Opexa Therapeutics' endeavor in the field of stem cell technology

Sep 24 2009

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.

http://www.opexapharmaceuticals.com/