4d Pharma (LON:DDDD) on Monday said it will achieve its hoped-for NASDAQ listing, with its merger and private placement raising almost $40 million. The move plants the company’s innovative profile in fertile soil.
Having completed its merger with Longevity Acquisition (NASDAQ: LOAC), 4d Pharma immediately launched a new NASDAQ-listed American Depositary Share (“ADS”) programme. The new shares are set to start trading on Monday under the LBPS ticker.
The firm is a “world leader” in live biotherapeutics development. This is a novel and emerging drug class containing a live organism, like a bacterium. These organisms can help prevent, treat, or even cure diseases.
4d’s own live biotherapeutic products (“LBPs”) are orally-delivered singe strains of bacteria naturally found in the gut. The firm makes use of its impressive MicroRx platform to identify these potent bacteria and turn them into treatments.
With its dual listing, 4d now finds itself on the NASDAQ, with access to investors perhaps even more keen on this kind of novel, growing company. The move could mean great things for the firm, putting its unique offering in front of the right people at a time when it is well-capitalised with some very promising new products in development.
Shares in a similar US firm Seres Therapeutics, which uses microbiome therapeutics as a treatment, multiplied to $22.70 in New York on August 10 from $4.64 on August 7 on the back of positive results from a phase three study in recurrent c.difficile infection.
Not only does 4d Pharma have this precedent already set, it also has more than 1,000 patents and its own manufacturing.
Additionally, the firm has a clinical trial collaboration with German and US giants Merck KGaA (ETR: MRK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). The goal is to evaluate 4d’s own LBP, MRx0518, in combination with avelumab in carcinoma. On top of this, 4d is also part of a “landmark study” in Parkinson’s disease sponsored by The Michael J Fox Foundation.
The company is even undertaking a phase two trial of MRx-4DP0004, another of 4d Pharma’s LBPs, in hospitalised Covid-19 patients.
Special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”) Longevity’s $14.8 million cash is now available to 4d. Alongside this, US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK ) subscribed for $1 million of shares as part of a now around $25.0 million private placement. The issue price for all of these shares was $1.53 each.
Furthermore, chief executive Duncan Peyton and chief scientific officer plan to subscribe for $2.0 million of new shares at the same issue price.
4d has also issued new warrants convertible into ordinary shares. If all of these are exercised for cash, 4d stands to receive around $29 million.
Peyton called the merger’s closure “a transformational milestone for the company”, as its dual listing broadens 4d’s global reach. The merger and fundraise also provided the firm with significant capital and put it “in a very strong financial position” when it comes executing on its “robust pipeline”.
“We continue to push the frontier for live biotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer, as well as additional therapeutic areas such as neurological conditions,” Peyton added.
Using bacteria to treat disease has incredible potential. The power of the human microbiome and its influence on health has begun to show itself. Research so far on the microbiome has found links to Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other illnesses.
4d Pharma has embraced this potential with its products, selecting bacteria with positive links to health and using them as medicine. The company has made the most of this fantastic space, full of increasing opportunities, and its latest move into the US as set 4d up for success.