ANGLE raises £20mln to maintain momentum in commercialisation of liquid biopsy system

ANGLE PLC (LON:AGL) (OTCQX:ANPCY) raised £20mln in a placing to maintain momentum with the commercialisation of its Parsortix liquid biopsy system. The AIM-listed company’s brokers conditionally placed 17,241,380 shares at a price of 116p apiece with new and existing investors in an accelerated bookbuild process. READ: ANGLE hails watershed moment of Parsortix FDA submission in 2020 ANGLE is currently in the late stages of seeking Class II clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of Parsortix with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Despite disruption from the pandemic the liquid biopsy company successfully completed the work required to make the full FDA submission for Parsortix, for which it anticipates receiving a regulatory decision during the second half of the year. ANGLE said approval for use of the Parsortix system with MBC patients would open up a market it estimates is worth a potential circa US$4bn per year in the US alone. Seeking to maintain commercialisation momentum the company said it is progressing key programmes including a major prostate cancer opportunity, an ovarian cancer clinical verification study, continue establishing clinical laboratories in the US and UK, building a high-quality senior management team in the US, accelerating its pharma service business to capitalise on winning a first large-scale contract, developing its capability in assays. The £20mln proceeds of the placing are expected to be divided in their use, with around £7mln for the prostate cancer opportunity; £8mln for ongoing operations for breast and ovarian cancers and strengthening the balance sheet for pharma services; £3mln for the hiring in the US and £2mln for the assay development. Founder and chief executive Andrew Newland said: “The proceeds from this placing will enable ANGLE to add to the current momentum in the commercialisation process of our Parsortix system and open up new market opportunities in prostate cancer diagnosis, an area of significant medical need. He said ANGLE looks forward to announcing “further progress on multiple fronts” in the second half of 2021, including the prospect of FDA clearance for the Parsortix platform.