Key highlights:
- QBiotics welcomes TDM Growth Partners as cornerstone investor
- TDM Growth Partners is investing A$50 million into QBiotics to accelerate QBiotics’ human drug development pipeline, support marketing of the company’s veterinary pharmaceutical STELFONTA® and strengthen the QBiotics team
- QBiotics plans to give existing shareholders the opportunity to invest at the same offer price as TDM
BRISBANE, Australia, March 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — QBiotics Group Limited, a life sciences company developing novel anticancer and wound healing pharmaceuticals, is pleased to announce a A$50 million placement of fully paid ordinary shares to TDM Growth Partners as a new cornerstone investor into the company. QBiotics plans to give existing shareholders the opportunity to invest at the same offer price as TDM.
QBiotics’ Managing Director and CEO, Dr Victoria Gordon said, “We are delighted to have secured TDM Growth Partners as a cornerstone investor. Having developed our relationship over a number of years, we see TDM as a long-term partner that is closely aligned with our ethical and principled approach to the business of pharmaceutical development and commercialisation.
“This funding enables QBiotics to aggressively pursue our human drug development pipeline in both oncology and wound healing, support marketing of our veterinary pharmaceutical, STELFONTA and further strengthen the QBiotics team. It should enable a step change in the pace at which we can bring our programmes forward,” Dr Gordon said.
Co-Founder of TDM Growth Partners, Hamish Corlett commented, “In the coming decades, some of the largest companies in the world will be biotechnology businesses which are being built today. Despite having many of the world’s leading healthcare institutions and minds, only one stand-alone, global pharmaceutical biotech category leader has been founded in Australia – CSL. We believe QBiotics has the potential to be the second. This is a rare and special opportunity. We are excited to become shareholders of a company that could change the lives of many.”
The placement follows the recent news that QBiotics’ drug STELFONTA was approved as a veterinary pharmaceutical by the US Food and Drug Administration – Center for Veterinary Medicine for the treatment of all grades of non-metastatic mast cell tumours in dogs.
QBiotics has a “veterinary to human” drug development pipeline and is currently leveraging the STELFONTA evidence to investigate its active pharmaceutical ingredient, tigilanol tiglate, across a number of human oncology indications. Four monotherapy trials are either underway or in late-stage development in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (Phase IB/IIA and Phase IIA), melanoma (Phase IIB) and soft tissue sarcoma (Phase IIA). In addition, a clinical trial combining tigilanol tiglate with an anti-PD-1 drug is currently being implemented.
ABOUT QBIOTICS
QBiotics is a public unlisted Australian life sciences company which discovers, develops and commercialises novel anticancer and wound healing products for human and veterinary markets.
Its lead product, tigilanol tiglate, is an intratumoural anticancer pharmaceutical targeting a range of solid tumours across multiple species.
QBiotics’ business model is to develop products simultaneously for the veterinary and human markets. Success in the veterinary programs validates QBiotics technology and de-risks human development, while generating early, non-dilutive revenues.
ABOUT TDM
TDM Growth Partners is a global investment firm with offices currently in Sydney and New York. TDM invests in fast growing companies run by passionate management teams. Its unique and flexible mandate allows TDM to invest globally in public and private companies. They operate on long-term time horizons, fully aligned incentives, and a commitment to help scale businesses they are proud of. TDM have a highly focused approach to investing, with a portfolio of no more than 15 investments. They have the ability to deploy capital up to $200 million per investment. For more information, please visit us at www.tdmgrowthpartners.com
ABOUT STELFONTA
STELFONTA is for the treatment of all non-metastatic cutaneous MCT and non-metastatic subcutaneous MCT, located at or distal to the elbow or the hock in dogs.
Tigilanol tiglate, the active ingredient in STELFONTA is a novel small molecule that acts through activation of specific isoforms of protein kinase C (PKC) and other inter-related factors[1], leading to rapid destruction of the tumour mass and the tumour’s blood supply, as well as stimulation of the immune system. Tumour destruction is followed by rapid healing of the site with minimal scarring.
|
[1] Boyle G et al. 2014. Intra-lesional Injection of the Novel PKC Activator EBC-46 Rapidly Ablates Tumours in Mouse Models, PLOS ONE, Vol 9, Issue 10 |