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Protox Completes Qualifying Transaction and Raises $4.5 Million Offering Oversubscribed by 50%
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Protox Therapeutics Inc., formerly SNB Capital Corp., (ěProtoxî) today announced that it has completed its Qualifying Transaction and closed a $4.5 million public financing. The financing was led by Wellington West Capital Inc. and IPC Securities Corporation. Protox announced it intended to carry out a $3.0 million public financing; however, demand for the offering led Protox and its agents to increase the size of the financing to $4.5 million. It is expected that shares in Protox will resume trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on July 14, 2004 under the new symbol ěPRXî.
Financing
We are very pleased with the strong support Protox has received from the financial communityî, said Tazdin Esmail, President, CEO and Director of Protox. ěThe combination of compelling science, a highly experienced management team and an enviable Board of Directors has brought us a wide base of shareholders who believe in Protoxís potential. The Company is now well financed to drive its development activities through several major milestones during the next two years.î
Pursuant to the financing, Protox issued 4,478,000 million units at $1.00 per unit. Each unit represents one common share and one half warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share of Protox for $1.25 per share for a period of 15 months.
Protox paid a commission to the agents and issued to the agents warrants to purchase up to 358,240 common shares, exercisable at a price of $1.00 per share for a period of 18 months
The net proceeds of the financing are approximately $4.1 million and will be added to Protoxís current working capital of $2.5 million, for a total available capital of approximately $6.6 million.
Management
ěI have been investing in life science companies for many years, and I don't believe I have ever seen such a strong management team wrapped around an emerging life science company. With Tazdin Esmail and Frank Holler on the team, Protox has a wealth of talent and experience to draw upon in developing its novel cancer therapeutics.î said Dr. Don Rix, a Director of Protox and a recognized leader within the BC biotechnology community.
Protox's management team includes:
Tazdin Esmail, President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Protox. Mr. Esmail is a founder and former Chairman of the Board, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes Medi-Tech Inc., a company listed on the TSX and NASDAQ. He is a former Vice President of Operations of QLT Inc., a TSX/NASDAQ listed biotechnology company, and a former director of pharmaceutical operations for the multinational pharmaceutical company, American Cyanamid (American Home Products), where he also managed that companyís oncology and hospital products division. He was instrumental in raising over $100 million for these companies through financings and strategic alliances, and has extensive experience in growing companies from the start-up stage to profitable commercial ventures.
Frank Holler, Chairman and Director of Protox. Mr. Holler most recently served as President and CEO of Xenon Genetics Inc. At Xenon, Mr. Holler negotiated an $87 million partnership agreement with Pfizer, and completed a $74 million mezzanine financing with US and Canadian institutional investors ń the largest private placement to that date by a Canadian biotechnology company. Mr. Holler was previously President, CEO and co-founder of ID Biomedical Corporation a TSX/NASDAQ listed biotechnology company. Mr. Holler was also a founding director of Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, a TSX/NASDAQ listed biotechnology company. Prior to working in biotechnology and healthcare, Mr. Holler was a Vice President of Investment Banking with Merrill Lynch Canada and CIBC World Markets.
Tom Buckley, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Director of Protox. Educated at McGill and Harvard Universities and the University of Utrecht in Holland in Chemistry and Biochemistry, Dr. Buckley is an internationally recognized expert on channel-forming proteins, such as Aerolysin. He has published over 100 research articles, including more than 60 articles on Aerolysin, and has a number of patents related to Protoxís technology. He holds one of the largest NSERC research grants in the biological sciences in Canada, as well as a number of other research grants. He is a full professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Victoria.
Nina Merchant, B.Sc., M.E.Sc., Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance of Protox. Ms. Merchant has held a variety of positions in regulatory affairs and quality assurance at Connaught Laboratories, Vetrepharm, Pharmacia Biotech, IBEX Technologies and ARC Biotech.
Gene Barnett, Ph.D., Director of Clinical Affairs of Protox. Dr. Barnett is a former FDA manager where he was a member of clinical review teams that performed regulatory review of Investigational New Drug and New Drug Applications.
Technology
In addressing the technology of Protox, Frank Holler noted, ěMany industry experts and medical practitioners believe that the future of effective cancer treatment lies in targeted therapeutic approaches. Using such approaches cancer cells and tumours are selectively destroyed while healthy cells and tissues are left unharmed. Protox's Aerolysin technology affords the ability to engineer three levels of selectivity, making it an ideal platform from which to develop multiple products for the targeted treatment of cancer. We expect to develop a number of products targeting cancers such as lung cancer, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and breast cancer.î
Protox has developed in-house, and has optioned from third parties, technologies intended to transform the naturally occurring bacterial toxin Aerolysin into novel, cancer therapeutics. Aerolysin has the ability to kill cells by forming holes in their membranes while leaving healthy "bystander" cells intact. Using an innovative protein engineering approach, Protox scientists can alter Aerolysin so that it binds to specific cancer cells. Our scientists can also engineer an activation region in Aerolysin, so that the toxic hole-forming effect is "switched on" only in the presence of specific cells. Protox expects this approach will produce therapeutics that have greater potency and lower side-effects than current methods of treating cancer.
Working in partnership with groups at The University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University, a leading U.S. medical research institution, Protox has already demonstrated proof of concept for its lead therapeutic product, PSA-PAH1, which is targeted for the treatment of prostate cancer. Protox and its partners plan to initiate a focused pre-clinical and clinical research program to develop PSA-PAH1. The Company anticipates that it will be ready to apply for an Investigational New Drug application (IND) with the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America (FDA) for approval to treat human prostate cancer patients with PSA-PAH1 within the next 12-18 months. Protox is also engineering Aerolysin to develop a second product, PSA-PA2, designed to have a double targeting mechanism for metastatic prostate cancer cells.
Protox has also established a partnership with a research group at the National Research Council Institute of Biological Sciences in Ottawa (NRC), to produce and test cancer therapeutics that have been created by linking Aerolysin to single chain antibodies which bind to tumor cells. Proof of concept with an Aerolysin therapeutic targeted to selectively destroy non-small cell lung cancer cells is nearing completion.
Protox also intends to pursue other cancer targets such as Non-Hodgkinís Lymphoma and breast cancer by linking Aerolysin to cell-specified monoclonal antibodies.
For more information contact:
Tazdin Esmail
President, CEO and Director
Protox Therapeutics Inc.
Tel: 604-688-4369
tesmail@protoxtherapeutics.com
To view our prospectus, visit www.protoxtherapeutics.com
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