The Next Science Ltd (ASX: NXS) share price was placed on a trading halt today after a capital raise was announced.
The Next Science share price closed yesterday at $1.32.
What does Next Science do?
Bacterial biofilms are a leading cause of antimicrobial resistance. They can be found in almost all aspects of human health, industry and food production. With nearly 80% of all global bacterial infections associated with biofilm bacteria, Next Science aims to address this problem.
The Australian medical company is developing and commercialising its Xbio technology. This patented product attacks biofilm structures by breaking metallic bonds that hold the extracellular polymeric substance together.
This in turn may reduce reliance on use of antibiotics and other infection treatments.
Why the capital raise?
Next Science is undertaking a capital raise of up to $15 million to support the launch of XPerience. A new addition to the Xbio family, it's a surgical rinse of site infections.
The $15 million placement will comprise $8 million underwritten by Canaccord Genuity. This will be issued without shareholder approval.
A $2 million commitment will come from Next Science's largest shareholder, Lang Walker. The allocation to Mr Walker is subject to shareholder approval to be voted at an extraordinary general meeting in mid-November.
Lastly, a $5 million share purchase plan will be available to existing shareholders from 25 September. The issue price is $1.20 per share which represents a 9% discount on the last closing price and a 6.25% discount to the five-day volume weighted average price.
Next Science's managing director Judith Mitchell was delighted at receiving firm support for the placement and said XPerience was a potential game changer.
She said:
In our half year results briefing, I spoke about our prioritisation and focus on the preventative surgical site infection market. With around 110 million surgeries in the world per annum, this is a US$15bn per annum uncontested market space that is expected to double in size by 2030.
Surgical site infections are the leading cause of readmissions to hospitals and are a major cost and burden in health care. XPerience has proven superior performance against MSRA (Golden Staph) and other known pathogens. It is the only antimicrobial product that will be available to surgeons which can be left behind in the surgical site after a surgical close to help prevent infection occurring for over five hours after the surgery.
Next Science will re-lodge its submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration before the end of year. The company said it would move quickly to commercialise should approval be granted.
About the Next Science share price
The Next Science share price has underperformed in the market since the middle of last year, down almost 70%. The Next Science share price hit an all-time low of $1.00 in March 2020 and has slowly regained to $1.32 in the following months.
