Deal announcement

goetzpartners advised BioVersys on its successful EUR 20m financing from the European Investment Bank

14. April 2021

The European Investment Bank (“EIB”) and BioVersys AG signed a 
EUR 20m venture debt transaction to support BioVersys' research and development of a diverse pipeline of drugs that address antimicrobial resistance (“AMR”). AMR has resulted in most of our antimicrobial therapies becoming obsolete, thereby leaving the world’s population susceptible to an ever-increasing range of infections.

The financing will support, among others, the two programs currently undergoing clinical trials:

  • BV100, BioVersys’ breakthrough hospital antibiotic therapy, targeting one of the WHO top priority pathogens, resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. BV100 is currently being studied for the treatment of ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia, which is common in COVID-19 patients.
  • BVL-GSK098, a small molecule being tested for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis infections with 1.5 million deaths annually.

BioVersys is the first Swiss biotech company to receive a venture loan from the EIB. The funds, together with the recent CHF 19m Series B where goetzpartners also acted as financial advisor, will allow BioVersys to move its clinical development programs forward and further strengthen the company as the leading European private biotech AMR player.

BioVersys will receive the EIB loan in three tranches upon the completion of pre-defined milestones. The transaction is backed by the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF) set up as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme.


ABOUT BIOVERSYS
BioVersys AG is a leading Swiss pharmaceutical company leveraging its award-winning TRIC technology to address the high unmet medical need for new treatments against life threatening drug-resistant bacterial infections and bacteria-exacerbated chronic inflammatory microbiome disorders.

The Company has raised more than USD 80m since inception, including a CHF 19m Series B in 2020 and CHF 16.5m of non-dilutive funding in 2019 from CARB-X and the IMI2-JU / European Union.
 

TRANSACTION TEAM

Ulrich Kinzel
Managing Director
Email

Raphael Bidaut
Director

Youchen Xin
Associate Director

SUPPORTING MEMBERS

Herbert Werle
Managing Director