Hercules Capital and Silicon Valley Bank provided a loan facility of up to $75 million for Geron, a late stage clinical biopharmaceutical company. The loan facility provides Geron with access to non-dilutive financial resources to support the imetelstat development program, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.
“This debt financing strengthens our balance sheet and provides additional financial flexibility as our imetelstat program advances with two Phase 3 registration-enabling clinical trials: the ongoing IMerge trial in lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes and the planned trial in refractory myelofibrosis,” Olivia K. Bloom, CFO of Geron, said. “We look forward to working with Hercules and SVB in the future as we include non-dilutive capital in our financing strategy.”
The loan facility is available to Geron in three tranches. The company received $25 million as part of the first tranche at closing, with the remaining $10 million available through June 15, 2021. The second tranche of an additional $15 million is available to Geron in 2021, subject to achievement of certain clinical milestones. The remaining $25 million in the third tranche is available to the company through year-end 2022, and subject to approval from the lenders.
Imetelstat is a telomerase inhibitor exclusively owned by Geron and being developed in hematologic myeloid malignancies.
