Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc. Announces Actions to Conserve Cash Resources
Wednesday October 9, 4:58 pm ET
BOTHELL, Wash., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: NWBT - News) announced today that its Board of Directors has authorized management to immediately initiate actions to conserve cash. This will consist of reducing and eliminating future commitments, such as suspending recruitment in its Phase III DCVax-Prostate clinical trial, selling of certain fixed assets and continuing to assess its alternatives.
As disclosed in late July, the Company retained C.E. Unterberg, Towbin to assist in searching out strategic and financial alternatives, including the sale or merger of the Company or any of its development programs or raising additional funds. There can be no assurance that we will be able to sell or merge the Company or to raise additional funds on terms favorable to us or to our stockholders, or at all. Our failure to raise sufficient funds will require us to eliminate some or all of our product development efforts and significantly limit our ability to operate as a going concern. If additional funds are raised by issuing equity securities, the percentage ownership of our stockholders will be reduced, stockholders may experience substantial dilution or such equity securities may provide for rights, preferences or privileges senior to those of the holders of our common stock.
Other Recent Developments
As announced yesterday, October 8, 2002, the Company received notification from NASDAQ that its common stock failed to maintain a minimum $1.00 per share bid price for 30 consecutive trading days as required by NASDAQ rules. The Company has 90 calendar days, or to January 6, 2003, to meet the minimum $1.00 per share bid price for 10 consecutive trading days to regain compliance. If not, it may apply for SmallCap status or become delisted. If the Company's securities are delisted, stockholders' ability to obtain price quotations and buy and sell shares may be materially impacted. It is possible that the common stock may be eligible for trading on the OTC bulletin board.
About Northwest Biotherapeutics:
Northwest Biotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing immunotherapy products that safely generate and enhance immune system responses to effectively treat cancer. The Company combines its expertise in dendritic cell biology, immunology and antigen discovery with its proprietary technologies to develop cancer therapies. Northwest Biotherapeutics' development efforts are based on two proprietary and versatile approaches -- DCVax, a dendritic cell-based immunotherapy platform and HuRx, a fully human monoclonal antibody platform.
The Company's lead DCVax product candidate, DCVax-Prostate, is a prostate cancer treatment that is currently in a pivotal Phase III clinical trial that will be suspended due to financial constraints. It has FDA clearance and is prepared to initiate a multi-site Phase II clinical trial to evaluate DCVax- Brain as a possible treatment for Glioblastoma Multiforme, a lethal form of brain cancer and a Phase I evaluation of its DCVax-Lung as a potential treatment for lung cancer.
HuRx is a human monoclonal antibody program that is being co-developed with Medarex, Inc. Northwest Biotherapeutics' lead HuRx product candidate, HuRx-Prostate is currently being manufactured for anticipated Phase I clinical trials. |
