Hepatitis B Vaccine Company VBI Vaccines Raises $72 Million

Nasdaq-listed vaccine company VBI Vaccines Inc. raised $71.9 in direct and public offering, the company announced on Tuesday.

The shares were offered at $3.05 per share and were trading at $4.20 market close Friday, giving VBI Vaccines a market capitalization of $235.10 million.

The round was led by Israel-based, biotech-focused venture capital firm The Pontifax Group. The group's co-founder and managing partner Ran Nussbaum joined VBI Vaccines' board of directors following the investment.

$40 million out of the overall investment came from Israel-based institutional asset managers, including insurers Phoenix Insurance Company Ltd., the Menora Mivtachim Group and Harel Insurance Investments and Financial Services Ltd. The rest was invested by existing investors, including Philip Frost's healthcare company Opko Health, Inc.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-headquartered VBI Vaccines develops vaccines for infectious diseases and immuno-oncology. The company developed a technology that enables the creation of vaccines that closely mimic the viruses found in nature, but without their viral genetic material, making them potentially safer while also highly customizable.

The company intends to use the funding to advance the development of the drugs in its pipeline, and specifically conduct the last clinical trials of it Hepatitis B vaccine Sci-B-Vac, which is approved for use in 14 countries.

VBI Vaccines has research facilities in Canada, and research and manufacturing facilities in Israel that employ dozens of people.