Cooley advised Immunocore on its $320 million (GBP £205 million) Series A financing round, the largest ever for a European biotech. The oversubscribed round includes new investors, Woodford Investment Management, Malin Corp., Eli Lilly and RTW Investments, as well as a number of new and existing investors of Immunocore.
"This deal is indicative of why Cooley, a leader in tech and life sciences globally, launched in London," said Justin Stock, Cooley's UK managing partner. "We are delighted to be advising on the Immunocore deal, which is the largest private life sciences financing in Europe, and which has the potential to be a game-changer in finding a cure for cancer."
Nicola Maguire, London-based life sciences partner at Cooley, commented: "We were delighted to work with Immunocore on this pivotal transaction for the company. Immunocore has the potential to become one of the world's leading biotechnology companies and we are proud Cooley can support the company in realising this mission."
Immunocore is a world-leading biotechnology company developing novel T cell receptor (TCR)-based biological drugs to treat cancer, viral infections and autoimmune disease.
The proceeds will enable Immunocore to further accelerate its pipeline of ImmTACs (Immune mobilising mTCR Against Cancer). ImmTACs are a new class of bispecific biologics which have the potential to treat a broad range of solid tumours either as monotherapies or in combination with other therapies to create best in class treatment regimes. In addition to delivering on its well-established partnerships, Immunocore will focus, in particular, on progressing its lead proprietary programme, IMCgp100, which produced positive Phase I/IIa trial data in April 2015 in patients with advanced metastatic cutaneous and ocular melanoma.
Update: July 29, 2015 – Fidelity Joins Record Life Sciences Immunocore Financing
Fidelity Management & Research is now also participating in the record $320 million (£205 million) Immunocore deal, the largest private life sciences financing in Europe to date.
Fidelity has participated in the $320 million investment syndicate that includes Woodford Investment Management, Malin Corp., Eli Lilly, RTW Investments, other unnamed investors and existing shareholders.
