Despite Tight Financial Market, Company With Anti-Cancer Drug In Clinical Trial Raises $3.6M In Private Placement
SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--During a time of tight credit, record-breaking stock market plunges, and shell-shocked investors, anti-cancer drug development firm Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc., has just completed a private placement in which the company raised $3.6 million from individual investors.
The company has an anti-cancer agent based on a patented extract from the oleander plant. The drug is in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration Phase I clinical trial at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Fifty-eight individual angel investors, including 10 physicians, over the past month and a half bought into San Antonio-based Phoenix Biotechnology, Inc., at $8 per share, with an average investment of $62,000.
"It is encouraging to see the confidence that these investors have placed in Phoenix Biotechnology during a period of discomforting market turmoil and tightening credit," said Lou Kost Jr., co-founder, executive vice president, and director of Phoenix. "Many people today are looking for opportunities to invest with people they know and trust, and I believe it says a lot about Phoenix that nearly 20 percent of these investors are medical doctors."
Since its incorporation in 2003, Phoenix's focus has been on research to determine the therapeutic potential of various botanical substances, such as oleander.
The company in 2003 established a research and development relationship with the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Department of Experimental Therapeutics. The R&D program was established by Robert Newman, Ph.D., professor of Experimental Therapeutics and co-director of the Pharmaceutical Development Center at M.D. Anderson.
The drug in the Phase I trial at M.D. Anderson, known by the working name "PBI-05204," is being tested in patients with various forms of cancer, including colon cancer and pancreatic cancer.
"Our relationship with M.D. Anderson and Dr. Newman led to the discovery of a patented extraction of Nerium oleander that has shown activity against various tumor cell lines in the laboratory, and now we have taken it to the next level with testing in people," said Crandell Addington, co-founder, director, and president and CEO of Phoenix Biotechnology. "The pharmacologically active chemistries of this extract have been shown to inhibit the proliferation of cell growth in certain forms of cancer."
In laboratory tests, the drug has been shown to block several critical oncogenesis pathways in these tumor cell lines, including the PI3k/Akt pathway.
The $3.6 million raised over the past month was the third round of private placement funding for Phoenix. The company has raised a total of $11.8 million in private placements since 2003.
Phoenix has a total capitalization of 14.2 million shares and is debt-free.
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