CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genocea Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company developing personalized cancer immunotherapies, today announced that it has entered into a private placement led by an undisclosed leading U.S. public investment fund specializing in life sciences as well as certain existing and new investors providing for the purchase of up to approximately $80 million of its common stock and warrants to purchase shares of Genocea common stock (before deducting fees to the placement agent and other offering expenses payable by Genocea). Genocea will offer 21.4 million shares of common stock and 12.2 million pre-funded warrants to purchase common stock, along with accompanying warrants to purchase one share of common stock for each share of common stock or pre-funded warrant purchased by an investor. The warrants will be exercisable immediately upon issuance, in whole or in part, at an exercise price of $2.25 per share and will have a 4-year term. The closing of the private placement is expected to occur on or about July 24, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions.

Genocea intends to use the net proceeds from this private placement to fund continued clinical and program development of its neoantigen vaccine GEN-009 and its neoantigen cell therapy GEN-011, as well as for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Stifel is acting as sole placement agent for the private placement. Brookline Capital Markets, a division of Arcadia Securities, LLC is serving as financial advisor to the Company in connection with the private placement.

The securities sold in the offering have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. Genocea has agreed to file a resale registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) within 30 days of the closing of the offering for purposes of registering the resale of the shares of common stock issued or issuable in connection with the offering.

This notice is issued pursuant to Rule 135c under the Securities Act and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state. Any offering of the securities under the resale registration statement will only be by means of a prospectus.