BIOCRYST COMPLETES $23.9 MILLION REGISTERED DIRECT OFFERING OF COMMON STOCK TO INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS
Birmingham, Alabama - February 22, 2005 - BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq NM: BCRX) today announced that it has completed a $23.9 million registered direct offering of 4,350,000 shares of its common stock to a group of institutional investors. The shares of common stock, priced at $5.50 per share, were registered pursuant to BioCryst's $60 million shelf registration statement that was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 5, 2004. The net proceeds to BioCryst, after payment of placement agency fees and other expenses of the offering, were approximately $22.7 million. Leerink Swann & Company served as placement agent for the transaction.
"This financing will help ensure that BioCryst has the resources we need to complete the broad clinical trial program planned for this year, and maintains a strong cash position on our balance sheet," said Charles E. Bugg, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of BioCryst. "In addition, we are delighted by the high quality of the fourteen institutional investors who participated in this offering."
About BioCryst
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. designs, optimizes and develops novel drugs that block key enzymes involved in cancer, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, and viral infections. BioCryst integrates the necessary disciplines of biology, crystallography, medicinal chemistry and computer modeling to effectively use structure-based drug design to discover and develop small molecule pharmaceuticals.
BioCryst's lead product candidate, forodesine hydrochloride (formerly known as BCX-1777), an inhibitor of purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), is currently in a Phase IIa trial for patients with T-cell malignancies and a Phase I trial with oral forodesine hydrochloride in CTCL. In addition, BioCryst plans to initiate a Phase I/II trial for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia during early 2005. Forodesine hydrochloride has been granted Orphan Drug status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for three indications: T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma; chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and related leukemias including prolymphocytic leukemia, adult T-cell leukemia, and hairy cell leukemia; and for treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). BioCryst's second-generation PNP inhibitor, BCX-4208 is currently in a Phase I study of healthy volunteers with the goal of initiating a Phase II study during 2005 in patients with psoriasis. In addition, BioCryst has other enzyme targets in drug discovery including tissue factor/factor VIIa and hepatitis C polymerase. For more information about BioCryst, please visit the company's web site at www.biocryst.com.
Forward-looking statements
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that could affect the forward-looking statements contained herein include that we may not be able to enroll the required number of subjects in clinical trials of forodesine hydrochloride or BCX-4208, that each of the Phase IIa trial for patients with T-cell malignancies, Phase I trial of BCX-4208 and the Phase I trial of forodesine hydrochloride for treatment of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma may not be successfully completed, that BioCryst may not commence as expected additional trials with forodesine hydrochloride and with BCX-4208, that forodesine hydrochloride, BCX-4208, or any of our other product candidates may not receive required regulatory clearances from the FDA, that Phase IIa clinical trials of forodesine hydrochloride may not show the drug is effective over the 6-week period, that ongoing and future clinical trials will have positive results, that we may not be able to obtain a Special Protocol Assessment or otherwise be able to complete successfully the Phase IIb trial that is currently planned, that we may not be able to continue future development of forodesine hydrochloride, BCX-4208 or any of our other current development programs including tissue factor/factor VIIa and hepatitis C polymerase, that forodesine hydrochloride, BCX-4208 or our other development programs may never result in future product, license or royalty payments being received by BioCryst, that BioCryst may not have sufficient cash to continue funding the development, manufacturing, marketing or distribution of its products and that additional funding, if necessary, may not be available at all or on terms acceptable to BioCryst. Please refer to the documents BioCryst files periodically with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically BioCryst's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K, which identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in the projections or forward-looking statements.
Contacts:
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Michael A. Darwin
Chief Financial Officer
(205) 444-4600
Noonan/Russo
Sharon Weinstein (Investors)
(212) 845-4271
Wendy Lau (Media)
(212) 845-4272