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Biotech / Medical : XOMA. Bull or Bear? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Biomaven who wrote (10869)	7/22/1999 2:02:00 PM
From: Bluegreen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17367

Peter, I see your point but I have to say I would of felt better if you stated in your FIRST post on the subject this round of financing might be prudent under the circumstances.

To: Biomaven who wrote (10869)	7/24/1999 7:18:00 PM
From: Bluegreen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17367

Peter, I hope this helps, straight from the horse's mouth as they say. George, have you heard of that saying?<g> Washington Editor Published 07/23/99 With the release of pivotal trial data for its lead product imminent, Xoma Ltd. raised $17.4 million dollars in a private placement of common shares of stock. The Berkeley, Calif.-based company is expecting to release results from its pivotal Phase III study of Neuprex in the next several weeks. Faced with news that can cause a company's stock to either soar or plummet, the company decided to raise cash in a more stable environment. "Our policy has been to keep about a year's worth of cash on hand," said Peter Davis, Xoma's chief financial officer. "Releasing the results of a clinical trial is basically a binary event - it's either good news or it's bad news - and we didn't want to find ourselves short of cash." Xoma ended the second quarter with approximately $20 million in cash. Davis estimated the company currently is burning about $40 million a year. With a half year's cash on hand, the company decided to seek financing. Xoma sold 3 million shares to more than 20 institutional investors, including both new and previous investors. The shares sold at discounted price of $5.80 a share. Xoma now has about 54 million shares outstanding. Sutro & Co., of Los Angeles, and Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder served as placement agents for this transaction. The company's stock (NASDAQ:XOMA) closed Thursday at $6.875, down 3.13 cents per share. "We were very happy to do [this financing] under the terms that we did," Davis said. "It's a straight common stock transaction - no convertible preferred stock, no warrants or price adjustments." The company plans to use the funds to further the development of products from its BPI (bacterial/permeability-increasing protein) drug development platform. BPI is a human host-defense protein with multiple anti-infective properties. Xoma's lead BPI drug is Neuprex. Neuprex is designed to kill bacteria, enhance antibiotics, and bind and neutralizes endotoxin, a poisonous molecule produced in the cell walls of gram-negative bacteria. The company is expected to announce in August results of the pivotal trial testing Neuprex as a treatment for meningococcemia, a rare but deadly blood-borne bacterial infection that strikes children. Neuprex also is in a Phase III trial testing it as a means of preventing pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome in trauma patients. In June, Xoma signed a licensing deal worth up to $11 million with Allergan Inc., of Irvine, Calif., to develop BPI for ophthalmic infections. In addition to BPI technology, Xoma has a partnership with Genentech Inc., of South San Francisco, to develop the hu1124 antibody as a treatment for moderate to severe psoriasis. The product has successfully completed Phase II clinical trials and is expected to enter Phase III by the end of this year.