MILAN, Italy, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI) held its 2007 annual shareholders meeting (Annual Meeting) on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 in Milan. The Company conducted the Annual Meeting in Milan since a majority of CTI’s shares are held by Italian shareholders. At the 2007 Annual Meeting, shareholders re-elected Mary O. Mundinger, Dr. PH, and Jack W. Singer, M.D., as Class III Directors for a term to expire at the 2009 Annual Meeting. Frederick W. Telling, Ph.D., was elected as a Class II Director for a term expiring at the 2008 Annual Meeting. John H. Bauer was elected and Phillip M. Nudelman, Ph.D., was re-elected as Class I Directors for a term to expire at the 2010 Annual Meeting.
Also approved at the 2007 Annual Meeting were a proposal to approve the Company’s 2007 Employee Stock Purchase Plan and reserve 250,000 shares of common stock for issuance under the Plan; a proposal to amend and restate the Company’s 2003 Equity Incentive Plan, which was retitled as the 2007 Equity Incentive Plan; and a proposal to ratify Stonefield Josephson as CTI’s independent auditor for the years ending December 31, 2006 and 2007.
“I’d like to thank our shareholders who voted or provided proxies for our meeting. I’m happy to report that as a result of focusing on outreach to our Italian shareholders and banks and sharing information with them about the process CTI is required to follow in the United States and under Washington law, of the approximately 27 million shares held in Italy, I believe more than two million of them have been voted directly by individual shareholders or small banks,” said James A. Bianco, M.D., President and CEO of CTI. “I’d also like to thank our shareholders who attended the meeting.”
During management’s presentation, Bianco introduced CTI’s strategic platform, which is intended to reduce the risk of current and future cancer drug development. He also reviewed CTI’s growth through acquisition initiative, which resulted in the recent acquisition of Systems Medicine and Brostallicin as well as the agreement to acquire Zevalin(R) (ibritumomab tiuxetan) from Biogen IDEC, which is pending closing. Bianco outlined CTI’s development plans and upcoming milestones for its pipeline, including XYOTAX(TM) (paclitaxel poliglumex, CT-2103), pixantrone (BBR 2778), and Brostallicin.
“As a result of our recent acquisitions and with our existing pipeline, we have built a powerful, diversified oncology pipeline. This gives us the potential for multiple pivotal and regulatory milestones in 2008 and 2009. We are integrating several components of our strategy, ranging from developing next generation versions of proven effective agents to using cutting edge genomic science to target the right patients for the right drug, which we believe will allow us to manage the risk inherent in cancer drug development,” noted Bianco.
“While we anticipate our 2007 net loss to be consistent with the 2006 net loss, we will need to raise additional capital to move our programs forward over the next few years. If we achieve our product pipeline, acquisition, and sales targets, our goal is to break even in 2009 and have a profitable operating company by 2010,” Bianco added. For more information on CTI’s strategy and development pipeline or to see the archived presentation, please visit our Web site at http://www.cticseattle.com.
About Cell Therapeutics, Inc.
Headquartered in Seattle, CTI is a biopharmaceutical company committed to developing an integrated portfolio of oncology products aimed at making cancer more treatable. For additional information, please visit http://www.cticseattle.com.
This press release includes forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, the outcome of which could materially and/or adversely affect actual future results. Specifically, the risks and uncertainties that could affect CTI include statements about future financial and operating results, risks associated with preclinical and clinical developments in the biopharmaceutical industry in general and with CTI’s strategic platform and the development of Brostallicin, XYOTAX, pixantrone, and Zevalin in particular including, without limitation, the potential failure of Brostallicin, XYOTAX, and pixantrone to prove safe and effective for treatment of cancer, the risk that we may not be able to complete the acquisition of Zevalin due to closing conditions, or that we may not recognize the full expected value of Zevalin in future years, determinations by regulatory, patent and administrative governmental authorities, competitive factors, technological developments, costs of developing, producing and selling Brostallicin, XYOTAX, pixantrone, and Zevalin, and the risk factors listed or described from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, the Company’s most recent filings on Forms 10-K, 8-K, and 10-Q. Except as may be required by Italian law, CTI is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Media Contact: Dan Eramian T: 206.272.4343 C: 206.854.1200 Susan Callahan T: 206.272.4472 F: 206.272.4434 E: media@ctiseattle.comwww.cticseattle.com/media.htm Investors Contact: Leah Grant T: 206.282.7100 F: 206.272.4434 E: invest@ctiseattle.comwww.cticseattle.com/investors.htm
Cell Therapeutics, Inc.
CONTACT: Media, Dan Eramian, +1-206-272-4343, Cell, +1-206-854-1200, orSusan Callahan, +1-206-272-4472, Fax, +1-206-272-4434,media@ctiseattle.com, or Investors, Leah Grant, +1-206-282-7100, Fax,+1-206-272-4434, invest@ctiseattle.com, all for Cell Therapeutics, Inc.
Web site: http://www.cticseattle.com/
