XOMA, a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of antibody therapeutics, entered into a $10 million 42-month secured term loan agreement with GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services.

The funds will be used for advancement of gevokizumab (XOMA 052), XOMA’s lead clinical product candidate, and for general corporate purposes. Interest on the loan is payable at 11.71% per annum. In addition, XOMA has issued warrants to the lender to purchase 263,158 shares of its common stock exercisable at $1.14 per share.

“The increase in cash position provided by this debt financing is part of our overall strategy to fund gevokizumab development and other programs toward potential value-creating milestones,” said Fred Kurland, XOMA’s vice president and chief financial officer.

XOMA has an antibody discovery and development platform that incorporates a collection of antibody phage display libraries and proprietary optimization and expression and manufacturing technologies that it uses for its own pipeline and in collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.