VIENNA, Va., June 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The following letter is being released by CEL-SCI CORPORATION to its shareholders from Geert Kersten, Chief Executive Officer:
The stock market is worried about inflation and biotech stocks are being knocked down. Does that make sense? Are patients less interested in saving their lives because the price of a gallon of gas is now over $3? With inflation fears reducing the attractiveness of many stocks, biotech stocks should get the attention of investors as an alternate place to invest. Certainly the pharmaceutical companies are taking advantage of the lack of investor interest in biotech stocks. During the past months they have acquired many biotechnology companies to the tune of billions of dollars, e.g., AstraZeneca's purchase of Cambridge Antibody Technology for $1.3 billion. Our own company's stock, CEL-SCI Corporation , has been pulled down with the general market even though we recently presented excellent long-term survival data with our cancer drug Multikine(R). Seeing such a disconnect between real data and market valuation, I have just bought another 87,600 shares of CEL-SCI in the open market. The value proposition was simply too good to pass up.
During the past 12 months CEL-SCI has achieved great milestones. We received the Canadian go-ahead for a Phase III clinical trial with our cancer drug Multikine, we received a key patent on Multikine giving us another 18 years of market exclusivity, and we had Multikine's mechanism of action published in a leading cancer journal. Most recently we were able to announce a 33-40% improvement in patient survival after long-term follow-up (3 1/2 years) in our key Phase II study with Multikine.
In my opinion, we have set this Company up to enter its Phase III cancer trial with a great deal of risk mitigation and an enormous upside. We have validated the manufacturing process, we have conducted many Phase II studies to determine the right dose to administer, we have waited for long-term Phase II data showing a very significant increase in survival, and the Phase II treatment regimen showing the increase in survival is the same as the one we will be using in our Phase III trial. Clearly the market we are pursuing is very large, constituting 5-6% of all cancer patients. Since we still have all of the major markets available for partnering, we are seeing interest in Multikine from pharmaceutical companies.
I often find it helpful to summarize complicated issues in a more simplistic manner. Therefore I have compiled a list of the key reasons as to why I would use Multikine if I were a cancer patient:
1) It is non-toxic and treatment takes only 3 weeks. 2) 12% of the patients in the key Phase II study had no remaining tumor after Multikine treatment. 3) After treatment with Multikine the average tumor reduction in this study was about 50%, before the standard treatments even started. I like the idea of the enemy's army being 50% reduced before the fight even begins. 4) Our publication in the Laryngoscope has shown that pre-treatment with Multikine should significantly enhance the effectiveness of follow-on radiation and chemotherapy. 5) We showed a substantial increase in survival in our key Phase II study. 6) Multikine pretreatment does not preclude any other therapy.
My feeling is that I would have a lot to gain and nothing to lose by taking Multikine. I believe that many others will feel the same and, it is for this reason that I believe that Multikine will some day be added to many of the current cancer therapies.
When used in this report, the words "intends," "believes," "anticipated" and "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, an inability to duplicate the clinical results demonstrated in clinical studies, timely development of any potential products that can be shown to be safe and effective, receiving necessary regulatory approvals, difficulties in manufacturing any of the Company's potential products, inability to raise the necessary capital and the risk factors set forth from time to time in CEL-SCI Corporation's SEC filings, including but not limited to its report on Form 10- K for the year ended September 30, 2005. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision to these forward-looking statements which may be made to reflect the events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
CEL-SCI CorporationCONTACT: COMPANY: Gavin de Windt of CEL-SCI Corporation, +1-703-506-9460;or INVESTOR RELATIONS: Mike Lucci of Lucci Financial Group, LLC,+1-248-723-3330, for CEL-SCI Corporation
Web site: http://www.cel-sci.com/
