BioPharma Credit (BPCR) announce that it, through its fully owned subsidiary, together with BioPharma Credit Investments V (Master) LP (“BioPharma-V” and jointly with the Company the “Lenders”) has entered into a US$300m definitive senior secured loan agreement with LumiraDx Investment and LumiraDx Group. BPCR will invest $150m and BioPharma-V will invest an additional $150m.
COVID-19 antibody tests part of LumiraDx’s stable
Based in the UK, LumiraDx is a next-generation point of care or POC diagnostic company addressing the current limitations of legacy POC systems by bringing lab-comparable performance to the POC in minutes, on a single instrument for a broad menu of tests with a low cost of ownership. To date, LumiraDx has developed and launched four diagnostic tests for use with its platform: a COVID-19 antigen test commercially available under an Emergency Use Authorization in the United States, or EUA, and a CE Mark in the European Economic Area, as well as a COVID-19 antibody test, an International Normalized Ratio, or INR, test, and a D-Dimer test, all of which are CE Marked. LumiraDx has also used its technology to develop two rapid COVID-19 reagent testing kits for use on open molecular systems, LumiraDx SARS-CoV-2 RNA STAR and SARS-CoV-2 RNA STAR Complete, both of which obtained EUA.
During 2020 LumiraDx commenced commercial sales of its COVID-19 antigen tests in Europe and the United States to customers, including the U.K. National Health Service, or NHS, and CVS Pharmacy, Inc., or CVS, and started rollout of a program to supply Instruments and a significant number of COVID-19 antigen test strips to Africa as part of a collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. LumiraDx is supported by institutional investors, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Morningside Ventures, and U.S. Boston Capital Corporation.
Under the terms of the transaction, BPCR will invest $150m in a single drawing and BioPharma-V will invest $150m in parallel, with the BPCR acting as collateral agent. The loan will mature in March 2024 and will bear interest at 8.0% per annum along with an additional consideration of 2.5% of the loan amount payable upon funding plus an additional 1.5% of the loan payable at maturity. The lenders will also be receiving warrants as part of the financing.
Pedro Gonzalez de Cosio, CEO of Pharmakon Advisors (BPCR’s manager), noted: “We are pleased to partner with LumiraDx in this transaction. Led by a highly experienced management team, LumiraDx is ideally positioned to help meet the need for accurate and timely diagnostic information, starting with the immediate needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing with additional tests.”
About BPCR
BPCR is a specialist debt investor to the life sciences industry and joined the LSE in March 2017. The company seeks to provide long-term shareholder returns, principally in the form of sustainable income distributions from exposure to the life sciences industry. BPCR seeks to achieve this objective primarily through investments in debt assets secured by royalties or other cash flows derived from the sales of approved life sciences products.
BPCR: BioPharma Credit to invest $150m in senior secured loan agreement with LumiraDx