ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nabi Biopharmaceuticals announced today that its Board of Directors has approved the repurchase of up to $65 million of the Company’s outstanding common shares in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions. This share repurchase program includes the $3.1 million outstanding balance from the $5 million share repurchase program that the company announced in 2001.
“This repurchase program is the right thing to do for our shareholders and this is the right time to do it,” said Dr. Leslie Hudson, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Nabi. “This is a first step. It not only reflects our continuing commitment to maximize shareholder value but also demonstrates our confidence in the value of Nabi’s assets after closing the sale of our biologics strategic business unit. We will now shift our primary focus to the various alternatives that we may pursue to maximize the return of value to our shareholders from our considerable remaining assets -- which include our NicVAX(R) (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine) and StaphVAX(R) (Staphylococcus aureus Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine) clinical programs, potential PhosLo milestones and royalties, as well as our significant net cash position. These future alternatives may include, but are not limited to, licensing or development arrangements; joint ventures or strategic alliances; the sale or merger of all or part of the company; and additional share repurchase programs or other distributions to our shareholders.”
About Nabi Biopharmaceuticals
Nabi Biopharmaceuticals leverages its experience and knowledge in powering the immune system to develop products that target serious medical conditions in the areas of gram-positive bacterial infections and nicotine addiction. Nabi Biopharmaceuticals is currently developing NicVAX(R) (Nicotine Conjugate Vaccine), an innovative and proprietary investigational vaccine for treatment of nicotine addiction and prevention of smoking relapse, and StaphVAX(R) (Staphylococcus aureus Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine), a vaccine designed to prevent the most dangerous and prevalent strains of S. aureus bacterial infections. The company is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. For additional information about Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, please visit our Web site: http://www.nabi.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are not strictly historical are forward- looking statements including statements about the repurchase of shares and the strategic and other alternatives that we may pursue. You can identify these forward-looking statements because they involve our expectations, beliefs, projections, anticipations or other characterizations of future events or circumstances. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of any number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, risks relating to our ability to: repurchase the full value of the shares proposed to be repurchased; successfully pursue strategic and other alternatives; successfully partner with third parties to fund, develop, and manufacture our pipeline products, including NicVAX and our gram-positive infections products; obtain successful clinical trial results; receive PhosLo milestone and royalty proceeds; realize anticipated cost saving; maintain a sufficient cash balance and generate sufficient cash flow from milestone or royalty payments to fund our development and commercialization activities; attract and maintain the human and financial resources to bring to market products in development; depend upon third parties to manufacture or fill our products; achieve approval and market acceptance of our products; enter into and maintain arrangements with third parties to market and sell our products; manufacture NicVAX or other products; comply with reporting and payment obligations under government rebate and pricing programs; raise additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all; and re-pay our outstanding convertible senior notes when due. Many of these factors are more fully discussed, as are other factors, in the company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 29, 2007 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: Investor Relations, +1-301-770-3099
Web site: http://www.nabi.com/
