Hyloris biotech attracts new Flemish investors

Companies in the south of Belgium have shown great responsiveness in the coronavirus crisis. One of the explanations for this mobilization is the advanced structuring of the Walloon ecosystem of life sciences and medical equipment. A sector which, so far, is resisting well and could even take advantage of this delicate pass to consolidate its development.

Find out the latest breakthroughs in the biotech sector and read more about the round of financing recently closed by the Hyloris company with the Born2Invest mobile app. Be the first to find out the most important business news from around the world with our companion app, available for both Android and iOS devices.

Hyloris completed a financing round in the form of a convertible bond

Hyloris has just completed a nice round of financing in the midst of a coronavirus crisis. The Liège-based biotech company, created and managed by Flemish entrepreneur Stijn Van Rompay, has successfully completed a private fund-raising round of $16.5 million (€15 million) from a mix of new and existing investors, including Scorpiaux (the financial holding company of real estate entrepreneur Bart Versluys), the Liège-based investor Noshaq, Saffelberg Investments and Nomainvest (the holding company of the Noël family).

This raising consists of a convertible bond for the full amount and not a traditional capital increase. “The bond will be converted at the time of the next transaction, which could be, generally within 18 to 24 months, either a new capital raising, a sale or a pharmaceutical deal,” said Patrick Jeanmart, who has just joined the company as CFO.

The Lyon-based company has 12 product candidates in its portfolio

Hyloris develops pharmaceutical products with the objective of bringing high added value reformulated medicines to the market as quickly as possible. This strategy is based on American regulations applying to medicines for which the safety and efficacy of specific molecules have already been demonstrated. This procedure concerns, for example, medicines with new dosages or administered differently. It may also concern an extension of the indication.

The Liège-based company, which currently employs a dozen people, markets two products in the United States: one for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, developed in partnership with AltaThera, and the other is a non-opioid analgesic for the treatment of pain, co-owned with AFT Pharmaceuticals. Hyloris also has 12 product candidates at various stages of development in its portfolio.

The funds raised will be used in particular to finance development and marketing strategies, “with the long-term ambition of bringing considerably improved products to market,” explained Hyloris in its press release.

The Van Rompay family is known for its involvement in biopharmacy. It is notably at the origin of the creation, then resale, of Docpharma and Uteron Pharma. For his part, businessman Bart Versluys is not a newcomer to the sector either. Through Scorpiaux, he holds stakes in the American-Belgian diagnostics company MDxhealth, in Fagron and also in Mithra, companies that have also recently completed successfully financing rounds.

On Friday, April 24th, Mithra announced a financing agreement with LDA Capital guaranteeing it direct access to $54.3 million (€50 million). On April 27th, the Belgian-American biotech MDxHealth signaled its intention to raise $13.8 million (€12.7 million) via the issue of 20.1 million shares subscribed by MVM Partners.

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First published in L’Echo, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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