Cyxone Completes Acquisition of Drug Candidate Rabeximod
Cyxone AB (publ) announced today that the company has decided to complete the acquisition of drug candidate Rabeximod and issue approximately 1.9 million shares to complete the payment to OxyPharma AB. Cyxone entered into an acquisition agreement with OxyPharma in June 2017 for the drug candidate Rabeximod and now chooses to complete the transaction. The deal has strengthened Cyxone's development portfolio with a candidate in clinical phase II program and broadened the company's portfolio in autoimmune diseases.
Cyxone entered an agreement to acquire Rabeximod, a drug candidate in phase II development for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), in June 2017, with an arrangement that the company could choose to decide when the transaction would be completed, and payment will be paid under specific conditions. The company has now decided to complete the transaction and payment to OxyPharma through a non-cash issue consisting of 1,916,372 shares, which at today's share price corresponds to approximately 11.5 million SEK (issue rate at approximately 6.01 SEK). The payment means that the transaction is completed, but additional compensation may be paid in the future, as OxyPharma, under the agreement, is entitled to 10% of future net income linked to Rabeximod through, for example, advance payments and royalties from licensees of the product.
"The acquisition of Rabeximod is the most important milestone since Cyxone was founded. I have been following Rabeximod's development in OxyPharma for a long time and believe that this investment is very beneficial for our shareholders. We have in a short time been able to build a world-class autoimmune product portfolio, which has permeated the discussions we have had with different stakeholders regarding the financing of Rabeximod's phase IIb study," said Kjell G. Stenberg, CEO of Cyxone. "This is why we are now taking the opportunity to complete the payment and hope to return soon to our shareholders with more positive news regarding Rabeximod."
Access to the transaction and the implementation of the non-cash issue will take place today, on June 1, 2018. The mandate of the company's board of directors to complete the payment through a non-cash issue was given at the company's extraordinary meeting on December 11, 2017. The non-cash issue represents an increase in Cyxone's share capital by no more than 144,631 SEK, from approximately 1,343,254 SEK to approximately 1,487,886 SEK. The number of shares will increase in connection with the non-cash issue with 1,916,372 shares from 17,798,111 to 19,714,483.
