Iconovo carries out directed share issue for continued value creation
Recently, Iconovo carried out a directed share issue that strengthened the cash position by 55 MSEK, enabling continued value creation in 2023. The capital injection will be used to negotiate an agreement for the company’s most recently developed inhaler ICOpre, as well as move the ICOcap project forward and establish the subsidiary Iconovo Pharma. Iconovo also plans to leverage the opportunity within nasal inhalation after seeing positive results for ICOone Nasal in the pandemic project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Iconovo develops new inhaled drugs in collaboration with international pharmaceutical companies. The company’s portfolio includes four inhalation platforms – ICOres, ICOpre, ICOcap and ICOone – that can be adapted to several different pharmaceutical products.
The company currently has seven collaborative projects as well as a project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for accelerated development of inhalation treatment based on ICOone Nasal in the event of a new pandemic.
Directed share issue of 55 MSEK
Iconovo’s ambitions for 2023 are to move forward in the projects and enter into more license agreements and collaborations. To enable this, Iconovo recently carried out a directed share issue of 1,375,000 shares at a subscription price of 40 SEK per share. The subscription price was determined through an accelerated bookbuilding procedure targeting institutional investors, including Eiffel Investment Group that increased its holding from 7.5 per cent to 9.9 per cent. Mats Johansson, board member and single largest owner of Iconovo, acquired shares for a total of approximately 3 MSEK in the share issue. The company‘s CEO Johan Wäborg acquired shares for 0.5 MSEK.
In connection with the directed issue, Iconovo published the year-end report for 2022 in which they report sales for the full year of 17.1 MSEK and an operating loss of 48.4 MSEK. The cash balance at year-end amounted to 13.4 MSEK. Through the issue, the cash position was strengthened by 55 MSEK before issue costs.
Negotiations for ICOpre
30 percent of the issue proceeds will be used to negotiate agreements for ICOpre and complete the development and regulatory work. ICOpre is a generic equivalent of GSK‘s inhaler Ellipta, which is used for five inhalation drugs for the treatment of COPD and asthma. Iconovo develops generic versions of all five pharmaceutical products administered with Ellipta and the goal is to enter into license agreements for one or more of these products in 2023. Already in January, Iconovo initiated negotiations with a global and fast-growing generic company regarding ICOpre.
Halfway through the Gates-funded project
Iconovo also plans to use the capital injection to leverage the opportunity within nasal inhalation. Half-time results from the project with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation show that ICOone Nasal enables simultaneous delivery of drugs to the nose and lung, which simplifies the treatment of viral infections. A large part of the dose, about 50 percent, passes down to the lung, which is a competitive result according to the company. Affärsvärlden has also reported on the positive results – read the article here.
Iconovo will now continue to optimize ICOone Nasal for various powders to reach the highest possible proportion to the lung. Another project report is to be delivered to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in June 2023. After that, the ambition is to move on to the next phase, which the company see a good chance for.
Preparing for the next pandemic
In the event of a pandemic, it is important that drugs and vaccines reach a large population. Many of today’s vaccines are difficult to distribute and costly to manufacture, creating inequalities in healthcare between different parts of the world. Iconovo can be part of changing that with the company’s nasal inhaler, ICOone Nasal, which is both easy to use and manufacture. In addition, the dry powder does not require cold storage, simplifying the distribution chain and reducing costs – which is particularly beneficial for low- and middle-income countries.
The goal of the Gates-funded project is to be ready to quickly manufacture millions of inhalers in the event of a new virus outbreak. Iconovo envisions a low-cost product that can be sent out by letter and used at home without the help of healthcare professionals.
Additional project goals to be met
Through the directed share issue, Iconovo can also continue to work on the capsule inhaler ICOcap and the generic equivalent of Novartis‘ Ultibro Breezehaler for the treatment of COPD. The plan is to initiate a first pharmacokinetic pilot study with the product and seek partnerships in Europe with the possibility of roll-out in 2025.
The company also intends to launch Iconovo Pharma, a subsidiary for the sales and marketing of pharmaceuticals in the Nordic region. 20 per cent of the issue proceeds will be used for scaling up and readiness for the first product launches in 2024.
In summary, the directed share issue enables a number of value-creating activities for Iconovo.
The content of BioStock’s news and analyses is independent but the work of BioStock is to a certain degree financed by life science companies. The above article concerns a company from which BioStock has received financing.
