SAN DIEGO, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lpath Therapeutics Inc. announced that on November 30, 2005, it completed its merger with a specially formed subsidiary of publicly-traded Neighborhood Connections, Inc. . Immediately prior to the merger, Lpath Therapeutics Inc. closed on the private placement of units. Lpath raised approximately $6 million in gross proceeds from the sale of the units. Immediately after the merger, Neighborhood Connections, Inc. amended its articles of incorporation to change its name to Lpath Inc. The company will be headquartered in San Diego and will continue to trade under the ticker symbol NBHC until the change to a new ticker symbol is effected.
“These transactions represent a significant milestone for the entire Lpath team. We are now able to aggressively execute our plan to become one of the dominant players in the cancer-theranostics arena and to further our status in the hot area of lysolipid research and development,” said Scott R. Pancoast, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lpath. “With the proceeds from our completed private placement, we will move towards an IND filing of our lead product candidate, Sphingomab(TM), in preparation for a Phase I cancer trial, and we will further our understanding of Sphingomab(TM)'s theranostics capability. We also hope to complete the development of our second product candidate, which also has cancer-theranostics applications. Further, we plan to broaden our pipeline by leveraging our unique ability to develop monoclonal antibodies against bioactive lipids and by capitalizing on our deep understanding of lysolipid-signaling pathways.”
In the financing, which was led by Roaring Fork Capital SBIC, L.P. (with offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Dallas), Lpath received slightly more than $6 million in gross proceeds from a private placement of units. The purchase price was $1.60 per unit, with each unit being comprised of two shares of common stock and a 58-month warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $1.50 per share. Following the merger with Neighborhood Connections and the issuance of Neighborhood Connections stock for Lpath Therapeutics stock (including the shares issued in the private placement), Lpath Inc. has approximately 23.5 million shares of common stock outstanding.
About the Company
Lpath, headquartered in San Diego, California, is a theranostics company focused on bioactive signaling lipids as targets for treating and diagnosing important human diseases. Lpath’s lead product candidate, Sphingomab(TM), is a monoclonal antibody (mAb) against a validated cancer target, sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), and has demonstrated compelling results against seven different forms of solid-tumor and blood-borne cancers in pre-clinical studies. Like Avastin (Genentech’s blockbuster cancer drug), Sphingomab(TM) is anti-angiogenic, but Sphingomab(TM) has other mechanisms of action that may prove advantageous in the clinical setting. As such, although Genentech pioneered the anti-angiogenesis approach to treating cancer, Lpath believes Sphingomab(TM) may prove to be the next generation of anti-angiogenesis-based therapeutics.
In other Sphingomab(TM) studies, Lpath has shown significantly improved survival in pre-clinical studies of post-myocardial-infarction-induced heart failure. Further, Lpath has demonstrated in a preliminary study extremely promising results against Age-related Macular Degeneration.
Lpath’s unique ability to generate mAbs against bioactive lysolipids is based on its ImmuneY2(TM) technology. The Company is currently applying the ImmuneY2(TM) process to other important lipid-signaling agents that are validated targets for disease treatment, thereby creating a pipeline of mAb-based drug candidates. To complement this pipeline, the Company has various small-molecule-based programs that are related to lysolipid-signaling pathways.
Lpath has a broad and deep intellectual-property position in the lysolipid signaling area, with over 26 issued or pending patents. The Company’s research partner to date has been the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas and its humanization partner is London-based AERES Biomedical, a subsidiary of Medical Research Council Technology. The basis for the Company’s technology was developed by Dr. Roger Sabbadini while a professor at San Diego State University.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for statements of historical fact, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking and reflect numerous assumptions and involve a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from stated expectations. For example, there can be no assurance that required clinical trials will be successful, necessary regulatory approvals will be obtained or the proposed treatments will prove to be safe or effective. Actual results may also differ substantially from those described in or contemplated by this press release due to risks and uncertainties that exist in our operations and business environment, including, without limitation, our limited experience in the development of therapeutic drugs, our dependence upon proprietary technology, our history of operating losses and accumulated deficits, our reliance on research grants, current and future competition, and other risks described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to release publicly the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date hereof.
Lpath(TM), Sphingomab(TM), and ImmuneY2(TM) are trademarks of Lpath Inc.
Lpath Therapeutics Inc.
CONTACT: Scott Pancoast, President and Chief Executive Officer of LpathTherapeutics Inc., +1-858-678-0800, ext. 104, spancoast@lpath.com
Web site: http://www.lpath.com//
