NEW INVESTMENT OF US$125 MILLION

BioPharma Credit PLC

17 March 2026

 

17 March 2026

BIOPHARMA CREDIT PLC

(THE "COMPANY")

NEW INVESTMENT OF US$125 MILLION

BioPharma Credit PLC (LSE: BPCR), the specialist life sciences debt investment trust, is pleased to announce that it, through its fully owned subsidiary, together with BioPharma Credit Investments V (Master) LP ("BioPharma-V"), have entered into a new senior secured loan agreement (the "Loan Agreement") with Zenas BioPharma, Inc. ("Zenas").  The Company will invest up to US$125 million and BioPharma-V will invest up to an additional US$125 million in parallel, with the Company acting as collateral agent.

Under the Loan Agreement, the Company will invest up to US$125 million across five tranches, subject to customary conditions precedent:

·    Tranche A of US$37.5 million will be funded ten business days following the execution of the Loan Agreement;

·    Tranche B of up to US$37.5 million is available to be drawn by 1 November 2027, of which US$25 million is required to be drawn upon certain regulatory approvals;

·    Tranche C of up to US$12.5 million (less any amounts elected to be and actually drawn under Tranche B in excess of US$25 million) is available to be drawn by 28 April 2028, subject to certain regulatory approvals;

·    Tranche D of US$25 million is available to be drawn by 30 October 2028, subject to achievement of certain milestones in respect of regulatory approvals and certain net sales levels; and

·    Tranche E of US$25 million is available to be drawn by 30 April 2029, subject to achievement of certain milestones in respect of regulatory approvals and certain net sales levels.

The loan will mature in March 2031 and will bear interest at 3-month SOFR plus 5.75 per cent. per annum subject to a 3.25 per cent. SOFR floor. A one-time additional consideration of 2.00 per cent. of Tranche A and US$50 million of Tranche B, and 1.00 per cent. of any amounts in excess of US$50 million of the funding amount for Tranche B and each of Tranche C, D and E, is payable by Zenas upon the funding of each respective tranche.

Zenas is a clinical-stage global biopharmaceutical company committed to becoming a leader in the development and commercialization of transformative therapies for patients with autoimmune diseases with a  current market capitalization of ~US$1.25 billion (Ticker: ZBIO - NASDAQ).  Zenas is advancing two late-stage, potential franchise molecules, obexelimab and orelabrutinib. Obexelimab, Zenas' lead product candidate, is a bifunctional monoclonal antibody designed to bind both CD19 and FcγRIIb, which are broadly present across the B cell lineage, to inhibit the activity of cells that are implicated in many autoimmune diseases without depleting them. The registrational obexelimab Phase 3 INDIGO trial for immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) met its primary endpoint and all four key secondary endpoints with high statistical significance, and Zenas is on track to submit a BLA for IgG4-RD to the FDA in 2Q26.

Enquiries:

BioPharma Credit plc

via MUFG Corporate Governance Limited

Company Secretary

[phone]

Burson Buchanan

Henry Wilson / Helen Tarbet / Jamie Hooper / Nick Croysdill

[phone]

[e-mail]

Notes to Editors:

BioPharma Credit PLC is London's only specialist debt investor to the life sciences industry and joined the LSE in March 2017. BioPharma Credit PLC seeks to provide long-term shareholder returns, principally in the form of sustainable income distributions from exposure to the life sciences industry. BioPharma Credit PLC seeks to achieve this objective primarily through investments in debt assets secured by royalties or other cash flows derived from the sales of approved life sciences products.

 

END