Full Press Release Details
GERON ANNOUNCES DIRECT EQUITY ISSUANCE
Proceeds to be invested in ViaGen, Inc.
MENLO PARK, Calif., September 10, 2009
Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN) today
announced that it has sold shares of Geron common stock and issued warrants to
purchase common stock to institutional investors for proceeds of $3.6 million.
The proceeds will fund an equity contribution to ViaGen, Inc., in which Geron
holds a 27% ownership interest.
Geron sold 550,000 shares of common stock
and issued warrants to purchase additional shares at a premium. Both the common
stock sold and the stock underlying the warrants are subject to a lock-up on
sale from the date of issuance.
The shares and warrants were offered
through a prospectus supplement to the company s effective universal shelf
registration statement. The company arranged the financing directly with the
ViaGen is the leading animal cloning
company. It was an early licensee of the nuclear transfer technology that Geron
controls, and has a demonstrated track record in providing cloning services,
said David L. Greenwood, Geron s executive vice president and chief financial
officer. This additional capital from Geron, along with the capital being
contributed by our ownership partner, Exeter Life Sciences, will allow ViaGen to
ramp up their business.
ViaGen is the global leader in animal
cloning, a modern breeding technology that can be used to produce a genetic copy
of an existing animal. The technology has important applications in agriculture
For agriculture, cloning can be used to
improve the health, quality and consistency of livestock herds more effectively
than is possible through conventional breeding methods. Animals with desired
genetic traits, including disease resistance, improved meat quality or yield, or
better milk production, can be identified, cloned and used for breeding to
accelerate reproduction of the most productive and valuable livestock. Use of
the technology allows for more efficient breeding programs and preservation of
high quality genetic lines. ViaGen produces cloned animals for leading pig
breeders and cattle breeding operations.
ViaGen and Trans Ova Genetics, a leading
provider of cattle breeding technology based in Sioux City, Iowa, have formed
Bovance, a joint venture offering cloning services to the cattle industry in the
U.S. and Canada. In addition, ViaGen offers genetic services to the U.S. cattle
industry by certifying high quality Angus beef through ViaGen s AnguSure testing
ViaGen also provides cloning services to
owners of world class horses, facilitating the preservation of highly valuable
equine genetics, including the production of stallions from top performing
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For human medicine, animal cloning can be
used to generate animal models of human disease for research. While mice are
commonly used in biomedical research, the physiology and anatomy of pigs more
closely resembles the human and is therefore a more representative model for
research into human diseases. Porcine cells can be modified in culture to carry
gene mutations associated with particular human diseases and cloned by nuclear
transfer to produce animals with the mutation. Exemplar Genetics, an Iowa
company, uses this technology under a license from ViaGen to produce porcine
models for medical research. Exemplar currently offers a porcine model of cystic
fibrosis based on technology developed at the University of Iowa and has other
disease models in development. ViaGen owns 40% of Exemplar.
Cloning technology also has application in
biologics production through the development of animals that produce milk or
plasma containing therapeutic proteins that can be extracted and purified for
human use. For example, GTC Biotherapeutics, which is developing recombinant
plasma proteins and monoclonal antibodies using animal-based production methods,
holds a license to the ViaGen cloning technology.
A key strength of ViaGen is the company s
structure as an integrated operating and licensing company which means it can
provide cloning services or a license to practice. Through its wholly-owned
subsidiary, Start Licensing, Inc., ViaGen manages and licenses the dominant
portfolio of intellectual property rights related to animal reproductive
technologies, including the foundational nuclear transfer cloning technology
developed at the Roslin Institute through the cloning of Dolly the
Start was a joint venture between Geron
and Exeter Life Sciences, formed to combine their respective intellectual
property rights related to animal reproductive technologies. In August 2008,
Start and ViaGen were merged and under the terms of the merger, Geron and Exeter
exchanged their equity interests in Start for equity in ViaGen.
ViaGen anticipates accelerated expansion
for all products as the value of its modern breeding technology becomes more
widely adopted, and it will use the capital it is receiving from Geron and
Exeter to fund that expansion.
More information about ViaGen can be found
on the company s website at www.viagen.com. Additional information about Bovance
and Examplar can be found at www.bovance.com and www.exemplargenetics.com,
Geron is developing first-in-class
biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer and chronic degenerative
diseases, including spinal cord injury, heart failure and diabetes. The company
is advancing an anti-cancer drug and a cancer vaccine that target the enzyme
telomerase through multiple clinical trials in different cancers. For more
information, visit www.geron.com.
Page Three / Geron Announces Direct Equity
This news release may contain
forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that
statements in this press release regarding potential applications of Geron s
nuclear transfer technology constitute forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the
development and commercialization of potential products, uncertainty of clinical
trial results or regulatory approvals or clearances, need for future capital,
dependence upon collaborators and maintenance of our intellectual property
rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in
these forward-looking statements. Additional information on potential factors
that could affect our results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed
from time to time in Geron s periodic reports, including the quarterly report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2009.