VIENNA, Va., Feb. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The following letter is being released by CEL-SCI Corporation to its shareholders:
Dear Fellow Shareholders:
I am writing today to provide you with a review of 2008 as well as to update you on our plans for dealing with the current financial downturn. In looking back at the last year, I see a year of meaningful accomplishments which put CEL-SCI in a valuable position, and among a very select group of companies that have a completely novel medicine with blockbuster potential ready to go into a Phase III clinical trial.
Key Company highlights of 2008:
While we are pleased by these accomplishments, we also recognize that there are major challenges due to the severe financial downturn. This downturn has affected all of us, but we have taken immediate action. We very quickly reduced our expenditures and expanded our discussions with various pharmaceutical companies for a world-wide Multikine partnership. Things are very difficult all around for most companies, but we are seeing new strength in the bigger biotechnology names. This will hopefully trickle down to the smaller ones like us as well. The huge buyouts in the industry, Pfizer buying Wyeth and Roche trying to buy Genentech, will add over $100 billion in liquidity to the industry, and that too should help us down the road.
Let me share with you how we at CEL-SCI are dealing with and planning for recovery from this financial downturn. In our opinion, during such a difficult time as this you cannot rely on one strategy alone. Therefore we are pursuing the following multi-pronged strategy. To help us with this process we have hired BroadOak Capital Partners, an investment bank with a comprehensive focus on the life sciences industry.
We hope to bring at least one of these projects to a conclusion very soon.
We cannot change the economic climate or the damage that the financial crisis has caused to the countless stocks, us included, but we are trying to structure our future steps to create the greatest value for CEL-SCI shareholders. We are being very careful and deliberate, working closely with our various partners, suppliers, etc as we adapt to the current environment.
We believe that as a cancer company ready to start a pivotal Phase III clinical trial with a completely novel and non-toxic cancer therapy, we are well positioned for licensing, joint venture and other business arrangements. In normal times these deals might already have been completed a while ago and we would have already started the Phase III trial. In the last few months almost all investments have been hit hard and everything just seems to take longer. Our valuation is currently very low. However, please do not confuse our share price with the real underlying value of the company. One announcement can change the share price dramatically. We have created a late stage cancer company with very large potential both to help patients and create profit, particularly since Multikine is not toxic. What is the value of such a product? Once proven to work, probably billions of dollars. Therefore I believe that our value should be much higher today than the current share price, particularly since a cancer drug is not really related to the economic conditions. If we are successful in just some of the projects listed above, the additional value should very quickly be recognized and the current times will be quickly forgotten.
In closing, we believe that the immune system holds the key to treating cancer. We believe that Multikine will be a multi-billion dollar drug because it works with the body to destroy those tumor metastases thought to be responsible for recurrence of the tumor. In our Phase II studies, Multikine when given for only 3 weeks prior to the normal treatment was able to eliminate all tumor in 12% of the patients, reduce the number of tumor cells by an average of 50% in the treatment group and increase long-term overall survival by 33%. This is why you are a shareholder in CEL-SCI! Tell a friend about our great results.
We thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Geert Kersten
Chief Executive Officer
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 or finalize necessary agreements 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, 2008. 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.
CONTACT: Gavin de Windt of CEL-SCI Corporation, +1-703-506-9460
Web site: http://www.cel-sci.com//
