One to watch:
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (Nasdaq: LJPC) today announced that The Nasdaq - Amex Market Group (Nasdaq) has notified the Company that LJPC is in compliance with all requirements necessary for the continued listing of its stock on the Nasdaq National Market(R). Previously, Nasdaq had notified the Company that it was not in compliance with the required one dollar minimum bid price. The Company no longer plans to hold a special stockholders' meeting to consider a reverse split of its stock as was mentioned in a September press release.
The Company believes that its market capitalization has risen in response to recently announced encouraging results regarding its late-stage lupus drug candidate, LJP 394. In its Phase II/III trial, patients whose antibodies bound strongly to LJP 394 experienced a reduction in renal flares and in the incidence of treatments with high-dose steroids or cyclophosphamide. More than 80% of patients in the trial were in this group. The Company is continuing to analyze data from the Phase II/III trial and has begun planning for a Phase III trial.
Lupus is a life-threatening autoimmune disorder in which a patient's own rogue B cells produce antibodies to double-stranded DNA that are believed to promote lupus kidney disease, a principal cause of morbidity and mortality in lupus. Renal flares are life-threatening episodes of kidney inflammation. Lupus is believed to afflict more than 1,000,000 people in the United States and Europe.
San Diego-based La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company is focused on the research and development of therapeutic compounds to treat antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases. The Company develops disease-specific therapeutics using its proprietary Tolerance Technology(R) for major diseases and conditions caused by antibodies. By treating the underlying cause of disease, the Company believes that Tolerance Technology will lead to products with improved therapeutic benefit and fewer side effects than currently available therapies. The Company is developing targeted therapeutics for major diseases and conditions caused by antibodies such as lupus, antibody-mediated thrombosis, a clotting disorder associated with stroke, myocardial infarction, deep-vein thrombosis, and recurrent fetal loss, and organ rejection in xenotransplantation. The Company's common stock and warrants trade on The Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbols LJPC and LJPCW, respectively. For more information about the Company, visit our web site: www.ljpc.com.
Statements regarding the Company's Nasdaq listing and analysis of results from preclinical and clinical studies, as well as La Jolla Pharmaceutical's drug candidates and drug development plans, are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors, both foreseen and unforeseen, could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. The Company's common stock currently trades on the Nasdaq National Market and is subject to certain Nasdaq continued listing criteria. The Company can make no assurances that it will continue to meet current or future Nasdaq listing criteria. Failure to satisfy such listing criteria may adversely affect the value and/or liquidity of the Company's common stock. The Company's analysis of clinical results is ongoing, and future analyses may not necessarily support conclusions to date. Tolerance, or the specific inactivation of pathogenic B cells, is a new technology that has not been proven. Future clinical trials of LJP 394 may have negative or inconclusive results. Further, delays in continued testing of LJP 394 and/or termination of development by the Company would result in delays or lack of government approval to market the compound. The development of LJP 394 involves many risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, whether LJP 394 can provide a meaningful clinical benefit, and any positive results observed to date may not be indicative of future results. La Jolla Pharmaceutical's other drug candidates, none of which has progressed to clinical trials, involve comparable risks. Interested parties are urged to review the risks detailed from time to time in La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including the report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and the report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 1999.
SOURCE La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company
CO: La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company
ST: California
IN: MTC
SU:
12/15/1999 07:30 EST prnewswire.com |
