Message #37 From:
NewsBot Date: December 14, 2006 04:30:00 AM
GERN News Geron Announces Direct Equity Issuance
MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Geron Corporation (Nasdaq:GERN) today announced that it has entered into
a definitive agreement to sell common stock to institutional investors
at $8.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $40.0 million.
In connection with the sale, the company will issue warrants with a
75-day exercise period to purchase an additional $15.0 million of common
stock at the same price per share, and longer term warrants, exercisable
after 180 days, to purchase 3.0 million shares at a premium.
“In 2007, we will fund multiple trials of our
telomerase inhibitor drug, GRN163L, and we anticipate initiating a
clinical trial for our cancer vaccine,” said
David Greenwood, Geron’s executive vice
president and chief financial officer. “We are
also on a path to a regulatory filing and clinical trial for TAT0002,
our telomerase activator drug, for patients with HIV/AIDS. Finally, we
expect to file an IND to treat spinal cord injury using therapeutic
cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. We want to maintain a
strong balance sheet as we progress to and through these and potentially
other trials.”
The shares were offered through a prospectus supplement to the company’s
effective universal shelf registration statement. The company arranged
the financing directly with the investors.
Geron is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and
commercializing products predicated on three proprietary technologies:
therapeutics for oncology that target telomerase; drugs that activate
telomerase in tissues impacted by senescence, injury or degenerative
disease; and cell-based therapies derived from human embryonic stem
cells for applications in multiple chronic diseases. For more
information, visit www.geron.com.
This news release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant
to the “safe harbor”
provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements regarding
future progress of the company’s products
involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks
inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products,
need for regulatory approvals or clearances and the maintenance of our
intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from
the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional
information on potential factors that could affect our results and other
risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in Geron’s
periodic reports, including the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended September 30, 2006.
