Immunic Therapeutics: First NASDAQ listing

Land­s­hu­­t­/­­Plan­egg-Martin­s­ried/ New York, April 17, 2019 — The Martin­s­ried-based biophar­maceu­ti­cal company Immu­nic Thera­peu­tics (“Immu­nic”) has successfully made the leap to the NASDAQ tech­no­logy exch­ange in a so-called reverse take­over. This is the first time that a port­fo­lio company of Wachs­tums­fonds Bayern, mana­ged by Bayern Kapi­tal , has succee­ded in going public. Toge­ther with a consor­tium of inves­tors, Wachs­tums­fonds Bayern inves­ted in the company in 2016 as part of a Series A round, thus laying the finan­cial foun­da­tion for the company’s posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment. The stock market listing is now expec­ted to provide Immu­nic with finan­cing secu­rity for its further deve­lo­p­ment acti­vi­ties and thus unleash further growth momen­tum. Simul­ta­neously with the closing of the tran­sac­tion, Bayern Kapi­tal and six other inves­tors have again inves­ted a total of 26.7 million euros (around 30 million US dollars) in the former Bava­rian start-up.

Immu­nic is a biotech company foun­ded in 2016. The company’s deve­lo­p­ment pipe­line today includes selec­tive, orally available immu­no­logy thera­pies for the treat­ment of chro­nic inflamm­a­tory and auto­im­mune dise­a­ses such as ulce­ra­tive coli­tis, Crohn’s dise­ase, relapsing-remi­t­­ting multi­ple scle­ro­sis and psoria­sis. As part of a share exch­ange (so-called reverse take­over) with the alre­ady listed company Vital Thera­pies Inc. Immu­nic has successfully made the step to the NASDAQ. The company’s common stock, with the new common name of Immu­nic Inc. have been traded on NASDAQ since April 15, 2019. The main objec­tive of the newly formed company is to conti­nue the deve­lo­p­ment of drugs for chro­nic inflamm­a­tory and auto­im­mune dise­a­ses until they are ready for the market.

Dr. Daniel Vitt, CEO of Immu­nic AG, says: “Inves­tors such as Bayern Kapi­tal with the Bava­rian Growth Fund have given us the oppor­tu­nity to form, deve­lop and grow as an inde­pen­dent company. The fact that we can now take advan­tage of the oppor­tu­ni­ties offe­red by the capi­tal market to enter the next phase of our corpo­rate deve­lo­p­ment also has to do with the fact that we have been able to count on the contin­ued trust of our inves­tors from the very beginning.”

Bavaria’s Minis­ter of Econo­mic Affairs, Hubert Aiwan­ger, on Immunic’s stock market listing: “We have endo­wed the Bava­rian Growth Fund with 100 million euros. The exam­ple of Immu­nic shows that this money is well inves­ted. The market is open to inno­va­tive and well-mana­­ged start-ups — even IPOs are possi­ble in a very short time.”

About Immu­nic, Inc.
Immu­nic, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMUX) is a clini­­cal-stage biophar­maceu­ti­cal company with a pipe­line of selec­tive, orally available immu­no­logy thera­pies for the treat­ment of chro­nic inflamm­a­tory and auto­im­mune dise­a­ses, inclu­ding ulce­ra­tive coli­tis, Crohn’s dise­ase, relapsing-remi­t­­ting multi­ple scle­ro­sis and psoria­sis. The company is deve­lo­ping three small mole­cule products: IMU-838 is a selec­tive immu­no­mo­du­la­tor that inhi­bits intracel­lu­lar meta­bo­lism of acti­va­ted immune cells by blocking the enzyme DHODH; IMU-935 is an inverse agonist of RORγt; and IMU-856 targets resto­ra­tion of intesti­nal barrier func­tion. Immunic’s most advan­ced deve­lo­p­ment program, IMU-838, is in Phase 2 clini­cal trials for the treat­ment of ulce­ra­tive coli­tis and relapsing-remi­t­­ting multi­ple scle­ro­sis. Another Phase 2 trial in Crohn’s dise­ase is plan­ned for 2019. An inves­­ti­­ga­­tor-initia­­ted, proof-of-concept clini­cal trial of IMU-838 in primary scle­ro­sing cholang­i­tis is also plan­ned at Mayo Clinic. For more infor­ma­tion: www.immunic-therapeutics.com.

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal curr­ently mana­ges eleven invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 325 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 290 million euros of venture capi­tal in 265 inno­va­tive tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 5,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de