SAN DIEGO, March 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Organovo Holdings,
Inc. (NYSE MKT: ONVO) ("Organovo"), a three-dimensional
biology company focused on delivering breakthrough 3D bioprinting
technology, today celebrated a profile of the company and the 3D
bioprinting space as the cover story in the Economist's Technology
Quarterly.
Keith Murphy, chairman and chief
executive officer of Organovo, commented that "Organovo is
proud to continue to receive insightful coverage in top business
and financial news outlets. We appreciate the recognition as a top
tier biotechnology company showing leadership in an emerging and
important space."
In its coverage, the Economist's Technology Quarterly
describes:
- the role of Organovo Scientific Founder Prof. Gabor Forgacs in
foundational work in the bioprinting field;
- the potential of Organovo's bioprinted 3D Liver tissues to
improve pharmaceutical toxicity testing;
- Organovo's technology advantage in being able to make 100%
cellular tissues; and
- Organovo's work in early animal studies to create simple
tissues for direct surgical implantation to treat patients; and
other details of the company's strategy, technology, and
operations.
In putting together their detailed coverage, the Economist's
Technology Quarterly had a scientific writer visit the company,
receive access to the company's facilities, and review and
interview many others in the space. Organovo worked directly
with this writer over the course of two months to provide
information for the piece.
Organovo has continued to receive coverage in important news
outlets, such as Fox Business News and Bloomberg News in
February 2014, and important
customer-facing outlets such as Genetic Engineering and
Biotechnology News, and Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry in
January 2014. We are further pleased to announce that our
CEO, Keith Murphy, was recognized
as one of 50 fascinating people in technology by
Networkworld, which recognizes innovative and inspirational work in
technology.
Organovo is also pleased to be named a 2014 Award Finalist by
the internationally renowned Edison Awards™. The distinguished
awards, inspired by Thomas Edison's
persistence and inventiveness, recognize innovation, creativity and
ingenuity in the global economy. The Edison Awards Steering
Committee and more than 3,000 professionals from the fields of
product development, design, engineering, science, marketing and
education have voted the NovoTissue® Human Liver Model, as a 2014
Edison Award Finalist. We look forward to the announcement of
the winners on April 30.
As regards certain other information outlets, Organovo continues
to caution investors regarding the content of certain reports
targeting existing and potential investors in its common stock,
especially on certain internet sites. Organovo, like many
other innovative technology companies, has been the subject of
various articles on certain investor websites or from independent
researchers that contain significant factual errors. The content of
these reports can be submitted by independent authors, without any
specific qualifications, experience or expertise required. In fact,
most sites do little or no fact checking, provide little to no
editorial oversight, and provide limited or no mechanisms for
correction of factual errors.
While some errors may be unintentional or simply sloppy, on some
occasions it is possible that some authors may be following a
"Short and Distort" strategy, where they purposefully create a
negative picture after taking a short position. Organovo cautions
investors to watch out for some telltale signs of a Short and
Distort article or report, including articles that:
- Use phrases like "Trading Warning" or "Urgent" explicitly
intended to cause fear and based on no new publicly released
information about the Company;
- Be written by a person with a short position and focused on
negative details – with little balanced discussion of positives and
negatives about the Company;
- Be written by an individual with no known track record in
investing or equity analysis, no known scientific qualifications,
or in fact no affiliation with any entity known to the investor
which could provide any confidence in his or her
qualifications;
- Pretend to have a greater understanding of Organovo's SEC
filings, especially in regards to potential future financings or
share registrations, and proceed to interpret them selectively in
unbalanced ways;
- Be excessively focused on Organovo's path to becoming public
through reverse merger, ignoring the fact that the company's
subsequent fully underwritten secondary offering at
>$40M, with full investment bank
diligence, removes consideration of Organovo under the typical
reverse merger listing standards by both NYSE and NASDAQ;
- Overemphasize Organovo's lack of current revenue as somehow
indicative of the promise of its future products rather than its
status as a development stage biotechnology company;
- Highlight and demonize the potential for future financing
instead of recognizing it as beneficial for shareholders under the
right conditions;
- Focus on Organovo's institutional investor holdings without
noting that these holdings have grown significantly since early
2013, or without noting that the company conducted a financing
round in August 2013 that consisted
nearly entirely of seasoned institutional biotech investment
funds;
- Cherry pick negative details for past companies where Organovo
executives played roles, without discussion of the multiple
successful roles the same executives have played in companies
acquired for nine-figure sums, or their participation in product
development for products and product lines currently generating
revenue in the billions of dollars;
- Compare Organovo's public company executive salaries, including
non-founders, to private startup founders for earlier stage
companies rather than peer companies;
- Denigrate Organovo's partnerships or doubt their existence –
when review of all of the company's relationships with these
groups, including reviewing full contract detail and conducting
direct discussions with the partner companies, is performed by
investment bankers as part of diligence for underwritten deals such
as Organovo's sale of securities on August
1, 2013;
- Refer to an EnvisionTEC Bioplotter that prints biomaterials
suitable for scaffolds as a "bioprinter", and compare it to
bioprinting instruments designed to create living human tissue from
cellular inks; or
- Refer to other Organovo short thesis article sources as if they
were excellent points of reference (e.g., cross referencing other
writers on the same website, referring to Nanalyze, or even
pointing to the personally maintained webpage of an "online
commentator" whose sole previous qualification and experience in
analysis is literally writing comments on websites).
The company would like to help investors judge such content
appropriately, and point out the risks of encountering false
information. The company would like to stress that in
providing information in regards to such sites or reports to
investors, it is not claiming that all articles with a negative
connotation are false. In addition, not every positive article
regarding the company may be balanced with the potential risks and
uncertainties the company faces. For these reasons, Organovo
strongly encourages all investors to regularly review and focus on
its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and its
press releases for information regarding the Company, including the
risk language in such filings.
The company reminds investors to review its SEC filings in
regards to executive equity sales plans, which it has provided
updates on from time to time in Current Reports on Form 8-K.
The most recent relevant filing can be found here.
The company reminds investors that its FAQ pages are regularly
updated and an excellent source of information. Click here to
read the current FAQ.
In addition, the company regularly engages investors in public
forums to answer questions and discuss the sorts of issues of
concern to investors. Please watch Organovo's website for details
on the next conference, or sign up for company alerts here.
About Organovo Holdings, Inc.
Organovo designs and creates functional, three-dimensional human
tissues for medical research and therapeutic applications. The
Company is collaborating with pharmaceutical and academic partners
to develop human biological disease models in three dimensions.
These 3D human tissues have the potential to accelerate the drug
discovery process, enabling treatments to be developed faster and
at lower cost. In addition to numerous scientific publications, the
Company's technology has been featured in The Wall Street Journal,
Time Magazine, The Economist, and numerous others. Organovo is
changing the shape of medical research and practice. Learn more at
www.organovo.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Any statements contained in this press release that do not
describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements
as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are
based on current expectations, but are subject to a number of risks
and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual future
results to differ materially from current expectations include, but
are not limited to, risks and uncertainties relating to the
Company's ability to develop, market and sell products based on its
technology; the expected benefits and efficacy of the Company's
products and technology; and the Company's business, research,
product development, regulatory approval, marketing and
distribution plans and strategies. These and other factors are
identified and described in more detail in our filings with the
SEC, including our prospectus supplement filed with the SEC on
August 2, 2013 and our transition
report on Form 10-KT filed with the SEC on May 24, 2013 as well as our other filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as
of the date that they were made. These cautionary statements should
be considered with any written or oral forward-looking statements
that we may issue in the future. Except as required by applicable
law, including the securities laws of the
United States, we do not intend to update any of the
forward-looking statements to conform these statements to reflect
actual results, later events or circumstances or to reflect the
occurrence of unanticipated events.
SOURCE Organovo Holdings, Inc.