Favrille gets financing for production facility

Favrille, a US biopharmaceutical company developing patient-specific immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, says that it has secured a $20.0-million line of credit through loan and security agreements with General Electric Capital Corp and Oxford Financial Corp. The debt financing will be used primarily to fund the company's recently-announced facility expansion to support commercial-scale manufacturing of FavId, an active immunotherapeutic and Favrille's lead product candidate currently in a Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of follicular B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"This transaction is another significant accomplishment as we prepare for the commercial launch of FavId," said Tamara Seymour, chief financial officer of Favrille. "As we announced in November, we negotiated an amended lease agreement to expand our current facility for commercial manufacturing at an estimated cost of only $24.0 million. Now we have completed a debt financing with very favorable terms. We believe that our traditional debt financing and landlord improvement allowances will enable us to complete a large-scale, patient-specific commercial manufacturing facility without utilizing any proceeds from equity offerings," she added.