Cooley Advises Immunocore on Largest European Private Life Sciences Financing on Record

London – July 20, 2015 – Cooley advised Immunocore Limited 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 Corporation, 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 Company ("Fidelity") 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 Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company, RTW Investments, other unnamed investors and existing shareholders.

The team advising Immunocore included life sciences partners Nicola Maguire and John Wilkinson, corporate partners Marc Recht and Div Gupta and associates Aaron Archer, Alison Haggerty, Adam Lewington and trainee Emma Kingston.

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About Immunocore

Immunocore is one of the world's leading biotechnology companies, with a highly innovative immuno-oncology platform technology called ImmTACs. ImmTACs are a novel class of biologic drugs based on the Company's proprietary T cell receptor (TCR) technology which have the potential to treat diseases with high unmet medical need including cancer, viral infections and autoimmune diseases. Immunocore, based on decades of world-leading scientific innovation in the discovery of HLA targets and T cell receptor technology, has a pipeline of wholly-owned and partnered ImmTAC programmes with robust clinical data, validated by collaborations with world-leading pharmaceutical companies. Immunocore aims to leverage the utility of its platform across a wide range of indications to become a Premier Biotech company and world-leader in its field.

Immunocore's world-leading science and strong IP position has attracted major pharmaceutical companies including Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, the biologics division of AstraZeneca, via discovery collaborations, as well as a co-discovery and co-development partnership with Lilly. The Company has also entered into combination trials with its lead programme, IMCgp100 in melanoma, with Medimmune and Lilly. Founded in 2008 originally out of Oxford University and headquartered outside Oxford, Immunocore now has more than 155 staff. Immunocore is well funded and owned by a group of international private, institutional and strategic investors. For more information, please visit www.immunocore.com

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