Poland or any other jurisdiction, and does not constitute an advertisement of the securities in Poland or any other jurisdiction. This press release is not a basis of and should not be relied on in connection with or act as an inducement or an advertisement to enter into any contract or commitment.

This press release does not constitute a public offering in the meaning of the Regulation 2017/1129 of The European Parliament and of The Council of 14 June 2017 on the prospectus to be published when securities are offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market, and repealing Directive 2003/71/EC or any other offer or invitation to acquire any Company’s securities nor the incentive to submit bids for the acquisition or subscription of the Company’s securities. This press release does not constitute information about the Company’s securities and the terms and conditions of their acquisition or offering sufficient grounds to decide whether to purchase or acquire such securities.

The only legally binding documents containing information on the Company and the public offer of J shares of the Company (the “Offer”) (the “Offered Shares”) is the prospectus published on 7 December 2022, together with supplements and update announcements (the “Prospectus”). The Prospectus is available on the Company’s website: https://ryvu.com/pl/spo/.

This press release is not directed at, or intended for distribution to or use by, any person or entity that is a citizen or resident or located in any locality, state, country or other jurisdiction in which such distribution, publication, availability or use would be contrary to law or regulation or which would require any registration or licensing within such jurisdiction.

The approval of the Prospectus by the Financial Services Authority should not be understood as an endorsement of the Offered Shares. Potential investors should read the Prospectus before making an investment decision in order to fully understand the potential risks and rewards associated with a decision to invest in the Offer Shares.

The information and opinions presented or contained in this press release (including forward-looking statements) are accurate as of the date hereof (unless otherwise stated) and are subject to updating, revision, verification and amendment without notice and such information may change materially. Information and opinions herein may be subject to significant change. Neither the Company nor the persons acting on its behalf, in particular the members of the Company’s Management Board, the Company’s advisers nor any other person are under an obligation to correct, update or keep current the information contained in this press release or to publicly announce or inform you of the result of any revision to the statements made herein except where they would be required to do so under applicable law. This press release is made on the express understanding that it does not contain all information that may be required to evaluate the Company, its business or any of its securities. No part of this press release, nor the fact of its distribution, should form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract or commitment or investment decision relating thereto, nor does it constitute a recommendation regarding any securities of the Company.

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that reflect management’s current views with respect to future events, strategy and financial and operational performance of the Company. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance and underlying assumptions and other statements which are other than statements of historical facts. The words “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “forecast”, “intend”, “may”, “project”, “should”, “will” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Others can be identified from the context in which they are made. These forward-looking statements involve various assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties, estimates and other factors which are beyond the Company’s control and which may cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied from such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. No statement in this press release is intended to be a profit forecast. In addition, even if the Company’s performance and results are consistent with forward-looking statements, they may not be adequately predictive of future performance or development. Among the factors that may cause differences is that the Company’s expectations regarding the programmes under development may not be correct due to the inherent uncertainties associated with clinical trials and project development activities, and regulatory approval requirements, the Company’s reliance on third-party collaborations, and estimating the commercial potential of development programmes.

Neither the Company nor the persons acting on its behalf, in particular the members of the Company’s Management Board, the Company’s advisers nor any other person, shall have any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any information or opinions presented or contained in this press release nor shall they accept any responsibility whatsoever for, or make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the truth, fullness, accuracy or completeness of the information in this press release (or whether any information has been omitted from the press release) or any other information relating to the Company, in any form whatsoever, howsoever transmitted or made available, or for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this press release or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith.

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