SymBio Pharmaceuticals has lined up a financing package with EVO Fund, the Cayman Islands investment fund, that could hand the Tokyo-listed drugmaker an estimated ¥6.77bn for its antiviral drug trials, but full exercise would swell its share count by more than 125%. The board approved the deal on August 17: a bond facility of up to ¥500mn alongside two new series of warrants, the 70th and 71st, whose strike price resets every trading day.
The warrants cover 960,000 units convertible into as many as 96,000,000 shares, more than SymBio's entire 76,434,210 shares outstanding as of June 30. The initial strike is ¥71, matching the pre-deal closing price, and resets daily to 100% of the prior day's close with no discount, though it can never fall below a floor of ¥36. EVO Fund has committed to exercise all of the 70th series warrants within a year and half within six months; the 71st series can be exercised only once SymBio gives the go-ahead.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Bond facility | Up to ¥500mn, zero-coupon, unsecured; first ¥100mn tranche due September 3, 2026, maturing September 3, 2029 |
| 70th series warrants | 480,000 units convertible into up to 48,000,000 shares; EVO Fund committed to exercise all within one year, half within six months |
| 71st series warrants | 480,000 units convertible into up to 48,000,000 shares; exercisable only once SymBio issues a start instruction |
| Strike price mechanics | Initial strike ¥71, resetting daily to 100% of the prior close with no discount, floored at ¥36 |
| Target net proceeds | About ¥6.77bn after ¥50mn in issuance costs |
| Potential dilution | 96,000,000 new shares versus 76,434,210 shares outstanding, a 125.60% dilution ratio |
The new package replaces one that stalled: EVO Fund's August 2025 warrants went unexercised once SymBio's stock fell toward the ¥84 floor set for that round, so the company is buying back and cancelling the unexercised 66th and 67th series, plus an unrelated 58th series held by CVI Investments. The cash is needed. SymBio's bendamustine hydrochloride cancer drug keeps losing ground to generics: in the six months to June 2026 revenue was just ¥469mn against a net loss attributable to parent of ¥3.62bn and negative operating cash flow of ¥2.47bn.
Net proceeds of about ¥6.77bn are earmarked mostly for brincidofovir, SymBio's antiviral candidate: ¥4.55bn in direct trial costs and ¥1.71bn in indirect costs through March 2028, plus ¥500mn to redeem the new bonds. Most of that funds a global phase 3 trial of intravenous brincidofovir for adenovirus infection after stem-cell transplants, already enrolling 22 patients across roughly 80 US and European sites toward a 180-patient target, with a European filing planned for the second half of 2028. The rest backs an NIH-run phase 2 trial of the same drug for progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, a rare brain disease, which began enrolling patients in June. SymBio's president and CEO said the financing is meant to secure 'the earliest possible' approval for the adenovirus treatment, which he noted still lacks any effective therapy.
If every warrant were exercised, EVO Fund could end up holding as much as 55.81% of SymBio's voting rights, formally making it a 'specified subscriber' under Japan's Companies Act. SymBio says the fund intends to sell the shares as it acquires them rather than hold them, and exercise is staggered over roughly three years rather than all at once. Even so, the company's own filing puts the dilution ratio at 125.60% of the current share count, or 126.32% on a voting-rights basis, if the full amount is drawn. Both trials remain years from a regulatory decision.