Celsion Receives $2.0 Million Allocation Through the New Jersey Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer (NOL) Program
December 17 2019 - 8:00AM
Celsion Corporation (NASDAQ: CLSN), an oncology drug development
company, today announced it has received approval from the New
Jersey Economic Development Authority’s (NJEDA) Technology Business
Tax Certificate Transfer (NOL) program to sell $2.0 million of its
unused New Jersey net operating losses (NOLs) for the tax years
2017 through 2018. The NOLs are typically sold at a small,
single-digit discount to qualified companies with operations in New
Jersey. As a result, the Company anticipates it will be able to
transfer this credit and receive approximately $1.9 million of net
cash proceeds by year-end or early 2020. With this funding coupled
with an additional $2.0 million sale of unused NJ NOLs in the
second half of 2020, the Company expects to have sufficient cash to
fund operations into the first quarter of 2021.
This competitive program, administered by the
NJEDA, enables approved companies to sell their unused New Jersey
net operating losses and R&D tax credits to unaffiliated,
profit-generating corporate taxpayers in the state of New Jersey,
up to a maximum lifetime benefit of $15 million per company. This
allows technology and biotechnology companies with NOLs to turn
their tax losses and credits into cash proceeds to fund more
R&D, expand its workforce, or cover other allowable
expenditures.
“This innovative funding mechanism offered by
the NJEDA reinforces our belief in the State of New Jersey’s
commitment to biotechnology research. We plan to participate in it
again in 2020 to secure the remaining $2 million available to us
under the program,” said Michael H. Tardugno, Celsion Corporation’s
chairman, president and chief executive officer. “The proceeds from
the NOL sale strengthen our cash position in a non-dilutive fashion
and extends Celsion’s operating runway into the first quarter of
2021. We are positioned to continue to advance our development
programs well beyond several expected key value inflection points
for the company, including the second interim efficacy analysis in
the second quarter of 2020 and, if needed, the final efficacy
read-out in the first quarter of 2021 of the Phase III OPTIMA Study
for ThermoDox® and initial clinical data from the Phase I portion
of the Phase I/II OVATION 2 Study for GEN-1 following the Data
Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) meeting, now scheduled for late
January 2020. We appreciate the support and commitment of the NJEDA
in facilitating our continued innovation and applaud their efforts
to foster continued investment and growth for businesses in New
Jersey.”
“Throughout the course of 2019, Celsion has
sought innovative ways to finance our clinical development programs
in some of the world’s most devastating cancers. Balancing the high
cost of research and drug development without losing focus on our
shareholders is not only reflected in our successful application to
sell our New Jersey NOL’s, it is further demonstrated in our
judicious use of venture debt on terms that give us an operating
runway into the first quarter of 2021,” said Jeffrey W. Church,
Celsion Corporation’s Executive Vice President and CFO. “With the
support of our shareholders, we look forward to an exciting and
promising 2020.”
For more details on this funding for this year’s
NOL program, please visit www.njeda.com.
About Celsion
Corporation
Celsion is a fully integrated oncology company
focused on developing a portfolio of innovative cancer treatments,
including directed chemotherapies, immunotherapies and RNA- or
DNA-based therapies. The Company's lead program is ThermoDox®, a
proprietary heat-activated liposomal encapsulation of doxorubicin,
currently in Phase III development for the treatment of primary
liver cancer. The pipeline also includes GEN-1, a DNA-based
immunotherapy for the localized treatment of ovarian cancer.
Celsion has two platform technologies for the development of novel
nucleic acid-based immunotherapies and other anti-cancer DNA or RNA
therapies. For more information on Celsion, please visit
www.celsion.com.
Celsion wishes to inform readers that
forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the
"safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned that such forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties including, without
limitation, unforeseen changes in the course of research and
development activities and in clinical trials; the uncertainties of
and difficulties in analyzing interim clinical data; the
significant expense, time, and risk of failure of conducting
clinical trials; the need for Celsion to evaluate its future
development plans; possible acquisitions or licenses of other
technologies, assets or businesses; possible actions by customers,
suppliers, competitors, regulatory authorities; and other risks
detailed from time to time in Celsion's periodic reports and
prospectuses filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Celsion assumes no obligation to update or supplement
forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent
events, new information or otherwise.
Celsion Investor ContactJeffrey
W. ChurchExecutive Vice President and CFO609-482-2455
jchurch@celsion.com
Or
LHA Investor RelationsKim
Sutton Golodetz212-838-3777kgolodetz@lhai.com
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