Opexa Triggers Milestone Payment Under Recently Announced Stem Cell Agreement
THE WOODLANDS, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:OPXA), a company developing Tovaxin®, a personalized T-cell immunotherapy for multiple sclerosis (MS), today announced that it has achieved its first technology transfer milestone in connection with the company’s recently announced exclusive stem cell agreement with Novartis, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies. The milestone was completed on schedule and triggers a payment of $500,000 to Opexa.
Opexa recently announced that it entered into an exclusive agreement with Novartis for the further development of Opexa’s novel stem cell technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Opexa received an upfront cash payment of $3 million and was entitled to an additional $1 million as a technology transfer fee to be paid over the course of a six month period. The $500,000 milestone is part of this $1 million technology transfer fee. Total payments to Opexa, including the upfront payment, the technology transfer fee and development and commercial milestone payments could exceed $50 million not including royalties. Opexa is also eligible to receive royalty payments from the sale of any products resulting from the use of the technology and retains an option on certain manufacturing rights.
In another positive development, Opexa recently received approximately $850,000 from the exercise of outstanding warrants. The five-year warrants were exercised at a $1.78 strike price. This, together with the milestone payment, has added over $1.3 million to Opexa’s cash resources, providing the company with further flexibility as it pursues the preparation and planning for Tovaxin’s ongoing clinical development program, as well as its ongoing partnership discussions.
About Opexa
Opexa Therapeutics, Inc. is dedicated to the development of patient-specific cellular therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The Company’s leading therapy, Tovaxin®, is an individualized cellular immunotherapy treatment in Phase IIb clinical development for multiple sclerosis (MS). Tovaxin is derived from T-cells isolated from peripheral blood, expanded ex vivo, and reintroduced into the patients via subcutaneous injections. This process triggers a potent immune response against specific subsets of autoreactive T-cells known to attack myelin, believed to be a primary cause of MS attacks and nervous system damage. For more information visit the Opexa Therapeutics website at www.opexatherapeutics.com.
Cautionary Statement Relating to Forward - Looking Information for the Purpose of "Safe Harbor" Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding current or future financial payments, returns, royalties, performance and position, management's strategy, plans and objectives for future operations, plans and objectives for product development, plans and objectives for present and future clinical trials and results of such trials, plans and objectives for regulatory approval, litigation, intellectual property, product development, manufacturing plans and performance, constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including, without limitation, risks associated with: the success of third party development and commercialization efforts with respect to products covered by intellectual property rights transferred by the Company, the success of third party patent prosecution efforts with respect to such products, the ability of the Company to enter into and benefit from a partnering arrangement for the Company's product candidate, Tovaxin, on reasonably satisfactory terms (if at all), and our dependence (if partnered) on the resources and abilities of any partner for the further development of Tovaxin, our ability to compete with larger, better financed pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, new approaches to the treatment of our targeted diseases, our expectation of incurring continued losses, our uncertainty of developing a marketable product, our ability to raise additional capital to continue our treatment development programs, the success of our clinical trials, our ability to develop and commercialize products, our ability to obtain required regulatory approvals, our compliance with all Food and Drug Administration regulations, our ability to obtain, maintain and protect intellectual property rights for our products, the risk of litigation regarding our intellectual property rights, our limited manufacturing capabilities, our dependence on third-party manufacturers and value added resellers, our ability to hire and retain skilled personnel, our volatile stock price, and other risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
