Onxeo has turned to the public markets for cash to fuel its research and development ambitions, starting a rights issue in a bid to raise up to €41.6 million ($52.2 million). The Franco-Danish biotech plans to use the cash to expand a Phase III study of its liver cancer drug and prepare to advance its severe oral mucositis candidate into late-stage trials.
An expansion of the liver cancer trial topped Onxeo’s list of uses for the money. Onxeo plans to expand the trial to accelerate patient recruitment, a strategy that could cut the time it takes to generate pivotal data on the drug, Livatag. The rest of the cash will go toward readying Onxeo’s next wave of late-phase promising drugs. Severe oral mucositis drug Validive is nearing the start of Phase III. And a late-phase trial of lymphoma drug Beleodaq is also in the pipeline.
