Akari Therapeutics Enters into a Securities Purchase Agreement for up to $30 Million with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC
July 01 2020 - 9:16AM
Akari Therapeutics, Plc (“Akari” or the “Company”)
(NASDAQ:AKTX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the
development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics to
treat orphan autoimmune and inflammatory diseases where complement
and or leukotriene systems are implicated, today announces that it
has entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”)
of up to $30 million with Aspire Capital Fund, LLC (“Aspire
Capital”). Under the terms of the Agreement, Aspire Capital has
committed to purchase up to $30 million of Akari’s American
Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) at Akari’s request from time to time
during a period beginning on the effective date of a registration
statement related to the transaction, and at prices based on the
market price at the time of each sale. There are no warrants,
derivatives, or other share classes associated with the Agreement.
Akari will control the timing and amount of all sales of its ADSs
to Aspire Capital.
“Akari is very pleased to announce a second facility with Aspire
Capital, a long-term and supportive shareholder. During the second
quarter 2020, Akari raised an additional $9.3 million from Aspire
thereby completing our initial $20 million agreement. This new
capital of $9.3 million plus opportunistic access to an additional
$30 million under our new agreement leaves Akari in a strong and
flexible financial position to execute on its further development
of nomacopan in critical areas of unmet need including bullous
pemphigoid, thrombotic micro-angiopathy, atopic
keratoconjunctivitis and COVID-19. This is an important
partnership, with Aspire, one of our largest shareholders, ahead of
what we hope will be a transformative year for Akari as we seek to
transition nomacopan into pivotal, Phase III trials,” said Clive
Richardson, Chief Executive Officer of Akari Therapeutics.
“We’re delighted to extend this additional commitment to Akari
during such an important and exciting transition period for the
company. Given the strong safety and efficacy we have observed thus
far across a broad range of inflammatory diseases, we firmly
believe nomacopan is uniquely positioned amongst the field of
complement inhibitors and other novel anti-inflammatory agents. Not
only has nomacopan demonstrated deep and consistent suppression of
aberrant complement activity in patients but its proven inhibition
of leukotriene (LTB4) provides exciting differentiation and expands
its potential application in disease settings where granulocyte
infiltration is also driving pathology,” said William Blank,
Principal, Life Sciences at Aspire Capital.
Proceeds are intended to be used by Akari for general corporate
purposes, including research and development, clinical trial
activity and working capital. There are no restrictions on future
financings and there are no financial covenants, participation
rights, rights of first refusal, or penalties in the
Agreement. Akari has the right to terminate the Agreement at
any time, at its discretion, without any additional cost or
penalty.
As consideration for Aspire Capital’s obligation under the
Agreement, Akari will issue 40,760,900 ordinary shares at
approximately $0.02 per ordinary share (equivalent to 407,609 ADSs
at approximately $2.21 per ADS) to Aspire Capital as a
commitment fee. Akari also entered into a Registration Rights
Agreement with Aspire Capital in connection with its
entry into the Agreement. Additional detail regarding the
Agreement and the related Registration Rights Agreement is set
forth in Akari’s Current Report on Form 6-K filed today with
the SEC.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of any offer to purchase any securities. The
securities referenced in this press release have not been
registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered
or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable
exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act
of 1933.
About Akari Therapeutics Akari is a
biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhibitors of acute
and chronic inflammation, specifically for the treatment of rare
and orphan diseases, in particular those where the complement (C5)
or leukotriene (LTB4) systems, or both complement and leukotrienes
together, play a primary role in disease progression. Akari's lead
drug candidate, nomacopan (formerly known as Coversin), is a C5
complement inhibitor that also independently and specifically
inhibits leukotriene B4 (LTB4) activity
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking
Statements Certain statements in this press release
constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You should not
place undue reliance upon the Company’s forward looking statements.
Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to
revise or update any forward looking statements in order to reflect
any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this
press release. These forward-looking statements reflect our current
views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and
prospects, which are based on the information currently available
to us and on assumptions we have made. Although we believe that our
plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as
reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are
reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions,
expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved.
Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those
described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by
a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control. Such
risks and uncertainties for our company include, but are not
limited to: needs for additional capital to fund our operations,
our ability to continue as a going concern; uncertainties of cash
flows and inability to meet working capital needs; an inability or
delay in obtaining required regulatory approvals for nomacopan and
any other product candidates, which may result in unexpected cost
expenditures; our ability to obtain orphan drug designation in
additional indications; risks inherent in drug development in
general; uncertainties in obtaining successful clinical results for
nomacopan and any other product candidates and unexpected costs
that may result therefrom; difficulties enrolling patients in our
clinical trials; our ability to enter into collaborative,
licensing, and other commercial relationships and on terms
commercially reasonable to us; failure to realize any value of
nomacopan and any other product candidates developed and being
developed in light of inherent risks and difficulties involved in
successfully bringing product candidates to market; inability to
develop new product candidates and support existing product
candidates; the approval by the FDA and EMA and any other similar
foreign regulatory authorities of other competing or superior
products brought to market; risks resulting from unforeseen side
effects; risk that the market for nomacopan may not be as large as
expected; risks associated with the impact of the outbreak of
coronavirus; risks associated with the SEC investigation; inability
to obtain, maintain and enforce patents and other intellectual
property rights or the unexpected costs associated with such
enforcement or litigation; inability to obtain and maintain
commercial manufacturing arrangements with third party
manufacturers or establish commercial scale manufacturing
capabilities; the inability to timely source adequate supply of our
active pharmaceutical ingredients from third party manufacturers on
whom the company depends; unexpected cost increases and pricing
pressures and risks and other risk factors detailed in our public
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including
our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the
SEC. Except as otherwise noted, these forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no
obligation to update or revise any of these statements to reflect
events or circumstances occurring after this press release. We
caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the
forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
Investor Contact:
Peter Vozzo Westwicke (443) 213-0505
peter.vozzo@westwicke.com
Media Contact:
Sukaina Virji / Lizzie Seeley Consilium Strategic
Communications +44 (0)20 3709 5700
Akari@consilium-comms.com
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