Radiopharmaceuticals developer Navidea Biopharmaceuticals (NYSE Amex:NAVB) has secured up to $10 million in debt financing that strengthens the company’s balance sheet and could help with future acquisitions or licensing deals.
The debt funding comes from Hercules Technology Growth Capital (Nasdaq:HTGC), a financial firm that provides loans to technology companies, according to a statement from Dublin, Ohio-based Navidea. Navidea had been branded as Neoprobe, but formally switched to its previously announced new name and new ticker symbol today.
The initial portion of the funding, $7 million, closed in late December and bears interest at a prime-based variable rate, currently at 10 percent. Up to $3 million of that amount is convertible to Navidea stock at a price of $2.77 per share. Navidea shares closed at $2.76 yesterday.
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The second portion of the funding, $3 million, would become available to Navidea upon U.S. regulatory approval of its drug candidate Lymphoseek, which could happen this summer. Lymphoseek is a targeting agent used by surgeons to identify lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer or melanoma and to indicate whether cancer has spread to a particular lymph node.
Last month, Navidea licensed from AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) the worldwide rights to an imaging drug candidate that could aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
The company also has a third drug in development called RIGScan, which is a radiopharmaceutical targeting agent used to detect tumors left behind after colon cancer surgery. It’s several years from commercialization.