Context
Humanigen is a US-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, developing an immunology and immuno-oncology portfolio of monoclonal antibodies.
The company is currently focused on the development of its lead product candidate, lenzilumab, a monoclonal antibody which has been proven to neutralize GM-CSF, a cytokine that is said to be of critical importance in the hyperinflammatory cascade, sometimes referred to as cytokine storm, associated with COVID-19, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (“CAR-T”) therapy and acute Graft versus Host Disease (“GvHD”) associated with bone marrow transplants.
Lenzilumab is currently in a phase III registrational trial for severe and critical COVID-19 pneumonia, which could lead to potential filing of an emergency use authorization application in Q4 2020. Additionally, lenzilumab also is currently being studied in a multicenter phase Ib/II potential registrational trial in combination with Yescarta® to reduce CRS and neurotoxicity in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The trial is being conducted in partnership with Kite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Gilead company, which markets Yescarta.
Humanigen intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to support its manufacturing, production and commercial preparation activities relating to lenzilumab as a potential therapy for COVID-19 patients and for general corporate purposes.
About Humanigen
Humanigen, Inc. is developing its portfolio of clinical and pre-clinical therapies for the treatment of cancers and infectious diseases via its novel, cutting-edge GM-CSF neutralization and gene-knockout platforms. We believe that our GM-CSF neutralization and gene-editing platform technologies have the potential to reduce the inflammatory cascade associated with coronavirus infection. The company's immediate focus is to prevent or minimize the cytokine release syndrome that precedes severe lung dysfunction and ARDS in serious cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The company is also focused on creating next-generation combinatory gene-edited CAR-T therapies using strategies to improve efficacy while employing GM-CSF gene knockout technologies to control toxicity. The company is also exploring the effectiveness of its GM-CSF neutralization technologies (either through the use of lenzilumab as a neutralizing antibody or through GM-CSF gene knockout) in combination with other CAR-T, bispecific or natural killer (NK) T cell engaging immunotherapy treatments to break the efficacy/toxicity linkage, including to prevent and/or treat graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).
Deal Team
Should you want to know more about this transaction, you can contact one of the team members above
Bryan, Garnier & Co acts as European Lead Manager to Humanigen on its USD 78 million Follow-on Offering
Bryan, Garnier & Co acted as European Lead Manager on Humanigen’s USD 78.2m (incl. fully-exercised Greenshoe) Follow-on offering. J.P. Morgan and Jefferies acted as Global Coordinator on the transaction.
In 2020, after of a series of successful clinical and financing announcements Humanigen’s share price strongly improved and was up of more than 320% year-to-date prior to the pricing. This favorable framework, combined with the company’s uplisting to the Nasdaq from the OTC market, allowed effectively a “re-IPO” of the company.
Demand came from international healthcare specialists with Bryan, Garnier & Co bringing diversified investors after successful virtual international non-deal roadshow meetings with Tier-1 specialists in mid-August 2020.
This landmark transaction demonstrates Bryan, Garnier & Co’s ability to bring international demand in a US-based and solely US-listed company. The capital raise marks also the 8th healthcare transaction for Bryan, Garnier & Co in 2020 year-to-date.
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