Avita Medical (ASX:AVH), a regenerative medicine company with a technology designed to address unmet medical needs in burns, chronic wounds, and aesthetics indications, has announced an institutional placement of $16 million.
The company said the placement will help prepare it for the planned US launch of the RECELL Device in the treatment of severe burns.
Avita said it has received commitments from institutional investors for the placement at an issue price of A$0.050 per share.
The placement will take place in two tranches. Tranche 1 totals $12.77 million and is expected to settle on 12 June 2018. Closing Tranche 2 of $3.25 million is subject to shareholder approval at an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held in July.
“We appreciate the support of our shareholder group and the investors in this institutional placement as we proceed toward a transformative series of events for Avita, including the US market launch of the RECELL Device,“ said CEO Dr Michael Perry.
“Proceeds from this placement will ensure that we are positioned to take full advantage of the expected upcoming PMA approval of the RECELL Device in the US, including establishment of our marketing and sales team, scale-up of manufacturing capabilities and expansion of clinical development.
"The extensive series of clinical data presented at the recent ABA and ISPOR conferences strongly supports the value of RECELL in the treatment of severe burns, and we have an exceptional commercial opportunity resulting from the unique combination of improved patient outcomes and substantial health economic benefits.”
The RECELL Device is an investigational medical device in the US designed to enable medical professionals to produce, at the point-of-care, a REGENERATIVE EPIDERMAL SUSPENSION (RES) using a small sample of the patient’s own skin.
The autologous suspension contains cells necessary to regenerate epidermis and provides a new way to achieve permanent closure in burns and other wounds while reducing the amount of skin harvested at the time of surgery. Reduction in donor-site skin requirements has important benefits from both clinical and health economic perspectives.