Future Planet invests in Vaccitech's $168M Series B

London, UK – 17th March 2021: Future Planet Capital has invested in a $168m Series B financing announced today by Vaccitech Ltd.  Future Planet joins other leading investors including M&G Investment Management, Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund and fellow existing investor, Oxford Sciences Innovation. As part of the Series B financing, $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech will convert into Series B shares, resulting in total gross proceeds to Vaccitech of $168 million before expenses.

Douglas Hansen-Luke Founder & EXec Chair

Future Planet Capital

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman of Future Planet Capital, explained:

"Our decision to support Vaccitech last year, before the results of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca trials were known, has been vindicated by the vaccine’s approval for emergency use by national and international regulators. The success of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca has increased our confidence in Vaccitech’s immunotherapy platform and our continuing support is signalled by our investment today.”

Bill Enright, CEO

Vaccitech

Bill Enright, CEO of Vaccitech, said:

“We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs. We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”

Ed Phillips, Deal Lead

Future Planet Capital

Ed Phillips, Head of Origination at Future Planet Capital, concluded:

“This is a concrete example of our vision in action – financing the best minds to address global challenges. We look forward to working with other entrepreneurs and businesses dedicated to solving global challenges in the future.”

Vaccitech is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer; in 2020 it co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine candidate with the University of Oxford, AZD1222, which is known as the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca.

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For further information, please contact;

Future Planet Capital: Ed Philips, Head of Origination: e.phillips@futureplanetcapital.com

Sciad Communications: Richard Anderson: richard@sciad.com, Emma Pickup: emma@sciad.com

Vaccitech raises $168M Series B to progress three Phase 2 trials

Oxford, UK – Vaccitech Ltd (“Vaccitech”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer, today announces that it has raised $168 million in a Series B financing. This includes $43 million in convertible loan notes previously issued by Vaccitech that converted into Series B shares.

The Series B financing round was led by M&G Investment Management (part of M&G plc), with further participation from new investors including Tencent, Gilead Sciences, Monaco Constitutional Reserve Fund, and Future Planet Capital among others. The Series B financing round was also supported by existing investors, including Oxford Sciences Innovation.

“We expect this financing to enable us to reach key value inflection points for our lead programs,” said Bill Enright, Chief Executive Officer of Vaccitech. “We now look forward to advancing key programs towards generating proof-of-concept data in indications with significant need of effective new treatments.”

The proceeds from the financing will support the continued development of three infectious disease and immuno-oncology programs. The programs include:

• A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-300 in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The first patient in the trial was dosed in February 2021.

• A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-200 in patients with persistent, high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

• A Phase 1/2 clinical trial of VTP-850 in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor in patients with prostate cancer.

Vaccitech’s proprietary prime-boost platform combines modified simian adenoviral vectors (known as ChAdOx1 or ChAdOx2) to prime a targeted immune response with the Modified Vaccinia Ankara virus (MVA) to boost the targeted immune response against cells infected with a virus or tumor cells. Vaccitech’s heterologous prime-boost approach has been demonstrated to drive powerful immune responses, including the leading CD8+ T cell stimulation profile in humans, to date. In addition to the HBV, HPV and prostate cancer programs, Vaccitech’s pipeline includes product candidates targeting infectious disease (including MERS coronavirus and Herpes Zoster) and cancer (including non-small cell lung cancer).

“Vaccitech is aiming to address serious global public health challenges in both infectious disease and cancer with their T cell inducing immunotherapy platform,” said Jack Daniels, Chief Investment Officer of M&G plc. “We believe their innovative approach, based on foundational research performed at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, could provide a solution for many serious diseases.”

Media contacts:

Katja Stout, Scius Communications (EU)

Direct: +44 (0) 7789435990

Email: katja@sciuscommunications.com

Ryo Imai / Robert Flamm, Ph.D. (US), Burns McClellan, Inc.

212-213-0006 ext. 315 / 364

Email: Rimai@burnsmc.com / rflamm@burnsmc.com

Henry Hodge, Vaccitech

Direct: +44 (0) 7533 421 442

Email: henry.hodge@vaccitech.co.uk

Future Planet backs Oxford Vaccine Company

“A biotechnology company whose research and intellectual property has helped to create the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has raised new investment from venture capitalists.

Oxford-based Vaccitech has agreed the funds – understood to be as much as £10million – from Future Planet Capital which also invests in health, climate change and education projects.

It is believed the capital will be used to help the roll-out of the Oxford vaccine, which could get UK approval as soon this week.”

Daily Mail, 26th December 2020

Future Planet was delighted to have welcomed Vaccitech to its Portfolio and today’s news demonstrates that cutting-edge technology from the world’s top universities has the potential to solve global social, economic and environmental challenges. 

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman - FPC

"FPC was founded with the vision of financing the brightest minds to profitably address global challenges. Today, as the Oxford vaccine’s results are published and an end to the coronavirus crisis is in sight, Future Planet is one step closer to realising its vision. We’re delighted to welcome Vaccitech to the Future Planet family.”

Bill Enright, CEO - Vaccitech 

“Future Planet and their practical and ethical policy of impact investing were a welcome investor at an important time for our company. Funding from Future Plant will help us to continue to progress our product candidates through clinical development.”

Ed Phillips, Head of Origination and Deal Lead - FPC

"Priced at the cost of a cup of coffee, and stored in a fridge, Vaccitech’s ChAdOx may represent the superhero of vaccine technologies we’ve all been waiting for. We are confident in the long-term prospects of the company’s platform. Not just for COVID, but also for prophylactic and therapeutic approaches for many other indications in oncology, infectious disease and chronic illness”

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Future Planet Capital Limited is a global venture capital and impact investor, connecting the world's largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. The firm is focussed on providing growth capital to leading entrepreneurs and businesses from the world’s top universities and has deployed over $100M on behalf of institutional investors to date. Future Planet's deal team was led by Ed Phillips, supported by Lyle Pentith. 

Vaccitech, Future Planet backed Oxford Spinout, Offers Global Path to End of COVID-19

Future Planet Backed Oxford Spinout Offers Global Path to End COVID

This week, interim Phase III data was released for the Oxford / AstraZeneca Vaccine, co-invented by our portfolio company Vaccitech. From late December, assuming the full dataset has been analysed and confirmed to meet formal regulatory requirements, AstraZeneca has announced that they believe they will be in a position to provide a vaccine for a quarter of the world's population. The vaccine will not just benefit the UK, EU and US who have ordered millions of doses, but the developing world, too. The Serum Institute of India has already begun producing 1 billion doses for the global south.

The results & data have now been independently verified in one of the world's leading medical journals, The Lancet. This is the first set of COVID-19 vaccine data to undergo scientific peer-review & demonstrates the efficacy & safety of the vaccine.

Future Planet made a direct investment into Vaccitech earlier this year. The clinical-stage biotech company owns rights to the viral vector technology, ChAdOx, which is used in the Oxford / AstraZeneca Vaccine. The company has a diverse pipeline in development across oncology, infectious disease and chronic illnesses affecting millions of people a year. 

Future Planet was delighted to have welcomed Vaccitech to its Portfolio and today’s news demonstrates that cutting-edge technology from the world’s top universities has the potential to solve global social, economic and environmental challenges. 

Douglas Hansen-Luke, Executive Chairman - FPC

"FPC was founded with the vision of financing the brightest minds to profitably address global challenges. Today, as the Oxford vaccine’s results are published and an end to the coronavirus crisis is in sight, Future Planet is one step closer to realising its vision. We’re delighted to welcome Vaccitech to the Future Planet family.”

Bill Enright, CEO - Vaccitech 

“Future Planet and their practical and ethical policy of impact investing were a welcome investor at an important time for our company. Funding from Future Plant will help us to continue to progress our product candidates through clinical development.”

Ed Phillips, Head of Origination and Deal Lead - FPC

"Priced at the cost of a cup of coffee, and stored in a fridge, Vaccitech’s ChAdOx may represent the superhero of vaccine technologies we’ve all been waiting for. We are confident in the long-term prospects of the company’s platform. Not just for COVID, but also for prophylactic and therapeutic approaches for many other indications in oncology, infectious disease and chronic illness”

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Future Planet Capital Limited is a global venture capital and impact investor, connecting the world's largest investors to the best minds in order to address global challenges. The firm is focussed on providing growth capital to leading entrepreneurs and businesses from the world’s top universities and has deployed over $100M on behalf of institutional investors to date. Future Planet's deal team was led by Ed Phillips, supported by Lyle Pentith.