Celsion Receives $2.5 Million in Non-Dilutive Funding from the Sale of its New Jersey State Net Operating Losses and Grant Fu...
April 23 2020 - 8:30AM
Celsion Corporation (NASDAQ: CLSN), an oncology drug development
company, today announced it has received $1.82 million of net cash
proceeds from the sale of approximately $1.9 million of its unused
New Jersey net operating losses (NOLs) and $632,220 in funding
under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the federal
government's main initiative to help small businesses disrupted by
the COVID-19 pandemic. The NOL sales cover the tax years 2017 and
2018 and are administered through the New Jersey Economic
Development Authority’s (NJEDA) Technology Business Tax Certificate
Transfer (NOL) Program. With this new $2.5 million funding, coupled
with the $4.4 million in net proceeds from the recent registered
direct equity offer completed on March 3, 2020, the Company has
strengthened its balance sheet at a time of stock market
uncertainty. An additional sale of $2.0 million of unused New
Jersey NOLs anticipated in the second half of 2020 will further
increase Celsion’s cash reserves on a non-dilutive basis. In
addition, the Company has initiated several cost containment
measures to ensure that it has sufficient cash to fund operations
and clinical development programs through the second quarter of
2021 and all major Phase III OPTIMA Study readouts.
The competitive New Jersey NOL Program enables
approved companies to sell their unused New Jersey NOLs and R&D
tax credits to unaffiliated, profit-generating corporate taxpayers
in the state of New Jersey, up to a maximum lifetime benefit of $15
million per company. This allows technology and biotechnology
companies with NOLs to turn their tax losses and credits into cash
proceeds to fund more research and development (R&D), expand
its workforce or cover other allowable expenditures.
Loans made under the Paycheck Protection Program
have two-year terms and charge 1% interest. If borrowers follow
guidelines and use at least 75% of the money for eligible payroll
costs, some or all of the loan may be forgiven. Celsion anticipates
meeting these guidelines for full forgiveness of its PPP loan.
“This innovative economic development program
offered by the NJEDA reinforces our belief in the State of New
Jersey’s commitment to the biotechnology industry and to the
development of new life-saving therapies. We will participate in
this program again in 2020 to secure the remaining $2 million
available to us under the maximum lifetime benefit of $15 million
per company,” said Michael H. Tardugno, Celsion Corporation’s
chairman, president and chief executive officer. “The $2.5 million
in proceeds from the NOL sale and the PPP loan coupled with the
$4.4 million in net proceeds from the recently completed registered
direct equity offering strengthen our cash position and extend
Celsion’s cash runway through the second quarter of 2021. We are
positioned to advance our development programs well beyond several
expected key value inflection points, including the second interim
efficacy analysis of the Phase III OPTIMA Study for ThermoDox® and,
if needed, the final efficacy readout in the first quarter of 2021.
We appreciate the support and commitment of the NJEDA in
facilitating our continued innovation and applaud their efforts to
foster continued investment and growth for businesses in New
Jersey.”
“Over the past two years, Celsion has sought
investor friendly ways to finance our clinical development programs
in some of the world’s most devastating cancers. Balancing the high
cost of research and drug development without losing focus on our
shareholders is not only reflected in our sale of unused New Jersey
NOLs and successful application for Federal grant monies, it is
further demonstrated by our judicious use of venture debt on terms
that give us an operating runway into mid-2021,” said Jeffrey W.
Church, Celsion Corporation’s executive vice president and CFO.
“With the continued support of our shareholders, we look forward to
a promising 2020.”
For more details on this funding for this year’s
NOL program, please visit www.njeda.com.
About Celsion
Corporation
Celsion is a fully integrated oncology company
focused on developing a portfolio of innovative cancer treatments,
including directed chemotherapies, immunotherapies and RNA- or
DNA-based therapies. The Company's lead program is ThermoDox®, a
proprietary heat-activated liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin,
currently in Phase III development for the treatment of primary
liver cancer. The pipeline also includes GEN-1, a DNA-based
immunotherapy for the localized treatment of ovarian cancer.
Celsion has two platform technologies for the development of novel
nucleic acid-based immunotherapies and other anti-cancer DNA or RNA
therapies. For more information on Celsion, please visit
www.celsion.com.
Celsion wishes to inform readers that
forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the
"safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without
limitation, unforeseen changes in the course of research and
development activities and in clinical trials; the uncertainties of
and difficulties in analyzing interim clinical data; the
significant expense, time, and risk of failure of conducting
clinical trials; the need for Celsion to evaluate its future
development plans; possible acquisitions or licenses of other
technologies, assets or businesses; possible actions by customers,
suppliers, competitors, regulatory authorities; and other risks
detailed from time to time in Celsion's periodic reports and
prospectuses filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Celsion assumes no obligation to update or supplement
forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent
events, new information or otherwise.
Celsion Investor ContactJeffrey
W. ChurchExecutive Vice President and CFO609-482-2455
jchurch@celsion.com
Or
LHA Investor RelationsKim
Sutton Golodetz212-838-3777kgolodetz@lhai.com
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