UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON,
D.C. 20549
FORM
10-Q
Quarterly
Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)
of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For the
Quarterly Period Ended June 30, 2009
Commission
File Number: 1-13441
HEMISPHERx BIOPHARMA,
INC.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware
|
52-0845822
|
(State
or other jurisdiction of
|
(I.R.S.
Employer
|
incorporation
or organization)
|
Identification
No.)
|
1617 JFK Boulevard, Suite 660, Philadelphia, PA
19103
|
(Address
of principal executive offices) (Zip
Code)
|
(215) 988-0080
|
(Registrant's
telephone number, including area
code)
|
Not Applicable
|
(Former
name, former address and former fiscal year, if changed since last
report)
|
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be
filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the
preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required
to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for
the past 90 days.
x Yes o No
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on
its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be
submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding
12 months (or such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and
post such files).
o Yes x No
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an
accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting
company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated
filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange
Act. (Check one):
o Large accelerated
filer
|
x Accelerated
filer
|
o Non-accelerated
filer
|
o Smaller reporting
company
|
Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule
12b-2 of the Exchange Act). o
Yes x No
126,237,215
shares of common stock were issued and outstanding as of August 3,
2009.
PART I - FINANCIAL
INFORMATION
ITEM
1: Financial Statements
HEMISPHERx
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated
Balance Sheets
(in
thousands, except share and per share data)
|
|
December 31, 2008
|
|
|
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Unaudited)
|
|
ASSETS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current
assets:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash
and cash equivalents
|
|
$ |
6,119 |
|
|
$ |
40,657 |
|
Short
term investments (Note 4)
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
1,000 |
|
Inventories
|
|
|
864 |
|
|
|
864 |
|
Prepaid
expenses and other current assets
|
|
|
330 |
|
|
|
264 |
|
Total
current assets
|
|
|
7,313 |
|
|
|
42,785 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Property
and equipment, net
|
|
|
4,877 |
|
|
|
4,694 |
|
Patent
and trademark rights, net
|
|
|
969 |
|
|
|
913 |
|
Investment
|
|
|
35 |
|
|
|
35 |
|
Other
assets
|
|
|
17 |
|
|
|
16 |
|
Total
assets
|
|
$ |
13,211 |
|
|
$ |
48,443 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LIABILITIES
AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Current
liabilities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accounts
payable
|
|
$ |
791 |
|
|
$ |
672 |
|
Accrued
expenses (Note 5)
|
|
|
876 |
|
|
|
1,863 |
|
Total
current liabilities
|
|
|
1,667 |
|
|
|
2,535 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Commitments
and contingencies
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stockholders’
equity (Note 6):
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Preferred
stock, par value $0.01 per share, authorized 5,000,000; issued and
outstanding; none
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Common
stock, par value $0.001 per share, authorized 200,000,000 shares; issued
and outstanding 78,750,995 and 119,704,387 respectively
|
|
|
79 |
|
|
|
120 |
|
Additional
paid-in capital
|
|
|
208,874 |
|
|
|
250,154 |
|
Accumulated
deficit
|
|
|
(197,409 |
) |
|
|
(204,366 |
) |
Total
stockholders’ equity
|
|
|
11,544 |
|
|
|
45,908 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
liabilities and stockholders’ equity
|
|
$ |
13,211 |
|
|
$ |
48,443 |
|
See
accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
HEMISPHERX
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated
Statements of Operations
(in
thousands, except share and per share data)
(Unaudited)
|
|
Three
months ended June 30,
|
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
|
Revenues:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinical
treatment programs
|
|
$ |
15 |
|
|
$ |
17 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
revenues
|
|
|
15 |
|
|
|
17 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Costs
and expenses:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Production/cost
of goods sold
|
|
|
195 |
|
|
|
152 |
|
Research
and development
|
|
|
1,160 |
|
|
|
1,982 |
|
General
and administrative
|
|
|
1,790 |
|
|
|
1,862 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
costs and expenses
|
|
|
3,145 |
|
|
|
3,996 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating
loss
|
|
|
(3,130 |
) |
|
|
(3,979 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
and other income
|
|
|
328 |
|
|
|
109 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
loss
|
|
$ |
(2,802 |
) |
|
$ |
(3,870 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Basic
and diluted loss per share (Note 2)
|
|
$ |
(.04 |
) |
|
$ |
(.04 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted
average shares outstanding, basic and diluted
|
|
|
74,054,082 |
|
|
|
100,077,267 |
|
See
accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
HEMISPHERX
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated
Statements of Operations
(in
thousands, except share and per share data)
(Unaudited)
|
|
Six
months ended June 30,
|
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
|
Revenues:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sales
of product net
|
|
$ |
173 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Clinical
treatment programs
|
|
|
50 |
|
|
|
46 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
revenues
|
|
|
223 |
|
|
|
46 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Costs
and expenses:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Production/cost
of goods sold
|
|
|
444 |
|
|
|
273 |
|
Research
and development
|
|
|
2,467 |
|
|
|
3,577 |
|
General
and administrative
|
|
|
3,687 |
|
|
|
3,028 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
costs and expenses
|
|
|
6,587 |
|
|
|
6,878 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Operating
loss
|
|
|
(6,375 |
) |
|
|
(6,832 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interest
and other income
|
|
|
408 |
|
|
|
116 |
|
Financing
costs
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
(241 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
loss
|
|
$ |
(5,967 |
) |
|
$ |
(6,957 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Basic
and diluted loss per share (Note 2)
|
|
$ |
(.08 |
) |
|
$ |
(.08 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Weighted
average shares outstanding, basic and diluted
|
|
|
73,959,610 |
|
|
|
89,110,201 |
|
See
accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
HEMISPHERx
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated
Statements of Changes in Stockholders' Equity and Comprehensive
Loss
(in thousands except
share data)
(Unaudited)
|
|
Common
Stock
Shares
|
|
|
Common
Stock $.001 Par Value
|
|
|
Additional
Paid-In Capital
|
|
|
Accumulated Deficit
|
|
|
Total Stockholders’
Equity
|
|
Balance
at December 31, 2008
|
|
|
78,750,995 |
|
|
$ |
79 |
|
|
$ |
208,874 |
|
|
$ |
(197,409 |
) |
|
$ |
11,544 |
|
Options
and warrants converted
|
|
|
5,445,420 |
|
|
|
5 |
|
|
|
5,678 |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
5,683 |
|
Stock
issued for settlement of accounts payable
|
|
|
1,779,534 |
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
1,135 |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
1,137 |
|
Private
placement, net of issuance costs
|
|
|
33,728,438 |
|
|
|
34 |
|
|
|
34,085 |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
34,119 |
|
Equity
based compensation
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
141 |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
141 |
|
Standby
Finance-finance costs
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
241 |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
241 |
|
Net
loss
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
(6,957 |
) |
|
|
(6,957 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Balance
at June 30, 2009
|
|
|
119,704,387 |
|
|
$ |
120 |
|
|
$ |
250,154 |
|
|
$ |
(204,366 |
) |
|
$ |
45,908 |
|
See
accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
HEMISPHERx
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated
Statements of Cash Flows
For
the Six Months Ended June 30, 2008 and 2009
(in
thousands)
(Unaudited)
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
Cash
flows from operating activities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
loss
|
|
$ |
(5,967 |
) |
|
$ |
(6,957 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Adjustments
to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating
activities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Depreciation
of property and equipment
|
|
|
169 |
|
|
|
177 |
|
Amortization
of patent and trademark rights, and
royalty interest
|
|
|
297 |
|
|
|
186 |
|
Financing
cost related to Standby Financing
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
241 |
|
Equity
based compensation
|
|
|
275 |
|
|
|
141 |
|
Gain
on disposal of equipment
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
(83 |
) |
Increase
(decrease) in assets and liabilities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Inventories
|
|
|
(353 |
) |
|
|
- |
|
Accounts
and other receivables
|
|
|
74 |
|
|
|
(9 |
) |
Prepaid
expenses and other current
assets
|
|
|
42 |
|
|
|
171 |
|
Accounts
payable
|
|
|
141 |
|
|
|
1,017 |
|
Accrued
expenses
|
|
|
42 |
|
|
|
987 |
|
Net
cash used in operating activities
|
|
$ |
(5,280 |
) |
|
$ |
(4,129 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash
flows from investing activities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Purchase
of property plant and equipment
|
|
$ |
- |
|
|
$ |
(5 |
) |
Additions
to patent and trademark rights
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
(130 |
) |
Maturity
of short term investments
|
|
|
3,951 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Purchase
of short term investments
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
(1,000 |
) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
cash provided by (used in) investing activities
|
|
$ |
3,951 |
|
|
$ |
(1,135 |
) |
HEMISPHERX
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Consolidated
Statements of Cash Flows (Continued)
For
the Six Months Ended June 30, 2008 and 2009
(in thousands)
(Unaudited)
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
|
Cash
flows from financing activities:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Warrants
and options converted
|
|
$ |
- |
|
|
$ |
5,683 |
|
Proceeds
from sale of stock, net of issuance costs
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
34,119 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
cash provided by financing activities
|
|
$ |
- |
|
|
$ |
39,802 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net
increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents
|
|
|
(1,329 |
) |
|
|
34,538 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash
and cash equivalents at beginning of period
|
|
|
11,471 |
|
|
|
6,119 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cash
and cash equivalents at end of period
|
|
$ |
10,142 |
|
|
$ |
40,657 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Supplemental
disclosures of non-cash investing and
financing cash flow information:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Issuance
of common stock for accounts
payable and accrued expenses
|
|
$ |
292 |
|
|
$ |
1,137 |
|
See
accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
HEMISPHERx
BIOPHARMA, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
NOTES
TO UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
NOTE
1: BASIS OF PRESENTATION
The consolidated financial statements
include the financial statements of Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc. and its
wholly-owned subsidiaries. The Company has three domestic
subsidiaries BioPro Corp., BioAegean Corp. and Core Biotech Corp., all of which
are incorporated in Delaware and are dormant. The Company’s foreign
subsidiary, Hemispherx Biopharma Europe N.V./S.A., established in Belgium in
1998, has limited or no activity. All significant intercompany
balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.
In the opinion of management, all
adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of such consolidated
financial statements have been included. Such adjustments consist of normal
recurring items. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of results for a
full year.
The interim consolidated financial
statements and notes thereto are presented as permitted by the Securities and
Exchange Commission (“SEC”), and do not contain certain information which will
be included in our annual consolidated financial statements and notes
thereto.
These consolidated financial statements
should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements
included in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2008, as filed with the SEC on March 16,
2009.
NOTE 2: NET LOSS PER
SHARE
Basic and
diluted net loss per share is computed using the weighted average number of
shares of common stock outstanding during the period. Equivalent common shares,
consisting of stock options and warrants including the Company’s convertible
debentures, which amounted to 15,554,571 and 35,817,809 shares, are excluded
from the calculation of diluted net loss per share for the six months ended June
30, 2008 and 2009, respectively, since their effect is
antidilutive.
NOTE
3: EQUITY BASED COMPENSATION
The fair value of each option award is
estimated on the date of grant using a Black-Scholes option valuation
model. Expected volatility is based on the historical volatility of
the price of the Company’s stock. The risk-free interest rate is
based on U.S. Treasury issues with a term equal to the expected life of the
option. The Company uses historical data to estimate expected
dividend yield, expected life and forfeiture rates. The fair values
of the options granted, were estimated based on the following weighted average
assumptions:
|
Six
Months Ended June 30,
|
|
2008
|
|
2009
|
Risk-free
interest rate
|
2.86%
– 3.74%
|
|
1.76%
- 2.54%
|
Expected
dividend yield
|
-
|
|
-
|
Expected
lives
|
2.5
- 5.0 yrs
|
|
2.5
– 5.0 yrs.
|
Expected
volatility
|
74.00
– 79.18%
|
|
86.78%
- 110.57%
|
Weighted
average grant date fair value of options and warrants
issued
|
$34,000
|
|
$113,814
|
Stock
option activity during the six months ended June 30, 2009, is as
follows:
Stock
option activity for employees:
|
|
Number
of
Options
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Term (Years)
|
|
|
Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
|
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2007
|
|
|
4,626,089 |
|
|
$ |
2.66 |
|
|
|
8.25 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Options
granted
|
|
|
1,655,000 |
|
|
|
2.42 |
|
|
|
9.69 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
(22,481 |
) |
|
|
2.13 |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2008
|
|
|
6,258,608 |
|
|
|
2.60 |
|
|
|
7.92 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
(29,856 |
) |
|
|
2.24 |
|
|
|
6.32 |
|
|
$ |
9,000 |
|
Outstanding
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
6,228,752 |
|
|
|
2.60 |
|
|
|
7.42 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Exercisable
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
6,148,926 |
|
|
$ |
2.61 |
|
|
|
7.45 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
The
weighted-average grant-date fair value of options granted during the six months
ended June 30, 2008 and 2009 was $0.
Unvested
stock option activity for employees:
|
|
Number
of
Options
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price
|
|
|
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Term (Years)
|
|
|
Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
|
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2007
|
|
|
166,763 |
|
|
$ |
1.59 |
|
|
|
7.18 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Options
granted
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
vested
|
|
|
(73,420 |
) |
|
|
1.68 |
|
|
|
8.58 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
(16,399 |
) |
|
|
2.00 |
|
|
|
6.18 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2008
|
|
|
76,944 |
|
|
|
1.41 |
|
|
|
3.89 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Prior
unvested
|
|
|
2,882 |
|
|
|
2.61 |
|
|
|
7.45 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
vested
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Outstanding
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
79,826 |
|
|
$ |
1.45 |
|
|
|
3.54 |
|
|
$ |
87,000 |
|
Stock
option activity for non-employees:
|
|
Number
of
Options
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Term
(Years)
|
|
|
Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
|
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2007
|
|
|
1,935,482 |
|
|
$ |
2.43 |
|
|
|
8.05 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Options
granted
|
|
|
482,000 |
|
|
|
2.02 |
|
|
|
6.72 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2008
|
|
|
2,417,482 |
|
|
|
2.35 |
|
|
|
6.98 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
granted
|
|
|
40,000 |
|
|
|
1.89 |
|
|
|
9.88 |
|
|
|
26,000 |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
(219,634 |
) |
|
|
2.36 |
|
|
|
7.30 |
|
|
|
40,000 |
|
Options
exercised
|
|
|
(176,666 |
) |
|
|
2.36 |
|
|
|
7.30 |
|
|
|
32,000 |
|
Outstanding
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
2,061,182 |
|
|
$ |
2.59 |
|
|
|
7.17 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Exercisable
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
2,044,515 |
|
|
$ |
2.58 |
|
|
|
7.35 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
The
weighted-average grant-date fair value of options granted during the six months
ended June 30, 2008 and 2009 was approximately $31,000 and $38,000,
respectively.
Unvested
stock option activity for non-employees during the year:
|
|
Number
of
Options
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Exercise
Price
|
|
|
Weighted
Average
Remaining
Contractual
Term (Years)
|
|
|
Aggregate
Intrinsic
Value
|
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2007
|
|
|
40,000 |
|
|
$ |
1.50 |
|
|
|
9.30 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Options
granted
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
vested
|
|
|
(13,333 |
) |
|
|
(1.64 |
) |
|
|
6.91 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Outstanding
December 31, 2008
|
|
|
26,667 |
|
|
|
1.43 |
|
|
|
9.00 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
granted
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
vested
|
|
|
(10,000 |
) |
|
|
2.61 |
|
|
|
7.45 |
|
|
|
- |
|
Options
forfeited
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
- |
|
Outstanding
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
16,667 |
|
|
$ |
.72 |
|
|
|
9.13 |
|
|
$ |
30,000 |
|
The
impact on the Company’s results of operations of recording equity based
compensation for the six months ended June 30, 2008 and 2009 was to increase
general and administrative expenses by approximately $275,000 and $141,000
respectively. However, there was no impact on basic and fully diluted
earnings per share.
As of
December 31, 2008 and June 30, 2009, respectively, there was $46,000 and $28,000
of unrecognized equity based compensation cost related to options granted under
the Equity Incentive Plan.
Note 4: SHORT TERM
INVESTMENTS
Securities
classified as available for sale consisted of:
|
|
June 30, 2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
Name Of Security
|
|
Cost
|
|
|
Market Value
|
|
|
Unrealized Loss
|
|
Maturity Date
|
Bank
of America – CD
|
|
$ |
250,000 |
|
|
$ |
250,000 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
7/28/2009
|
Midfirst
Bank – CD
|
|
|
250,000 |
|
|
|
250,000 |
|
|
|
- |
|
7/28/2009
|
Wilmington
Trust - CD
|
|
|
250,000 |
|
|
|
250,000 |
|
|
|
- |
|
8/6/2009
|
Marshall
& Ilsley - CD
|
|
|
250,000 |
|
|
|
250,000 |
|
|
|
- |
|
8/10/2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
$ |
1,000,000 |
|
|
$ |
1,000,000 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
|
No
investment securities were pledged to secure public funds at June 30,
2009.
Comprehensive
Income
The
Company reports comprehensive income, which includes net loss, as well as
certain other items, which result in a charge to equity during the
period.
|
|
Three months ended June 30
(in thousands)
|
|
|
Six months ended June 30
(in thousands)
|
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Unrealized
gains (losses) during the period
|
|
$ |
17 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
|
$ |
61 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
Realized
loss (gains) during the period
|
|
|
(33 |
) |
|
|
- |
|
|
|
(54 |
) |
|
|
- |
|
Other
comprehensive income (loss)
|
|
$ |
(16 |
) |
|
$ |
- |
|
|
$ |
7 |
|
|
$ |
- |
|
There are no income tax effects
allocated to comprehensive income as the Company has no tax liabilities due to
net operating losses.
NOTE
5: ACCRUED EXPENSES
Accrued
expenses at December 31, 2008 and June 30, 2009 consist of the
following:
|
|
|
|
(in thousands)
|
|
|
|
December
31,
|
|
|
June
30,
|
|
|
|
2008
|
|
|
2009
|
|
Compensation
|
|
$ |
192 |
|
|
$ |
1,321 |
|
Professional
fees
|
|
|
497 |
|
|
|
288 |
|
Royalties
|
|
|
- |
|
|
|
30 |
|
Other
expenses
|
|
|
54 |
|
|
|
63 |
|
Other
liabilities
|
|
|
133 |
|
|
|
161 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
$ |
876 |
|
|
$ |
1,863 |
|
Accrued
expense related to Compensation increased approximately $1,129,000 due to the
Company’s implementation of the Employee Wages Or Hours Reduction Program (the
“Program”) on January 1, 2009. As a result of this Program, employees
received “Incentive Rights” as a form of compensation for their election to
reduce wages that accrue monthly and will be awarded as Company stock six months
after they have been earned on a rolling basis. This Program was
suspended as of May 31, 2009 and as a result employees are projected to receive
their monthly allotment of Company stock on July
31, August 31, September 30, October 31, and November 30, 2009 unless
distribution periods are restricted by Security & Exchange Commission
(“SEC”) regulation.
NOTE
6: STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
On May 8, 2009, the Company entered
into a letter agreement (the “Engagement Letter”) with Rodman & Renshaw, LLC
(“Rodman”) as placement agent, relating to a proposed offering of the Company’s
securities.
The proceeds from the May 10 and 18, 2009 equity transactions are
net of all related offering costs, including the fair value of warrants
issued.
On May 10, 2009, the Company entered
into Securities Purchase Agreements with two institutional
investors. Pursuant to the Securities Purchase Agreements, the
Company issued to these investors in the aggregate: (a) 13,636,363 shares of
Company common stock; (b) Series I warrants to purchase an additional 6,136,363
shares of Company common stock at an exercise price of $1.65 per share (“Series
I Warrants”); and (c) Series II warrants to purchase up to 3,000,000 shares of
Company common stock at an exercise price of $1.10 per share (“Series II
Warrants,” and together with the Series I Warrants, the
“Warrants”). The Series I Warrants can be exercised at any time on or
after the six month anniversary of the May 18, 2009 closing date of the offering
and for a five year period thereafter. The Series II Warrants can be
exercised at any time on or after the May 18, 2009 date of delivery of the
Series II Warrants and for a period of 45 days thereafter. As of June
30, 2009, all Series II Warrants were exercised.
Rodman, as placement agent for the May
10, 2009 Securities Purchase Agreements, acted on a best efforts basis for the
offering and received a placement fee equal to $825,000 as well as Series I
Warrants to purchase 750,000 shares of the Company’s common stock equal at an
exercise price of $1.38 per share. The Series I Warrants can be
exercised at any time on or after the six month anniversary of the May 18, 2009
closing date of the offering and for a five year period
thereafter. Rodman also was entitled to a fee equal to 5.5% of the
Series II Warrants that were exercised. As of June 30, 2009, Rodman
received $165,000 in fees with regard to the exercise of the Series II
Warrants.
On May 18, 2009, the Company entered
into Securities Purchase Agreements with two institutional
investors. Pursuant to the Securities Purchase Agreements, the
Company issued to these investors in the aggregate: (a) 11,906,976 shares of
Company common stock; and (b) warrants to purchase an additional 4,167,440
shares of common stock at an exercise price $1.31 per share
(“Warrants”). The Warrants could be exercised at any time on or after
their May 21, 2009 date of issuance and for a five year period
thereafter. As of June 30, 2009, 1,895,000 of these Warrants had been
exercised.
Rodman, as placement agent for the May
18, 2009 Securities Purchase Agreements, acted on a best efforts basis for the
offering and received a placement fee equal to $880,000 as well as Warrants to
purchase 654,884 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $1.34375 per
share. The Warrants can be exercised at any time on or after the six
month anniversary of the May 21, 2009 closing date of the offering and for a
five year period thereafter.
On July 2, 2008, the Company entered
into a $30 million Common Stock Purchase Agreement (the "Purchase Agreement")
with Fusion Capital Fund II, LLC (“Fusion Capital”, an Illinois limited
liability company. Concurrently with entering into the Purchase
Agreement, we entered into a registration rights agreement with Fusion
Capital. Under the registration rights agreement, we filed a
registration statement related to the transaction with the U.S. Securities &
Exchange Commission (“SEC”) covering the shares that have been issued or may be
issued to Fusion Capital under the common stock purchase
agreement. That registration statement was declared effective by the
SEC on August 12, 2008. As reported in the registration statement
related to the transaction, we have the right over a 25 month period from August
2008 to sell our shares of common stock to Fusion Capital from time to time in
amounts between $120,000 and $1 million depending on certain conditions as set
forth in the agreement, up to a maximum of $30 million. The purchase
price of the shares related to the $30.0 million of future funding will be based
on the prevailing market prices of the Company’s shares at the time of sales as
computed under the Purchase Agreement without any fixed discount, and the
Company will control the timing and amount of any sales of shares to Fusion
Capital. However, Fusion Capital
cannot
purchase any shares of our common stock pursuant to the Purchase
Agreement if the price of our common stock has three trading days with an
average value below $0.40 over the prior twelve trading days. For the
past three months, the price of our common stock has periodically closed below
$0.40, thereby adversely affecting our ability to consistently access the
Fusion Capital financing. The Purchase Agreement may be terminated by
us at any time at our discretion without any cost to us. There are no
negative covenants, restrictions on future funding, penalties or liquidated
damages in the agreement. In consideration for entering into the Purchase
Agreement, we issued to Fusion Capital 650,000 shares as a commitment
fee. Also, we will issue to Fusion Capital up to an additional
650,000 shares as a commitment fee pro rata as we receive up to the $30.0
million of future funding. During the three months ended June 30, 2009, Fusion
has purchased 5,871,649 shares for $5,519,998 under this Purchase
Agreement. As of June 30, 2009 Fusion Capital has
purchased total shares of 8,601,921 for $6,659,998 under this
agreement. In addition, Fusion Capital has received 794,229
commitment shares.
The
Company has been using the proceeds from this financing to fund operating
expenses and infrastructure growth including manufacturing, regulatory
compliance and market development with regards to Alferon N Injection® and
Alferon® LDO (Low Dose Oral) along with the FDA approval process of
Ampligen®.
The
Equity Plan effective May 1, 2004, authorizes the grant of non-qualified and
incentive stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted stock and other
stock awards. A maximum of 8,000,000 shares of common stock is
reserved for potential issuance pursuant to awards under the Equity Plan of
2004. Unless sooner terminated, the Equity Plan of 2004 will continue
in effect for a period of 10 years from its effective date. As of
June 30, 2009, the Company effectively exhausted this plan and issued an
aggregate 7,898,355 shares, stock options and warrants to vendors, Board
Members, Directors and Consultants under the 2004 Equity Compensation
Plan. The shares had prices ranging from $0.35 to $0.89 based on the
NYSE Amex closing price. The stock options had various exercise
prices ranging from $1.30 to $6.00 and had terms of five to ten
years. The stock options vested over varying periods.
The
Equity Incentive Plan of 2007, effective June 20, 2007, authorizes the grant of
non-qualified and incentive stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted
stock and other stock awards. A maximum of 8,000,000 shares of common
stock is reserved for potential issuance pursuant to awards under the Equity
Incentive Plan of 2007. Unless sooner terminated, the Equity
Incentive Plan of 2007 will continue in effect for a period of 10 years from its
effective date. As of June 30, 2009 the Company issued to vendors,
Board Members, Directors and Consultants, shares, stock options, warrants and
“Incentive Rights” under the Employee Wages or Hours Reduction Program (see
“ITEM 2: Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operations; Liquidity and Capital Resources; Employee Wage Or Hours Reduction
Program” for details on the Employee Wages Or Hours Reduction
Program). These securities consisted of an aggregate of 7,695,374
shares and shares issuable upon exercise/conversion of the foregoing
securities.
The
aggregate shares to vendors, Board Members, Directors and Consultants had prices
ranging from $0.32 to $2.11 based on the NYSE Amex closing price.
The
aggregate stock options had various exercise prices ranging from $0.72 to $2.20
and had terms of ten years. The Company utilized the Black-Scholes
Pricing Model to fair value the stock options which had been issued during the
Six months ended June 30, 2009 and accordingly recorded approximately $122,000
as equity based compensation for these issuances during this
period. The stock options vested immediately upon grant.
The
aggregate Incentive Rights are rights for employees to receive Company shares
and had prices ranging from $0.13 to $0.80 based on the average daily closing
prices of the Company shares on the NYSE Amex. These Incentive Rights
are being issued monthly in a format consistent with the Employee Wages or Hours
Reduction Program. An aggregate 1,981,983 of Incentive Rights have
been accumulated by employees as of June 30, 2009 with an approximate value of
$1,002,000 as equity based compensation.
The
Equity Incentive Plan of 2009, effective June 24, 2009, authorizes the grant of
non-qualified and incentive stock options, stock appreciation rights, restricted
stock and other stock awards. A maximum of 15,000,000 shares of
common stock is reserved for potential issuance pursuant to awards under the
Equity Incentive Plan of 2009. Unless sooner terminated, the Equity
Incentive Plan of 2009 will continue in effect for a period of 10 years from its
effective date and as of June 30, 2009 the Company had issued no shares, stock
options or warrants against the Plan.
The Company also recorded an additional
$19,000 during the six months ended June 30, 2009, in equity based compensation
which related to the vesting of stock options issued to employees in
2007.
NOTE 7: RECENT ACCOUNTING
PRONOUNCEMENTS
The
Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) issued in 2007 Issue No. 07-5, "Determining
Whether an Instrument (or an Embedded Feature) is indexed to an Entity's Own
Stock” provides guidance for determining whether an equity-linked financial instrument (or
embedded feature) is indexed to an entity's own stock. Upon review by
the Company, it is deemed that the application of this issue has no impact on
the financial statements.
The FASB
has issued FASB Staff Position FSP FAS 157-4 “Determining Fair Value When the
Volume and Level of Activity for Asset or Liability Have Significantly Decreased
and Identifying Transactions That Are Not Orderly.” FSP FAS
157-4 is applied prospectively and retrospective application is not permitted.
The FSP is effective for interim and annual periods ending after June 15, 2009,
with early adoption permitted for periods ending after March 15,
2009. The Company does not expect this FSP to have any material
effect on the Company’s financial position or results of
operations.
The FASB
has issued FASB Statement No. 165, Subsequent Events. Statement
165 establishes general standards of accounting for and disclosure of events
that occur after the balance sheet date but before financial statements are
issued or are available to be issued. Specifically, Statement 165 provides:
|
1.
|
Theperiod
after the balance sheet date during which management of a reporting entity
should evaluate events or transactions that may occur for potential
recognition or disclosure in the financial
statements;
|
|
2.
|
The
circumstances under which an entity should recognize events or
transactions occurring after the balance sheet date in its financial
statements; and
|
|
3.
|
The
disclosures that an entity should make about events or transactions that
occurred after the balance sheet
date.
|
Statement
165 is effective for interim or annual financial periods ending after June 15,
2009, and shall be applied prospectively. The Company has determined that
the application of this issue has no impact on the financial
statements.
The FASB
has issued FASB Statement No. 168, The “FASB Accounting Standards
CodificationTM” and the Hierarchy of Generally
Accepted Accounting Principles. Statement 168 establishes the FASB Accounting Standards
CodificationTM(Codification)
as the single source of authoritative U.S. generally accepted accounting
principles (U.S. GAAP) recognized by the FASB to be applied by nongovernmental
entities. Rules and interpretive releases of the SEC under authority of federal
securities laws are also sources of authoritative U.S. GAAP for SEC registrants.
Statement 168 and the Codification are effective for financial statements issued
for interim and annual periods ending after September 15, 2009.
When
effective, the Codification will supersede all existing non-SEC accounting and
reporting standards. All other nongrandfathered non-SEC accounting
literature not included in the Codification will become nonauthoritative.
Following Statement 168, the FASB will not issue new standards in the form
of Statements, FASB Staff Positions, or Emerging Issues Task Force Abstracts.
Instead, the FASB will issue Accounting Standards Updates, which will serve only
to: (a) update the
Codification; (b)
provide background information about the guidance; and (c) provide the bases for
conclusions on the change(s) in the Codification.
NOTE 8:
SUBSEQUENT EVENT
We considered all material events through August 7,
2009 and determine that there were no reportable matters.
ITEM 2:Management's Discussion and Analysis
of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.
Special
Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain
statements in this document constitute "forwarding-looking statements" within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and
Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1995 (collectively, the
"Reform Act"). Certain, but not necessarily all, of such
forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking
terminology such as "believes", "expects", "may", "will", "should", or
"anticipates" or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable
terminology, or by discussions of strategy that involve risks and
uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical
fact, included in this report regarding our financial position, business
strategy and plans or objectives for future operations are forward-looking
statements. Without limiting the broader description of forward-looking
statements above, we specifically note that statements regarding potential
drugs, their potential therapeutic effect, the possibility of obtaining
regulatory approval, our ability to manufacture and sell any products, market
acceptance or our ability to earn a profit from sales or licenses of any drugs
or our ability to discover new drugs in the future are all forward-looking in
nature.
Such
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors, including but not limited to, the risk factors discussed below,
which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Hemispherx
and its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements and other factors referenced in this report. We do not
undertake and specifically decline any obligation to publicly release the
results of any revisions which may be made to any forward-looking statement to
reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect
the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events.
Overview
General
We are a
specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the clinical development,
manufacture, marketing and distribution of new drug therapies based on natural
immune system enhancing technologies for the treatment of viral and immune based
chronic disorders. We were founded in the early 1970s doing contract
research for the National Institutes of Health. Since that time, we have
established a strong foundation of laboratory, pre-clinical and clinical data
with respect to the development of nucleic acids to enhance the natural
antiviral defense system of the human body and to aid the development of
therapeutic products for the treatment of certain chronic
diseases.
Our
current strategic focus is derived from four applications of our two core
pharmaceutical technology platforms Ampligen® and Alferon N
Injection®. The commercial focus for Ampligen® includes application
as a treatment for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (“CFS”) and as a vaccine enhancer
(adjuvant) for both therapeutic and preventative vaccine
development. Alferon N Injection® is an FDA approved product with an
indication for refractory or recurring genital warts. Alferon® LDO
(Low Dose Oral) is an application currently under early stage development
targeting influenza and viral diseases both as an adjuvant as well as a single
entity anti-viral.
Ampligen®
is an experimental drug currently undergoing clinical development for the
treatment of CFS. In August 2004, we completed a Phase III clinical
trial (“AMP 516”) treating over 230 CFS patients with Ampligen® and are
presently in the registration process for a new drug application (“NDA”) with
the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). Over its developmental
history, Ampligen® has received various designations, including Orphan Drug
Product Designation (FDA), Emergency (compassionate) Cost Recovery Sales
Authorization (FDA) and “promising” clinical outcome recognition based on the
evaluation of certain summary clinical reports (“AHRQ”, Agency Health Research
Quality). Ampligen represents the first drug in the class of RNA
(nucleic acid) molecules to apply for NDA review.
On July
7, 2008, the FDA accepted for review our NDA for Ampligen® to treat CFS,
originally submitted in October 2007. We are seeking marketing approval for the
first-ever treatment for CFS. At present, only supportive, symptom-based care is
available for CFS patients. The NDA for Ampligen®, whose chemical designation is
poly I : poly C12U, is
also the first ever accepted for review by the FDA for systemic use of a
toll-like receptor therapy to treat any condition. On February 18,
2009, we were notified by the FDA that the originally scheduled Prescription
Drug User Fee Act (“PDUFA”) date of February 25, 2009 has been extended to May
25, 2009. On May 22, 2009, we were notified by the FDA that it may
require up to one to two additional weeks to take action beyond the scheduled
PDUFA action date of May 25, 2009. Since that date, no further notification has
been received from the FDA.
The
Status of our initiative for Ampligen® as an adjuvant for preventative vaccine
development includes the pre-clinical studies in seasonal and pandemic influenza
for intranasal administration being conducted by Japan’s National Institute for
Infectious Diseases. A three year program targeting regulatory
approval for pandemic flu and seasonal flu in Japan has been funded by the
Japanese Ministry of Health. Parties to the research grant include
Hemispherx, the NIID and BIKEN (operational arm of the non-profit Foundation for
Microbial Disease of Osaka University). Our agreement with BIKEN is
part of a three party agreement to develop an effective influenza vaccine for
Japan and utilizes the resources of the National Institute of Infectious Disease
of Japan. We intend to conduct human studies to seek approval for
seasonal and pandemic indications for intranasal administration. A
phase II study for intramuscular administration for seasonal flu was conducted
in Australia through St. Vincent’s Hospital Clinical Trials
Centre. Work continues to compile a full data set, including
Serologic studies. Since only certain labs are qualified to conduct
these tests, and during the course of the clinical testing one of these testing
labs changed ownership, expectations for results have been delayed until mid to
late 2009.
Based on
the results of published, peer reviewed pre-clinical studies and clinical
trials, we believe that Ampligen® may have broad-spectrum anti-viral and
anti-cancer properties. Over 1,000 patients have participated in the Ampligen®
clinical trials representing the administration of more than 90,000 doses of
this drug.
Alferon N
Injection® is the registered trademark for our injectable formulation of natural
alpha interferon, which is approved by the FDA for the treatment of genital
warts. Alferon N Injection® is also in clinical development for
treating West Nile Virus.
Commercial
sales of Alferon N Injection® were halted in April 2008 as the current
expiration date of our finished goods inventory expired in March
2008. The FDA has declined to respond to our requests for an
extension of the expiration date, therefore we consider the request to be
denied. Since our testing of the product indicates that it is not
impaired and could be safely utilized, the finished goods inventory of 2,745
Alferon N Injection® 5ml vials may be used to produce approximately 11,000,000
sachets of Alferon® Low Dose Oral (“LDO”) for future clinical
trials.
Production
of Alferon N Injection® from our Work-In-Progress (“WIP”) Inventory had been put
on hold due to the resources needed to prepare our New Brunswick facility for
the FDA preapproval inspection with respect to our Ampligen®
NDA. Project plans, timelines and budgets are being produced to ready
facilities and expand staffing to produce Alferon® Purified Drug Concentrate
(“PDC”) to manufacture as either or both Alferon N Injection® and Alferon® LDO
now that adequate funding was obtained in May, 2009. As a result, it
is anticipated that Alferon N Injection® or Alferon® LDO could be available in
mid to late 2010.
Our Ampligen® FDA
pre-inspection had noted small discrepancies that have been addressed by
us and documented in a response to the regional FDA office in New Jersey on
April 28, 2009. As a result, the New Jersey office of the FDA has
indicated that there are no more preapproval review issues at this
time.
We own
and operate a 43,000 sq. ft. FDA approved facility in New Brunswick, NJ
primarily designed to produce Alferon N Injection®. In
2006, we completed the installation of a polymer production line to produce
Ampligen® raw materials on a more reliable and consistent basis.
We
outsource certain components of our research and development, manufacturing,
marketing and distribution while maintaining control over the entire process
through our quality assurance group and our clinical monitoring
group.
401(k)
Plan
In December 1995, we established a
defined contribution plan, effective January 1, 1995, entitled the Hemispherx
Biopharma Employees 401(k) Plan and Trust Agreement. All of our full
time employees are eligible to participate in the 401(k) plan following one year
of employment. Subject to certain limitations imposed by federal tax laws,
participants are eligible to contribute up to 15% of their salary (including
bonuses and/or commissions) per annum. Through March 14, 2008,
Participants' contributions to the 401(K) plan were matched by Hemispherx at a
rate determined annually by the Board of Directors. Each participant immediately
vests in his or her deferred salary contributions, while our contributions will
vest over one year.
Effective
March 15, 2008, we ended our 100% matching of up to 6% of the 401(k)
contributions provided to the account for each eligible
participant. Our 401(k) Plan contribution cost for the twelve months
ended December 31, 2008 is $20,421 and it is required for payment prior to the
final filing of our 2008 Federal Corporate Tax filing that is projected for
September 2009. There have not been any additional matching costs by
us since March 15, 2008 and none is projected for calendar year
2009.
New Accounting
Pronouncements
Refer to
“NOTE 7: RECENT ACCOUNTING PRONOUCEMENTS” under Notes To Unaudited Condensed
Consolidated Financial Statements.
Disclosure About
Off-Balance
Sheet Arrangements
None.
Critical Accounting
Policies
There have been no material changes in
our critical accounting policies and estimates from those disclosed in Item 7 of
our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2008.
RESULTS
OF OPERATIONS
Three months ended June 30,
2009 versus three months ended June 30, 2008
Net loss
Our net loss of approximately
$3,870,000 for the three months ended June 30, 2009 was $1,068,000 or 38.1%
greater when compared to the same period in 2008. This increase in
loss was primarily due to the following expense elements:
|
1)
|
Research
and Development costs in the three month ended June of 2009 increased
approximately $822,000 or 71% as compared to the same period in
2008.
|
|
2)
|
General
and Administrative expenses increased approximately $72,000 or 4% during
the second quarter of 2009 as compared to the prior period in
2008.
|
|
3)
|
Interest
and other income decreased $219,000 or 67% for the three months ended June
30, 2009 as compared to the same period in
2008.
|
|
4)
|
The
above increases in expenses were offset by a decrease in Production/cost
of goods sold of approximately $43,000 or
22%.
|
Net loss per share was $0.04 for the
current period versus $0.04 for the same period in 2008.
Revenues
Revenues
for the three months ended June 30, 2009 were $17,000 compared to revenues of
$15,000 for the same period in 2008. There were no revenues related
to the sale of Alferon N Injection® for this period in 2009 or
2008. Revenues from our Ampligen® cost recovery program had slightly
increased $2,000 or 13% for the quarter in 2009 with approximately the same
number of patients participating in the program. Commercial sales of
Alferon N Injection® were halted in April 2008 as the current expiration date of
our Finished Goods Inventory expired in March 2008. As a result, we
have no Alferon N Injection® product to commercially sell and all revenue was
generated from Ampligen® cost recovery clinical treatment programs.
Production costs/cost of
goods sold
Production/cost
of goods sold was approximately $152,000 and $195,000, respectively, for the
three months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008. This represented a
decrease of approximately $43,000 or 22% as compared to the same period in
2008. The 2009 and 2008 expenses primarily represent the costs to
maintain Alferon N Injection® and Ampligen® Inventory including storage,
stability testing and reporting costs. Cost of goods sold expenses
for the three months ended 2009 and 2008 were impacted by the same lack of
Alferon N Injection® sales since April 1, 2008.
Research and development
costs
Overall
research and development costs for the three months ended June 30, 2009 were
$1,982,000 as compared to $1,160,000 for the same period a year ago reflecting
an increase of $822,000 or 71%. The second three months of 2009’s
research and development costs included $217,000 of incremental non-cash labor
expenses that is attributed to Research and Clinical employees participating in
the Employee Wage Or Hour Reduction Program (see “Liquidity and Capital
Resources; Employee Wage Or Hours Reduction Program” below for details on the
Employee Wages Or Hours Reduction Program) and $450,000 in bonus awards with
respect to achieving 2008 corporate goals and objectives. In addition
for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 as compared to 2008, research and
development expenses in 2009 included project expenses for $159,000 related to
testing and preparation of the New Brunswick facility for the possible
commercial manufacture of Ampligen®.
General and Administrative
Expenses
General and Administrative (“G&A”)
expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 were approximately
$1,862,000 and $1,790,000, respectively, reflecting an increase of $72,000 or
4%. The primary causes of this increase were $115,000 of incremental
non-cash labor expenses resulting from General and Administrative employees
participating in the Employee Wage Or Hour Reduction Program, along with an
increase of $123,000 in stock filing and transfer fees and $308,000 in legal and
professional fees in relation to the equity stock sales of May
2009. These increased costs during the second quarter of 2009 were
offset by reduced general legal fees for $323,000 and a decrease in personnel
for a savings of $120,000 and an overall reduction of general costs for
$29,000.
Interest and Other
Income
Interest and other income for the three
months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 was $109,000 and $328,000, respectively,
representing a decrease of $219,000 or 67%. The primary causes for
the decrease in 2nd Quarter
of 2009 was a $368,000 in reduced investment income resulting from lower
available interest rates. This interest income reduction was offset
by a net realized gain of $149,000 that arose from the occurrence of two events:
a) in the three months ended June 2009 equipment was disposed at a gain of
$84,000; and b) an equipment value impairment write-down of $65,000 occurred
during the first three months of 2008.
Interest Expense and
Financing Costs
We had no
interest expense or non-cash financing costs for the three months ended June 30,
2009 or 2008.
Six months ended June 30,
2009 versus six months ended June 30, 2008
Net loss
Our net loss of approximately
$6,957,000 for the six months ended June 30, 2009 was $990,000 or 16.6% greater
when compared to the same period in 2008. This increase in loss was
primarily due to the following combination of revenue and expense
elements:
|
1)
|
Research
and Development costs in the six month ended June of 2009 increased
approximately $1,110,000 or 45% as compared to the same period in
2008.
|
|
2)
|
There
were no sales of Alferon N Injection® for the six months ended June 30,
2009, as finished goods inventory had reached its current product
expiration date of March 31, 2008. Sales of Alferon N
Injection® for the six months ended June 30, 2008, amounted to
approximately $173,000. Revenues from our Ampligen® cost
recovery program for the six months ended June 30, 2009 decrease of $4,000
or 8% as compared to the prior period in
2008.
|
|
3)
|
Interest
and other income decreased $292,000 or 72% for the six months ended June
30, 2009 as compared to the same period in
2008.
|
|
4)
|
In
the six months ended June 30, 2009 as compared to the same period in 2008,
$241,000 non-cash financing costs increased in the form of Common Stock
Commitment Warrants incurred as a result of the February 2009
implementation of the Standby Financing. No agreement of this
type existed during the first six months of
2008.
|
The above
increases in expenses was offset by a decrease in Production/cost of goods sold
of approximately $171,000 or 39% and decrease in General and Administrative
expenses of approximately $659,000 or 18%.
Net loss per share was $0.08 for the
current period versus $0.08 for the same period in 2008.
Revenues
Revenues
for the six months ended June 30, 2009 were $46,000 compared to revenues of
$223,000 for the same period in 2008. There were no revenues related
to the sale of Alferon N Injection® for the six month period ended 2009 while
there were approximately $173,000 of sales for the same period of
2008. Revenues from our Ampligen® cost recovery program for the six
months ended June 30, 2009 were $46,000 compared to revenues of $50,000 for the
same period in 2008, a decrease of $4,000 or 8% for approximately the same
number of patients participating in the program. Commercial sales of
Alferon N Injection® were halted in April 2008 as the current expiration date of
our Finished Goods Inventory expired in March 2008. As a result, we
have no Alferon N Injection® product to commercially sell and all revenue was
generated from Ampligen® cost recovery clinical treatment programs.
Major
efforts of the New Brunswick manufacturing staff were redirected throughout year
2008 and to date in 2009 to the task of preparing our plant for FDA pre and post
approval inspections in connection with the Ampligen® NDA review
process.
Project
plans, timelines and budgets are being produced to ready facilities and expand
staffing to produce Alferon® Purified Drug Concentrate (“PDC”) to manufacture as
either or both Alferon N Injection® and Alferon® LDO now that adequate funding
was obtained in May 2009. As a result, it is anticipated that Alferon
N Injection® or Alferon® LDO could be available in mid to late
2010.
Production costs/cost of
goods sold
Production/cost
of goods sold was approximately $273,000 and $444,000, respectively, for the six
months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008. This represented a decrease of
approximately $171,000 or 39% as compared to the same period in
2008. The 2009 expenses primarily represent the costs to maintain
Alferon N Injection® and Ampligen® Inventory including storage, stability
testing and reporting costs. A secondary reason for the decrease in
cost of goods sold for 2009 can be attributed to the lack of Alferon N
Injection® sales since April 1, 2008 and its impact on costs of goods sold for
the six months ended June 30, 2008.
Research and development
costs
Overall
research and development costs for the six months ended June 30, 2009 were
$3,577,000 as compared to $2,467,000 for the same period a year ago reflecting
an increase of $1,110,000 or 45%. The first six months of 2009’s
Research and Development costs include the book value abandonment expense
write-off of $115,000 for 24 patents that Management deemed no longer of value
or material to future operations. Additionally for the six months
ended June 30, 2009, $545,000 of incremental non-cash labor expenses were
attributed to Research and Clinical employees participating in the Employee Wage
Or Hour Reduction Program (see “Liquidity and Capital Resources; Employee Wage
Or Hours Reduction Program” below for details on the Employee Wages Or Hours
Reduction Program) and 2009 bonus awards of $450,000 in relationship to
achieving 2008 corporate goals and objectives.
During
2008 and 2009, we spent considerable time and effort preparing for the
preapproval inspection by the FDA for manufacturing of Ampligen® product and its
raw materials, polynucleotides Poly I and Poly C12U. A
satisfactory recommendation from the FDA Office of Compliance based upon an
acceptable preapproval inspection is required prior to approval of the
product. The preapproval inspection determines compliance with
current Good Manufacturing Practices (“cGMP”) as well as a product specific
evaluation concerning the manufacturing process of product. The
inspection includes many aspects of the cGMP requirements, such as manufacturing
process validation, equipment qualification, analytical method validation,
facility cleaning, quality systems, documentation system and part 11
compliance.
The New
Jersey District Office of the FDA conducted an inspection of the New Brunswick,
New Jersey facility in late January and early February 2009. A
one-page Form FDA 483 was issued citing a need to reperform four method
validations to generate data in the New Brunswick Laboratories. These
validations had been performed at another site also owned and operated by us
prior to transferring the equipment to New Brunswick. The validations
have been completed and the reports were forward to the FDA on April 28, 2009
for review. As a result, the New Jersey office of the FDA has
indicated that there are no more preapproval review issues at this
time.
The FDA
conducted a field inspection at Hollister-Stier Laboratories in Spokane,
Washington in mid-2008. The Ampligen® final fill operations are
performed under contract with Hollister-Stier. The inspection
resulted in a FDA Form 483 with two observations dealing with reviews and
validations of process variability. We continue to work with
Hollister-Stier to finalize specific actions to address the FDA Form 483 issues
and Hollister-Stier has submitted a specific action plan to the Seattle,
Washington office of the FDA. It is our expectation that these issues
will be resolved and we will be able to complete the resultant sequential
validations by the end of 2009.
On
September 19, 2008, we executed an agreement with Lovelace Respiratory Research
Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico to perform certain animal toxic studies in
support of our Ampligen® NDA. These studies were requested by the FDA
and will be done in collaboration with the resources of the New Brunswick
facility. These studies have been substantially completed with
summary reports expected to be issued to the FDA during the third quarter of
2009. Data for final FDA reports are presently undergoing internal
auditing at Lovelace and Hemispherx with a projected completion of the final
report for late 2009 to early 2010.
We are
also engaged in ongoing, experimental studies assessing the efficacy of
Ampligen®, Alferon N Injection®, and Alferon® LDO against influenza viruses as a
single adjuvant agent antiviral with Japan’s National Institute of Infectious
disease, Biken (the for profit operational arm of the Foundation for Microbial
Diseases of Osaka University) and St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst,
Australia. As a result of focusing our resources on the Australian
and Japanese studies, no further experiments are being undertaken by the Defence
R&D. We consider our more critical studies as those being
undertaken in Japan, Australia, Utah State University and University of Texas’
biocontainment facilities as well as the design of new Alferon® LDO studies with
both healthy volunteers and high risk groups susceptible to seasonal or pandemic
influenza. Discussions are also underway with authorities in China and
Argentina.
The Biken
initial arrangement was concluded in December 2007 and basically consists of
Biken purchasing Ampligen® for use in conducting further animal studies of
intranasal prototype vaccines containing antigens from influenza sub-types H1N1,
H3N2 and B progressing to human studies with all programs supported by the
Japanese Health Ministry. Under the terms of the non—exclusive
licensing arrangement, we will receive royalties as well as income for all
Ampligen® used in the ongoing experimental work and any subsequent marketing of
Ampligen® as an immuno-enhancer for flu vaccines delivered intranasally in
Japan. To date, only two or three pharmaceutical companies worldwide
have achieved regulatory authorizations to sell intranasally (“IN”) administered
influenza vaccines versus many companies receiving approval for intramuscular
vaccine delivery routes. Safety has been paramount in developing
effective treatments. However, animal studies to date indicate
Ampligen®, an experimental drug, may be safely administered
intranasally. Clinical studies (in other disorders) have built a
database of more than 90,000 injections of Ampligen® when given parenterally
(intravenous, or “IV”). In June 2008, Biken notified us they were
accelerating their program and were shipped additional Ampligen® supplies for
various preclinical vaccine studies and research projects that remain in
progress. A secondary goal of the trial is to evaluate whether
antibodies stimulated by the vaccine/Ampligen® combination also provide
protection against H5N1, the avian influenza virus. Since 2003
through July 1, 2009, the World Health Organization (“WHO”) has confirmed 463
cases and attributed 262 human deaths worldwide to
H5N1. Investigators from Japan’s Institute of Infectious Disease have
conducted studies in animals that suggest that Ampligen® can stimulate a
sufficiently broad immune response to provide cross-protection against a range
of virus genetic types, including H5N1 and derivative clades. Japan’s
Council for Science & Technology Policy (“CSTP”), a cabinet level position,
has recently awarded funds from Japan’s CSTP to advance research with influenza
vaccines utilizing Ampligen. The Principal Investigator of this
advanced study, Dr. Hideki Hasegawa, plans to undertake clinical studies in 2009
and 2010. Dr. Hasegawa’s research focuses on mucosal immunity and the
inherent advantages of a vigorous immune response to respiratory
pathogens. Clinical trials emanating from successful Primate (monkey)
studies are anticipated to begin in 2010.
We
received notice of an Annual Report (April 2008-March 2009) prepared by a
Director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (“NIID”) to the
governing organization of the Japanese Ministry of Health (“MHLW”) reporting a
series of successful preclinical studies in new pandemic vaccines which rely
critically on Ampligen® (Poly I : Poly C12U) an
experimental therapeutic for efficacy. The efficacy was demonstrated
both within the airways themselves as well as systemically. As a
result, the program is expected to be accelerated into human volunteers promptly
under supervision of NIID staff. The project is officially titled
“Clinical Application of the Influenza Virus Vaccine in the Intranasal Dosage
Form for Mucosal Administration”.
Concurrently,
our collaborative partner in Japan, Biken Corporation, completed successfully in
co-operation with NIID a series of animal/preclinical test on the new pandemic
vaccines with Ampligen®. Biken is to proceed to conduct the studies
for regulatory requirements such as safety, stability and formulation to be
shared with NIID. Successful studies in animal models, including the
monkey studies conducted to date under auspices of the Japanese NIID, do not
necessarily predict human safety and efficacy of any investigational product
including Ampligen®. To support preclinical studies at Biken,
Ampligen® especially formulated for intranasal use has been manufactured and is
in the process of being packaged and shipped.
The
recent emergence of a new H1N1 Swine Flu strain with high associated mortality
in Mexico, Argentina and elsewhere provide additional significance to the
Japanese studies. The original studies by Dr. Hasegawa and his
colleagues that provided the basis for the expanded preclinical trials
demonstrated cross-clade protection against H5N1 isolates following vaccination
with a seasonal influenza vaccine (J Infect Dis.196:1313-1320,
2007). Bearing this program in mind as a next step, Biken
Corporation is concentrating its maximum efforts to regulatory path to the
earliest registration of H5N1 intranasal vaccine combined with Ampligen in
Japan.
The
clinical trial in Australia is using Ampligen® in combination with seasonal flu
vaccine. This
open-label study (Phase IIa) utilizing Ampligen® (Poly I: Poly C12U) as a
potential immune-enhancer was conducted in Australia with thirty-eight subjects
age 60 or greater with the standard trivalent seasonal influenza
vaccines. Ampligen® was administered
subcutaneously. Elderly subjects typically have reduced immune
responses relative to younger populations. The combinational
treatment was generally well-tolerated. Serologic studies to evaluate
the magnitude and spectrum of immune response are pending and are expected by
mid to late 2009; however, only certain labs are qualified to conduct these
tests and during the course of the clinical testing, one of these testing labs
changed ownership and is undergoing renovation. As a result, a brief
delay has occurred in our ability to undertake Serologic studies to evaluate the
magnitude and spectrum of immune response.
Collaboration
studies in non-human primates conducted by ViroClinics in the Netherlands
suggest a potential role for Alferon® LDO as another novel therapeutic approach
to viral pandemics. A manuscript on these findings is expected to be
submitted in mid to late 2009. It is our understanding that in these
studies, Alferon® LDO treatment appeared to be more effective than published
results for neurominidose inhibitor (Relenza®), which is a current standard for
care of seasonal flu along with a similar drug in Tamiflu®. Alferon®
LDO is now poised for clinical trials against seasonal influenza. The
opportunity for Alferon® LDO is reinforced by new reports of severe side effects
secondary to Tamiflu®, the present standard of care, by both the FDA and
Japanese health authorities. Also, Tamiflu® resistant strains of flu
virus are now raising serious concerns on a world-wide basis.
General and Administrative
Expenses
General and Administrative (“G&A”)
expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 were approximately
$3,028,000 and $3,687,000, respectively, reflecting a decrease of $659,000 or
18%. This decrease relates primarily to a reduction in all areas of
expenses due to reduced legal fees of $685,000, stock compensation of $218,000,
accounting consultants and fees of $100,000, decease in personnel for a savings
of $120,000 along with a savings of $74,000 in general costs. This
decrease also reflected 2008 refunds paid to customers for the return of expired
Alferon® for $113,000. These cost savings were somewhat offset
by an increase of $220,000 of incremental non-cash labor expenses resulting from
General and Administrative employees participating in the Employee Wage Or Hour
Reduction Program along with an increase $123,000 in stock filing and transfer
fees and $308,000 in legal and professional fees in relation to the equity stock
sales of May 2009.
Interest and Other
Income
Interest and other income for the six
months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 was $116,000 and $408,000, respectively,
representing a decrease of $292,000 or 72%. The primary cause for the
decrease in the six months ended June 30, 2009 were a $421,000 in reduced
investment income resulting from lower available interest rates. This
interest income reduction was offset by a net realized gain of $149,000 that
arose from the occurrence of two events: a) in the six months ended June 2009
equipment was disposed at a gain of $84,000; and b) an equipment value
impairment write-down of $65,000 occurred during the first six months of
2008.
Interest Expense and
Financing Costs
We had no
interest expense for the six months ended June 30, 2009 or 2008. On
February 1, 2009 we entered into a Standby Financing Agreement that produced
finance costs of $241,000 in Common Stock Commitment Warrants for the six months
ended June 30, 2009 for which no agreement of this type existed during the prior
period in 2008. For detailed information on this agreement, refer to
“Standby Financing Agreement” below.
Liquidity and Capital
Resources
Cash used
in operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 2009 was $4,129,000
compared to $5,280,000 for the same period in 2008 a reduction of $1,151,000 or
21.8%. This reduction reflects lower expenditures primarily related
to Management’s cash conservation program that included reducing controllable
expenses and utilizing our common stock where possible as payment to Board
Members, employees, consultants and vendors. Cash provided (used) by
investing activities during the six months ended June 30, 2009 and 2008 totaled
($1,135,000) and $3,951,000, respectively, primarily due to the 2009 purchase
and 2008 maturity of short term investments. We had proceeds from
financing activities of $39,802,000 and $-0- during the six months ended June
30, 2009 and 2008, respectively. As of June 30, 2009, we had
approximately $41,657,000 in cash, cash equivalents and short-term
investments, or an increase of approximately $35,538,000 from December 31,
2008.
We have
been using the proceeds from Fusion Capital’s equity financing to fund operating
expense and infrastructure growth including manufacturing, regulatory compliance
and market development costs related to the FDA approval process for
Ampligen®. During the second quarter of 2009, we were able to raise
$5,519,998 in equity financing pursuant to the Fusion Agreement. Also, we entered into securities
purchase agreements to sell stock and warrants. See “Note 6: Stockholders’
Equity” under notes to the Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial
Statements.
Because
of our long-term capital requirements, we may seek to access the public equity
market whenever conditions are favorable, even if we do not have an immediate
need for additional capital at that time. We are unable to estimate
the amount, timing or nature of future sales of outstanding common stock or
instruments convertible into or exercisable for our common stock. Any
additional funding may result in significant dilution and could involve the
issuance of securities with rights, which are senior to those of existing
stockholders. We may also need additional funding earlier than
anticipated, and our cash requirements, in general, may vary materially from
those now planned, for reasons including, but not limited to, changes in our
research and development programs, clinical trials, competitive and
technological advances, the regulatory processes, including the commercializing
of Ampligen® products.
There can be no assurances that we will
raise adequate funds from these or other sources, which may have a material
adverse effect on our ability to develop our products. Also, we have
the ability to curtail discretionary spending, including some research and
development activities, if required to conserve cash.
Standby Financing
Agreement
In February 2009,
we entered into a Standby Financing Agreement pursuant to which certain
individuals (“Individuals”), consisting of Dr. Carter and Thomas Equels, agreed
to loan us up to an aggregate of $1,000,000 in funds should we be unable to
obtain additional financing, if needed. Under the Standby Financing
Agreement, we would use our best efforts in 2009 to obtain one or more
additional financing agreements on such terms as our Board deems to be
reasonable and appropriate in order to maintain our operations. If at
any time after December 1, 2009 and prior to June 30, 2010 a majority of our
independent Directors deems that in the event a financing of at least $2.5
Million has not been obtained and additional funds are needed to maintain our
operations, we will send a written notice to each of the Individuals informing
them of the total amount of additional funds required and the specific amount
that will be required from each Individual. Such funding was obtained
in May 2009.
For
agreeing to be obligated to loan us money, each Individual received 10 year
warrants (the “Commitment Warrants”) to purchase our common stock at the rate of
$50,000 worth in warrants per $100,000 committed. The exercise price
of these warrants is $0.51 (125% of the market closing price of our Common Stock
on the date that Agreement was executed. These warrants vested
immediately.
Employee Wage Or Hours
Reduction Program
In an
effort to conserve our cash, the Employee Wage Or Hours Reduction Program (the
“Program”) was ratified by the Board effective January 1, 2009. In a
mandatory program that is estimated to be in effect for up to six months,
compensation of all active full-time employees as of January 1, 2009
(“Participants”) were reduced through a reduction in their wages for which they
would be eligible to receive shares of our common stock (“Stock”) six months
after the shares were earned. While all employees were also offered
the option to reduce their work hours with a proportional decease in wages, none
elected this alternative.
On a
semi-monthly basis, Participants received rights to Stock (“Incentive Rights”)
that could not be traded. Six months after the date the Incentive
Rights were awarded, we established a process to have Incentive Rights converted
into Stock and issued to each Participant on a monthly basis. We have
established and maintain a record for the number of Incentive Rights awarded to
each Participant. At the end of each semi-monthly period, we
determined the number of Incentive Rights by converting the proportionate
incentive award to the value of the Stock by utilizing the closing price of the
Stock on the NYSE Amex based on the average daily closing price for the
period.
The Plan
was administered for full-time employees as follows:
|
o
|
Employees
earning $90,000 or less per year elected a wage reduction of 10% per annum
and are receiving an incentive of two times the value in
Stock;
|
|
o
|
Employees
earning $90,001 to $200,000 per year elected a wage reduction of 25% per
annum are receiving an incentive of two times the value in
Stock;
|
|
o
|
Employees
earning over $200,000 per year elected a wage reduction of 50% per annum
and are receiving an incentive of three times the value in
Stock;
|
|
o
|
Any
employee could elect a 50% per annum wage reduction for which would allow
them to be eligible for an incentive award of three times the value of
Stock.
|
We have
worked with Wachovia Securities, LLC (“Wachovia Securities”) to establish a
trading account for each Participant. Incentive Rights will
constitute income to the Participants and be subject to payroll taxes upon Stock
issuance. We will bear all expenses related to selling the Stock at
Wachovia Securities (i.e.; broker fees, transaction costs, commissions, etc.)
for payroll withholding tax purposes. Thereafter, for each
Participant that remains an active employee during the period, we will continue
to bear such costs from their Wachovia Securities’ accounts for the maintenance
of these account and all expenses related to selling our
Stock. Participants leaving us or voluntarily separating from the
Plan will receive the Stock earned upon the six month conversion of their
Incentive Rights. The Plan benefits for individuals that are no
longer Participants will become fixed and we will not continue to bear such
costs from the designated brokerage firm for the maintenance of an account nor
any expenses related to selling Hemispherx stock except for the initial costs
associated to the selling of stock for payroll withholding tax
purposes.
The
Program was suspended as of May 31, 2009 and as a result employees are projected
to receive their monthly allotment of Company stock on July 31, August 31,
September 30, October 31, and November 30, 2009 unless distribution periods are
restricted by SEC regulation.
ITEM
3: Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
We had
approximately $41,657,000 in cash and cash equivalents and short-term
investments at June 30, 2009. To the extent that our cash and cash
equivalents and short term investments well exceed our near term funding needs,
we generally invested the excess cash in three to twelve month interest bearing
financial instruments. However with current funds well in excess of
our short-term operational needs, we are reassessing our cash management
strategy to consider longer term financial instruments. We employ
established conservative policies and procedures to manage any risks with
respect to investment exposure.
Our
financial instruments that are exposed to concentrations of credit risk consist
primarily of cash and cash equivalents. We place our cash and cash equivalents
with what management believes to be high credit quality
institutions. At times such investments may be in excess of the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) insurance limit.
We have
not entered into, and do not expect to enter into, financial instruments for
trading or hedging purposes.
Item
4: Controls and Procedures
Our Chairman of the Board
(serving as the principal executive officer) and the Chief Financial Officer
performed an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and
procedures, which have been designed to permit us to effectively identify
and timely disclose important information. In designing and
evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, Management recognized that
any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can
provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives,
and Management is required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit
relationship of possible controls and procedures. Based on that
evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded
that the controls and procedures were effective as of June 30, 2009 to ensure
that material information was accumulated and communicated to our Management,
including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as
appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required
disclosure.
During
the quarter ended June 30, 2009, we have made no change in our internal controls
over financial reporting that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially
affect, our internal controls over financial reporting.
Part
II – OTHER INFORMATION
Item
1. Legal Proceedings
Our litigation in the Federal District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with Lovells LP has been settled
for $164,000 that is being paid by way of unsecured monthly installments through
January, 2010. Accordingly, we have recorded a contingency for the
outstanding balance of $159,000 as a result of the settlement for the period
ended June 30, 2009.
In May
2009, Cato Capital LLC (“Cato”) made a demand on us, alleging that under a 2008
agreement between it and us, we owed Cato a placement fee for allegedly
assisting in procuring investments in Hemispherx. We dispute these
allegations. On July 31, 2009, we were served with a complaint filed
by Cato in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in
which Cato asserts the previously referenced claim. We believe that
we have exemplary defenses and will vigorously defend against this
claim.
In
December, 2004, we filed a multi-count complaint in federal court (Southern
District of Florida) for fraud and injunctive relief against Bioclones, Dr.
Donniger, JCI, Brett Kebble and H.C. Buidentag. However, a motion to
dismiss the complaint, in part on grounds that the matter must be arbitrated in
South Africa, was granted by the court. We appealed this decision to
the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals. In July 2008, while the appeal was pending, we
settled its disputes with both Bioclones and Cyril Donninger and dismissed them
from the lawsuit. In December 2008, the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s decision related to the fraud
claim. Shortly after our suit was filed in 2004, the South African
defendants JCI, Kebble and Buidentag were implicated in one of the largest
public securities fraud in South African history. We have not reached
the merits of the case, as the Defendants have again moved to dismiss our
complaint, now alleging that the court lacks jurisdiction over these South
African defendants. That issue has been briefed and we are awaiting a
decision from the United States District Court.
In June
2009, we filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of Florida against Mid-South Capital, Inc. (“Mid-South”) and two
brokers from their Atlanta office alleging they had interfered with our efforts
to secure a capital investment through another investment bank. We
are seeking damages and injunctive relief prohibiting these Defendants from
further interference in our affairs. The Defendants have moved to
dismiss the complaint or to have the suit transferred to the Northern District
of Georgia on jurisdictional grounds. Those issues have been briefed
and are awaiting a decision from the Court. Mid-South has stated that
it intends to assert a counter-claim for a commission from us for allegedly
assisting in procuring investments. However, this counter-claim has
not yet been filed in court by Mid-South. We dispute these alleged
claims of Mid-South and will defend against any claim that may be
brought.
Please
see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 for
previously reported legal proceedings.
ITEM
1A. Risk Factors.
The
following cautionary statements identify important factors that could cause our
actual result to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking
statements made in this Form 10-Q. Among the key factors that have a
direct bearing on our results of operations are:
Risks
Associated With Our Business
No
assurance of successful product development.
Ampligen®
and related products. The development of Ampligen® and
our other related products is subject to a number of significant
risks. Ampligen® may
be found to be ineffective or to have adverse side effects, fail to receive
necessary regulatory clearances, be difficult to manufacture on a commercial
scale, be uneconomical to market or be precluded from commercialization by
proprietary right of third parties. Our products are in various
stages of clinical and pre-clinical development and require further clinical
studies and appropriate regulatory approval processes before any such products
can be marketed. We do not know when, if ever, Ampligen® or
our other products will be generally available for commercial sale for any
indication. Generally, only a small percentage of potential
therapeutic products are eventually approved by the FDA for commercial
sale. Please see the next risk factor.
Alferon N
Injection®. Although Alferon N Injection® is approved for marketing
in the United States for the intra-lesional treatment of refractory or recurring
external genital warts in patients 18 years of age or older, to date it has not
been approved for other indications. We face many of the risks
discussed above, with regard to developing this product for use to treat other
ailments.
Our
drug and related technologies are investigational and subject to regulatory
approval. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval, our
operations will be significantly adversely affected.
All of
our drugs and associated technologies, other than Alferon N Injection®, are
investigational and must receive prior regulatory approval by appropriate
regulatory authorities for general use and are currently legally available only
through clinical trials with specified disorders. At present, Alferon
N Injection® is only approved for the intra-lesional treatment of refractory or
recurring external genital warts in patients 18 years of age or
older. Use of Alferon N Injection® for other indications will require
regulatory approval.
Our
products, including Ampligen®, are subject to extensive regulation by numerous
governmental authorities in the U.S. and other countries, including, but not
limited to, the FDA in the U.S., the Health Protection Branch (“HPB”) of Canada,
and the Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (“EMEA”) in
Europe. Obtaining regulatory approvals is a rigorous and lengthy
process and requires the expenditure of substantial resources. In
order to obtain final regulatory approval of a new drug, we must demonstrate to
the satisfaction of the regulatory agency that the product is safe and effective
for its intended uses and that we are capable of manufacturing the product to
the applicable regulatory standards. We require regulatory approval
in order to market Ampligen® or any other proposed product and receive product
revenues or royalties. We cannot assure you that Ampligen® will
ultimately be demonstrated to be safe or efficacious. In addition,
while Ampligen® is authorized for use in clinical trials including a cost
recovery program in the United States and Europe, we cannot assure you that
additional clinical trial approvals will be authorized in the United States or
in other countries, in a timely fashion or at all, or that we will complete
these clinical trials.
We filed
an NDA with the FDA for treatment of CFS on October 10, 2007. On
December 5, 2007 we received a Refusal to File letter from the FDA as our NDA
filing was deemed “not substantially complete”. We responded to the
FDA’s concerns by filing amendments to our NDA on April 25,
2008. These amendments should allow the FDA reviewers to better
evaluate independently the statistical efficacy/safety conclusions of our NDA
for the use of Ampligen® in treating CFS. On July 7, 2008, the FDA
accepted our NDA filing for review. However, there are no assurances
that upon review of the NDA that it will be approved by the FDA. On
February 18, 2009, we were notified by the FDA that the originally scheduled
PDUFA date of February 25, 2009 has been extended to May 25, 2009. On
May 22, 2009, we were notified by the FDA that it may require up to one to two
additional weeks to take action beyond the scheduled PDUFA action date of May
25, 2009. Since that date, we have received no further communication
from the FDA on this matter.
If
Ampligen® or one of our other products does not receive regulatory approval in
the U.S. or elsewhere, our operations most likely will be materially adversely
affected.
Alferon®
LDO is undergoing pre-clinical testing for possible prophylaxis against avian
flu. Additional studies are anticipated for swine
H1N1. While the studies to date have been encouraging, preliminary
testing in the laboratory and animals is not necessarily predictive of
successful results in clinical testing or human treatment. No
assurance can be given that similar results will be observed in clinical
trials. Use of Alferon® as a possible treatment of avian flu requires
prior regulatory approval. Only the FDA can determine whether a drug
is safe, effective or promising for treating a specific
application. As discussed in the prior risk factor, obtaining
regulatory approvals is a rigorous and lengthy process.
We
may continue to incur substantial losses and our future profitability is
uncertain.
We began
operations in 1966 and last reported net profit from 1985 through
1987. Since 1987, we have incurred substantial operating losses, as
we pursued our clinical trial effort to get our experimental drug, Ampligen®,
approved. As of June 30, 2009, our accumulated deficit was
approximately $204,366,000. We have not yet generated significant
revenues from our products and may incur substantial and increased losses in the
future. We cannot assure that we will ever achieve significant
revenues from product sales or become profitable. We require, and
will continue to require, the commitment of substantial resources to develop our
products. We cannot assure that our product development efforts will
be successfully completed or that required regulatory approvals will be obtained
or that any products will be manufactured and marketed successfully, or be
profitable.
We
may require additional financing which may not be available.
The
development of our products will require the commitment of substantial resources
to conduct the time-consuming research, preclinical development, and clinical
trials that are necessary to bring pharmaceutical products to market. As of June
30, 2009, thanks to our receipt of significant proceeds from the sale of our
securities, we had approximately $41,657,000 in cash and cash equivalents
and short-term investments. Given the harsh economic conditions, we
continue to review every aspect of our operations for cost and spending
reductions to assure our long term survival while maintaining the resources
necessary to achieve our primary objectives of obtaining NDA approval of
Ampligen® and securing a strategic partner.
If we are
unable to commercialize and sell Ampligen® and/or recommence and increase sales
of Alferon N Injection® or our other products, we eventually may need to secure
other sources of funding through additional equity or debt financing or other
sources in order to satisfy our working capital needs and/or complete the
necessary clinical trials and the regulatory approval processes including the
commercializing of Ampligen® products.
Our
ability to raise additional funds from the sale of equity securities is
limited. In this regard, we only have approximately 29,000,000 shares
authorized but unissued and unreserved. At our annual stockholders’
meeting held on June 24, 2009, we sought approval of an amendment to our
Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of
Common Stock from 200,000,000 to 350,000,000. At the meeting, there
were an insufficient number of votes in favor of the proposal and voting on this
proposal has been left open until September 3, 2009. If that approval
is not obtained, the amount of proceeds we may receive from the sale of our
Common Stock will be limited.
There can
be no assurances that we will raise adequate funds which may have a material
adverse effect on our ability to develop our products or continue our
operations.
Our Alferon N Injection® Commercial
Sales have halted due to lack of finished goods inventory.
Our finished goods
inventory of Alferon N Injection® reached it’s expiration date in March
2008. As a result, we have no product to sell at this
time. The FDA declined to respond to our requests for an extension of
the expiration date, therefore we consider the request to be
denied. Testing of the product indicated that it is not
impaired and could be safely utilized. Depending on the dose, the
finished goods inventory of 2,745 Alferon N Injection® 5ml vials may be used to
produce approximately 11,000,000 sachets of Alferon® Low Dose Oral (“LDO”) for
future clinical trials.
Production
of Alferon N Injection® from our Work-In-Progress (“WIP”) Inventory had been put
on hold due to the resources needed to prepare our New Brunswick facility for
the FDA preapproval inspection with respect to our Ampligen®
NDA. Project plans, timelines and budgets are being produced to ready
facilities and expand staffing to produce Alferon® Purified Drug Concentrate
(“PDC”) to manufacture as either or both Alferon N Injection® and Alferon® LDO
now that adequate funding was obtained in May, 2009. However, no
assurance can be given that Alferon N Injection® made commercially available
will return to prior
sales levels.
Although preliminary in vitro
testing indicates that Ampligen® enhances the effectiveness of different drug
combinations on avian influenza, preliminary testing in the laboratory is not
necessarily predictive of successful results in clinical testing or human
treatment.
Ampligen®
is currently being tested as a vaccine adjuvant for H5N1, a pathogenic avian
influenza virus (“HPAIV”) in Japan, where the preclinical data has shown
activity in preventing lethal challenge with the original virus used for
vaccination as well as the other related, but not identical, isolates of H5N1
virus (i.e., cross-reactivity). The clinical testing phase of
Ampligen® in Japan is expected to begin in late 2009 or early
2010. The results of laboratory testing with seasonal influenza virus
vaccine in Australia for the effect of Ampligen® as an adjuvant is
pending. No assurance can be given that similar results will be
observed in clinical trials. Use of Ampligen® in the treatment of flu
requires prior regulatory approval. Only the FDA can determine
whether a drug is safe, effective or promising for treating a specific
application. As discussed above, obtaining regulatory approvals is a
rigorous and lengthy process (see “Our drugs and related technologies
are investigational and subject to regulatory approval. If we are
unable to obtain regulatory approval, our operations will be significantly
adversely affected” above).
We
may not be profitable unless we can protect our patents and/or receive approval
for additional pending patents.
We need
to preserve and acquire enforceable patents covering the use of Ampligen® for a
particular disease in order to obtain exclusive rights for the commercial sale
of Ampligen® for such disease. We obtained all rights to Alferon N
Injection®, and we plan to preserve and acquire enforceable patents covering its
use for existing and potentially new diseases. Our success depends,
in large part, on our ability to preserve and obtain patent protection for our
products and to obtain and preserve our trade secrets and
expertise. Certain of our know-how and technology is not patentable,
particularly the procedures for the manufacture of our experimental drug,
Ampligen®, which is carried out according to standard operating procedure
manuals. We also have been issued patents on the use of Ampligen® in
combination with certain other drugs for the treatment of chronic Hepatitis B
virus, chronic Hepatitis C virus, and a patent which affords protection on the
use of Ampligen® in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We have
not yet been issued any patents in the United States for the use of
AmpligenÒ as a sole
treatment for any of the cancers, which we have sought to
target. With regard to Alferon N Injection®, we have acquired from
ISI its patents for natural alpha interferon produced from human peripheral
blood leukocytes and its production process and we have filed a patent
application for the use of Alferon® LDO in treating viral diseases including
avian influenza. We cannot assure that our competitors will not seek and obtain
patents regarding the use of similar products in combination with various other
agents, for a particular target indication prior to our doing
such. If we cannot protect our patents covering the use of our
products for a particular disease, or obtain additional patents, we may not be
able to successfully market our products.
The
patent position of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms is highly uncertain
and involves complex legal and factual questions.
To date,
no consistent policy has emerged regarding the breadth of protection afforded by
pharmaceutical and biotechnology patents. There can be no assurance
that new patent applications relating to our products or technology will result
in patents being issued or that, if issued, such patents will afford meaningful
protection against competitors with similar technology. It is
generally anticipated that there may be significant litigation in the industry
regarding patent and intellectual property rights. Such litigation
could require substantial resources from us and we may not have the financial
resources necessary to enforce the patent rights that we hold. No
assurance can be made that our patents will provide competitive advantages for
our products or will not be successfully challenged by
competitors. No assurance can be given that patents do not exist or
could not be filed which would have a materially adverse effect on our ability
to develop or market our products or to obtain or maintain any competitive
position that we may achieve with respect to our products. Our
patents also may not prevent others from developing competitive products using
related technology.
There
can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain necessary licenses if we
cannot enforce patent rights we may hold. In addition, the failure of
third parties from whom we currently license certain proprietary information or
from whom we may be required to obtain such licenses in the future, to
adequately enforce their rights to such proprietary information, could adversely
affect the value of such licenses to us.
If we
cannot enforce the patent rights we currently hold we may be required to obtain
licenses from others to develop, manufacture or market our
products. There can be no assurance that we would be able to obtain
any such licenses on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. We
currently license certain proprietary information from third parties, some of
which may have been developed with government grants under circumstances where
the government maintained certain rights with respect to the proprietary
information developed. No assurances can be given that such third
parties will adequately enforce any rights they may have or that the rights, if
any, retained by the government will not adversely affect the value of our
license.
There
is no guarantee that our trade secrets will not be disclosed or known by our
competitors.
To
protect our rights, we require certain employees and consultants to enter into
confidentiality agreements with us. There can be no assurance that
these agreements will not be breached, that we would have adequate and
enforceable remedies for any breach, or that any trade secrets of ours will not
otherwise become known or be independently developed by
competitors.
We
have limited marketing and sales capability. If we are unable to
obtain additional distributors and our current and future distributors do not
market our products successfully, we may not generate significant revenues or
become profitable.
We have
limited marketing and sales capability. We are dependent upon
existing and, possibly future, marketing agreements and third party distribution
agreements for our products in order to generate significant revenues and become
profitable. As a result, any revenues received by us will be
dependent in large part on the efforts of third parties, and there is no
assurance that these efforts will be successful.
Our
commercialization strategy for Ampligen®-CFS may include licensing/co-marketing
agreements utilizing the resources and capacities of a strategic
partner(s). We are currently seeking worldwide marketing partner(s),
with the goal of having a relationship in place before approval is
obtained. In parallel to partnering discussions, appropriate
pre-marketing activities will be undertaken. We intend to control
manufacturing of Ampligen on a world-wide basis.
We cannot
assure that our U.S. or foreign marketing strategy will be successful or that we
will be able to establish future marketing or third party distribution
agreements on terms acceptable to us, or that the cost of establishing these
arrangements will not exceed any product revenues. Our inability to
establish viable marketing and sales capabilities would most likely have a
materially adverse effect on us.
There
are no long-term agreements with suppliers of required materials. If we are
unable to obtain the required raw materials, we may be required to scale back
our operations or stop manufacturing Alferon N Injection® and/or
Ampligen®.
A number
of essential materials are used in the production of Alferon N Injection®,
including human white blood cells. We do not have long-term
agreements for the supply of any of such materials. There can be no
assurance we can enter into long-term supply agreements covering essential
materials on commercially reasonable terms, if at all.
There are
a limited number of manufacturers in the United States available to provide the
polymers for use in manufacturing Ampligen®. At present, we do not
have any agreements with third parties for the supply of any of these
polymers. We have established relevant manufacturing operations
within our New Brunswick, New Jersey facility for the production of Ampligen®
polymers from raw materials in order to obtain polymers on a more consistent
manufacturing basis.
If we are
unable to obtain or manufacture the required polymers, we may be required to
scale back our operations or stop manufacturing. The costs and availability of
products and materials we need for the production of Ampligen® and the
commercial production of Alferon N Injection® and other products which we may
commercially produce are subject to fluctuation depending on a variety of
factors beyond our control, including competitive factors, changes in
technology, and FDA and other governmental regulations and there can be no
assurance that we will be able to obtain such products and materials on terms
acceptable to us or at all.
There
is no assurance that successful manufacture of a drug on a limited scale basis
for investigational use will lead to a successful transition to commercial,
large-scale production.
Small
changes in methods of manufacturing, including commercial scale-up, may affect
the chemical structure of Ampligen® and other RNA drugs, as well as their safety
and efficacy, and can, among other things, require new clinical studies and
affect orphan drug status, particularly, market exclusivity rights, if any,
under the Orphan Drug Act. The transition from limited production of
pre-clinical and clinical research quantities to production of commercial
quantities of our products will involve distinct management and technical
challenges and will require additional management and technical personnel and
capital to the extent such manufacturing is not handled by third
parties. There can be no assurance that our manufacturing will be
successful or that any given product will be determined to be safe and
effective, capable of being manufactured economically in commercial quantities
or successfully marketed.
We
have limited manufacturing experience.
Ampligen®
has been produced to date only in limited quantities for use in our clinical
trials and we are dependent upon a third party supplier for the manufacturing
and bottling process. The failure to continue these arrangements or
to achieve other such arrangements on satisfactory terms could have a material
adverse affect on us. Also to be successful, our products must be
manufactured in commercial quantities in compliance with regulatory requirements
and at acceptable costs. To the extent we are involved in the
production process, our current facilities are not adequate for the production
of our proposed products for large-scale commercialization, and we currently do
not have adequate personnel to conduct large-scale manufacturing. We
intend to utilize third-party facilities if and when the need arises or, if we
are unable to do so, to build or acquire commercial-scale manufacturing
facilities. We will need to comply with regulatory requirements for
such facilities, including those of the FDA pertaining to current Good
Manufacturing Practices (“cGMP”) regulations. There can be no
assurance that such facilities can be used, built, or acquired on commercially
acceptable terms, or that such facilities, if used, built, or acquired, will be
adequate for our long-term needs.
We
may not be profitable unless we can produce Ampligen® or other products in
commercial quantities at costs acceptable to us.
We have
never produced Ampligen® or any other products in large commercial
quantities. We must manufacture our products in compliance with
regulatory requirements in large commercial quantities and at acceptable costs
in order for us to be profitable. We intend to utilize third-party
manufacturers and/or facilities if and when the need arises or, if we are unable
to do so, to build or acquire commercial-scale manufacturing
facilities. If we cannot manufacture commercial quantities of
Ampligen® or enter into third party agreements for its manufacture at costs
acceptable to us, our operations will be significantly
affected. Also, each production lot of Alferon N Injection® is
subject to FDA review and approval prior to releasing the lots to be
sold. This review and approval process could take considerable time,
which would delay our having product in inventory to sell.
Rapid
technological change may render our products obsolete or
non-competitive.
The
pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are subject to rapid and substantial
technological change. Technological competition from pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies, universities, governmental entities and others
diversifying into the field is intense and is expected to
increase. Most of these entities have significantly greater research
and development capabilities than us, as well as substantial marketing,
financial and managerial resources, and represent significant competition for
us. There can be no assurance that developments by others will not
render our products or technologies obsolete or noncompetitive or that we will
be able to keep pace with technological developments.
Our
products may be subject to substantial competition.
Ampligen®. Competitors
may be developing technologies that are, or in the future may be, the basis for
competitive products. Some of these potential products may have an
entirely different approach or means of accomplishing similar therapeutic
effects to products being developed by us. These competing products
may be more effective and less costly than our products. In addition,
conventional drug therapy, surgery and other more familiar treatments may offer
competition to our products. Furthermore, many of our competitors
have significantly greater experience than us in pre-clinical testing and human
clinical trials of pharmaceutical products and in obtaining FDA, HPB and other
regulatory approvals of products. Accordingly, our competitors may
succeed in obtaining FDA, HPB or other regulatory product approvals more rapidly
than us. There are no drugs approved for commercial sale with respect
to treating ME/CFS in the United States. The dominant competitors
with drugs to treat disease indications in which we plan to address include
Gilead Pharmaceutical, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers, Abbott Labs, GlaxoSmithKline,
Merck and Schering-Plough Corp. These potential competitors are among
the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, are well known to the public
and the medical community, and have substantially greater financial resources,
product development, and manufacturing and marketing capabilities than we
have. Although we believe our principal advantage is the unique
mechanism of action of Ampligen® on the immune system, we cannot assure that we
will be able to compete.
ALFERON N
Injection®. Our competitors are among the largest pharmaceutical
companies in the world, are well known to the public and the medical community,
and have substantially greater financial resources, product development, and
manufacturing and marketing capabilities than we have. Alferon N
Injection® currently competes with Schering’s injectable recombinant alpha
interferon product (INTRON® A) for the treatment of genital warts. 3M
Pharmaceuticals also offer competition from its immune-response modifier,
Aldara®, a self-administered topical cream, for the treatment of external
genital and perianal warts. In addition, Medigene has FDA approval
for a self-administered ointment, VeregenTM, which
is indicated for the topical treatment of external genital and perianal
warts. Alferon N Injection® also competes with surgical, chemical,
and other methods of treating genital warts. We cannot assess the
impact products developed by our competitors, or advances in other methods of
the treatment of genital warts, will have on the commercial viability of Alferon
N Injection®. If and when we obtain additional approvals of uses of
this product, we expect to compete primarily on the basis of product
performance. Our competitors have developed or may develop products
(containing either alpha or beta interferon or other therapeutic compounds) or
other treatment modalities for those uses. There can be no assurance
that, if we are able to obtain regulatory approval of Alferon N Injection® for
the treatment of new indications, we will be able to achieve any significant
penetration into those markets. In addition, because certain
competitive products are not dependent on a source of human blood cells, such
products may be able to be produced in greater volume and at a lower cost than
Alferon N Injection®. Currently, our wholesale price on a per unit
basis of Alferon N Injection® is higher than that of the competitive recombinant
alpha and beta interferon products.
General. Other
companies may succeed in developing products earlier than we do, obtaining
approvals for such products from the FDA more rapidly than we do, or developing
products that are more effective than those we may develop. While we
will attempt to expand our technological capabilities in order to remain
competitive, there can be no assurance that research and development by others
or other medical advances will not render our technology or products obsolete or
non-competitive or result in treatments or cures superior to any therapy we
develop.
Possible
side effects from the use of Ampligen® or Alferon N Injection® could adversely
affect potential revenues and physician/patient acceptability of our
product.
Ampligen®. We
believe that Ampligen® has been generally well tolerated with a low incidence of
clinical toxicity, particularly given the severely debilitating or life
threatening diseases that have been treated. A mild flushing reaction
has been observed in approximately 15-20% of patients treated in our various
studies. This reaction is occasionally accompanied by a rapid heart
beat, a tightness of the chest, urticaria (swelling of the skin), anxiety,
shortness of breath, subjective reports of ''feeling hot'', sweating and
nausea. The reaction is usually infusion-rate related and can
generally be controlled by reducing the rate of infusion. Other
adverse side effects include liver enzyme level elevations, diarrhea, itching,
asthma, low blood pressure, photophobia, rash, transient visual disturbances,
slow or irregular heart rate, decreases in platelets and white blood cell
counts, anemia, dizziness, confusion, elevation of kidney function tests,
occasional temporary hair loss and various flu-like symptoms, including fever,
chills, fatigue, muscular aches, joint pains, headaches, nausea and
vomiting. These flu-like side effects typically subside within
several months. One or more of the potential side effects might deter
usage of Ampligen® in certain clinical situations and therefore, could adversely
affect potential revenues and physician/patient acceptability of our
product.
Alferon N
Injection®. At present, Alferon N Injection® is only approved for the
intra-lesional (within the lesion) treatment of refractory or recurring external
genital warts in adults. In clinical trials conducted for the
treatment of genital warts with Alferon N Injection®, patients did not
experience serious side effects; however, there can be no assurance that
unexpected or unacceptable side effects will not be found in the future for this
use or other potential uses of Alferon N Injection® which could threaten or
limit such product’s usefulness.
We
may be subject to product liability claims from the use of Ampligen®, Alferon N
Injection®, or other of our products which could negatively affect our future
operations. We have discontinued product liability
insurance.
We face
an inherent business risk of exposure to product liability claims in the event
that the use of Ampligen® or other of our products results in adverse
effects. This liability might result from claims made directly by
patients, hospitals, clinics or other consumers, or by pharmaceutical companies
or others manufacturing these products on our behalf. Our future
operations may be negatively affected from the litigation costs, settlement
expenses and lost product sales inherent to these claims. While we
will continue to attempt to take appropriate precautions, we cannot assure that
we will avoid significant product liability exposure.
On
November 28, 2008, we suspended product liability insurance for Alferon N
Injection® and Ampligen® until we receive regulatory clearance for
Ampligen®. We now require third parties to indemnify us in
conjunction with all overseas emergency sales of Ampligen® and Alferon®
LDO. We concluded that years of successfully addressing the limited
number of product liability claims filed against Ampligen® and Alferon® LDO,
combined with the mandatory patient waivers completed as an element of clinical
trials and lack of any commercial sales since April 2008, that temporarily
discontinuing the liability insurance was an acceptable risk until we receive
regulatory clearance for Ampligen® or Alferon N Injection® and Alferon® LDO
become available.
Currently,
without product liability coverage for Ampligen®, Alferon N Injection® and
Alferon® LDO, a claim against the products could have a materially adverse
effect on our business and financial condition.
The
loss of services of key personnel including Dr. William A. Carter could hurt our
chances for success.
Our
success is dependent on the continued efforts of our staff, especially certain
doctors and researchers along with the continued efforts of Dr. William A.
Carter because of his position as a pioneer in the field of nucleic acid drugs,
his being the co-inventor of Ampligen®, and his knowledge of our overall
activities, including patents and clinical trials. The loss of the
services of personnel key to our operations or Dr. Carter could have a material
adverse effect on our operations and chances for success. As a cash
conservation measure, we have elected to discontinue the Key Man life insurance
in the amount of $2,000,000 on the life of Dr. Carter until we receive
regulatory clearance for Ampligen®. An employment agreement continues
to exist with Dr. Carter that, as amended, runs until December 31,
2010. However, Dr. Carter has the right to terminate his employment
upon not less than 30 days prior written notice. The loss of Dr.
Carter or other personnel or the failure to recruit additional personnel as
needed could have a materially adverse effect on our ability to achieve our
objectives.
Uncertainty
of health care reimbursement for our products.
Our
ability to successfully commercialize our products will depend, in part, on the
extent to which reimbursement for the cost of such products and related
treatment will be available from government health administration authorities,
private health coverage insurers and other organizations. Significant
uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved health care
products, and from time to time legislation is proposed, which, if adopted,
could further restrict the prices charged by and/or amounts reimbursable to
manufacturers of pharmaceutical products. We cannot predict what, if
any, legislation will ultimately be adopted or the impact of such legislation on
us. There can be no assurance that third party insurance companies
will allow us to charge and receive payments for products sufficient to realize
an appropriate return on our investment in product development.
There
are risks of liabilities associated with handling and disposing of hazardous
materials.
Our
business involves the controlled use of hazardous materials, carcinogenic
chemicals, flammable solvents and various radioactive
compounds. Although we believe that our safety procedures for
handling and disposing of such materials comply in all material respects with
the standards prescribed by applicable regulations, the risk of accidental
contamination or injury from these materials cannot be completely
eliminated. In the event of such an accident or the failure to comply
with applicable regulations, we could be held liable for any damages that
result, and any such liability could be significant. We do not
maintain insurance coverage against such liabilities.
Risks
Associated With an Investment in Our Common Stock
The
market price of our stock may be adversely affected by market
volatility.
The
market price of our common stock has been and is likely to be
volatile. This is especially true given the current significant
instability in the financial markets. In addition to general
economic, political and market conditions, the price and trading volume of our
stock could fluctuate widely in response to many factors,
including:
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announcements
of the results of clinical trials by us or our
competitors;
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adverse
reactions to products;
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governmental
approvals, delays in expected governmental approvals or withdrawals
of any prior governmental approvals or public or regulatory
agency concerns regarding the safety or effectiveness of our
products;
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changes
in U.S. or foreign regulatory policy during the period of product
development;
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developments
in patent or other proprietary rights, including any third party
challenges of our intellectual property
rights;
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announcements
of technological innovations by us or our
competitors;
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announcements
of new products or new contracts by us or our
competitors;
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actual
or anticipated variations in our operating results due to the level of
development expenses and other
factors;
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changes
in financial estimates by securities analysts and whether our earnings
meet or exceed the
estimates;
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conditions
and trends in the pharmaceutical and other
industries;
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new
accounting standards;
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overall
investment market fluctuation; and
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occurrence
of any of the risks described in these "Risk
Factors".
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Our
common stock is listed for quotation on the NYSE Amex. For the
12-month period ended June 30, 2009, the closing price of our common stock has
ranged from $0.25 to $4.54 per share. We expect the price of our
common stock to remain volatile. The average daily trading volume of
our common stock varies significantly.
In the
past, following periods of volatility in the market price of the securities of
companies in our industry, securities class action litigation has often been
instituted against companies in our industry. If we face securities
litigation in the future, even if without merit or unsuccessful, it would result
in substantial costs and a diversion of management attention and resources,
which would negatively impact our business.
Our
stock price may be adversely affected if a significant amount of shares are sold
in the public market.
In
connection with entering into the Purchase Agreement with Fusion in August 2008,
we registered 21,300,000 shares in the aggregate, consisting of 20,000,000
shares which we may sell to Fusion and 1,300,000 shares we have issued or may
issue to Fusion as a commitment fee. As of June 30, 2009, we have
sold an aggregate of 9,396,220 shares to Fusion under the Purchase Agreement for
gross proceeds of approximately $6,660,000, leaving 11,903,780
shares. The number of shares ultimately offered for sale by Fusion
Capital is dependent upon the number of shares purchased by Fusion Capital under
the agreement. The purchase price for the common stock to be sold to
Fusion Capital pursuant to the Purchase Agreement will fluctuate based on the
price of our common stock. Under the rules of the NYSE Amex, we may
not issue more than 14,823,651 shares (19.99% of our outstanding shares as of
July 2, 2008, the date of the purchase agreement) without first obtaining the
approval of stockholders. In November 2008, we received stockholder
approval to issue the additional 6,476,349 shares. It is anticipated
that shares registered could be sold over a period of up to 13 months after the
date hereof. Depending upon market conditions at the time, a sale of
shares by Fusion at any given time could cause the trading price of our common
stock to decline. Fusion Capital may ultimately purchase all, some or
none of the remaining 11,903,780 shares available but not yet
issued. After it has acquired such shares, it may sell all, some or
none of such shares. Therefore, sales to Fusion Capital by us under
the Purchase Agreement may result in substantial dilution to the interests of
other holders of our common stock. The sale of a substantial number
of shares of our common stock by Fusion Capital, or anticipation of such sales,
could make it more difficult for us to sell equity or equity-related securities
in the future at a time and at a price that we might otherwise wish to effect
sales. However, we have the right to control the timing and amount of
any sales of our shares to Fusion Capital and the agreement may be terminated by
us at any time at our discretion without any cost to us.
In May
2009 we issued an aggregate of 25,543,339 shares and warrants to purchase an
additional 14,708,687 shares under a prior universal shelf registration
statement. We anticipate selling 9,813,687 shares pursuant to the
conversion of remaining warrants.
In
addition to the foregoing, we also previously registered 135% of 518,768 shares
issuable upon exercise of warrants related to our former convertible debentures
and 1,038,527 shares issuable upon exercise of certain other
warrants. To the extent the exercise price of our outstanding
warrants is less than the market price of the common stock, the holders of the
warrants are likely to exercise them and sell the underlying shares of common
stock and to the extent that the exercise price of certain of these warrants are
adjusted pursuant to anti-dilution protection, the warrants could be exercisable
or convertible for even more shares of common stock. We also may
issue shares to be used to meet our capital requirements or use shares to
compensate employees, consultants and/or directors. In this regard we
have registered $150,000,000 of securities for public sale pursuant to a
universal shelf registration, none of which has been designated or
issued. We are unable to estimate the amount, timing or nature of
future sales of outstanding common stock or instruments convertible into or
exercisable for our common stock.
Sales of
substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, including our sale
of securities pursuant to the Purchase Agreement with Fusion Capital or the
universal shelf registration statement, could cause the market price for our
common stock to decrease. Furthermore, a decline in the price of our
common stock would likely impede our ability to raise capital through the
issuance of additional shares of common stock or other equity
securities.
Provisions
of our Certificate of Incorporation and Delaware law could defer a change of our
management which could discourage or delay offers to acquire
us.
Provisions
of our Certificate of Incorporation and Delaware law may make it more difficult
for someone to acquire control of us or for our stockholders to remove existing
management, and might discourage a third party from offering to acquire us, even
if a change in control or in management would be beneficial to our
stockholders. For example, our Certificate of Incorporation allows us
to issue shares of preferred stock without any vote or further action by our
stockholders. Our Board of Directors has the authority to fix and
determine the relative rights and preferences of preferred stock. Our
Board of Directors also has the authority to issue preferred stock without
further stockholder approval. As a result, our Board of Directors
could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that would grant to
holders the preferred right to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive
dividend payments before dividends are distributed to the holders of common
stock and the right to the redemption of the shares, together with a premium,
prior to the redemption of our common stock. In this regard, in
November 2002, we adopted a stockholder rights plan and, under the Plan, our
Board of Directors declared a dividend distribution of one Right for each
outstanding share of Common Stock to stockholders of record at the close of
business on November 29, 2002. Each Right initially entitles holders
to buy one unit of preferred stock for $30.00. The Rights generally
are not transferable apart from the common stock and will not be exercisable
unless and until a person or group acquires or commences a tender or exchange
offer to acquire, beneficial ownership of 15% or more of our common
stock. However, for Dr. Carter, our Chief Executive Officer, who
already beneficially owns 5.62% of our common stock, the Plan’s threshold will
be 20%, instead of 15%. The Rights will expire on November 19, 2012,
and may be redeemed prior thereto at $.01 per Right under certain
circumstances.
Because
the risk factors referred to above could cause actual results or outcomes to
differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by
us, you should not place undue reliance on any such forward-looking
statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of
the date on which it is made and we undertake no obligation to update any
forward-looking statement or statements to reflect events or circumstances after
the date on which such statement is made or reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is
not possible for us to predict which will arise. In addition, we
cannot assess the impact of each factor on our business or the extent to which
any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any forward-looking
statements. Our research in clinical efforts may continue for the
next several years and we may continue to incur losses due to clinical costs
incurred in the development of Ampligen® for commercial
application. Possible losses may fluctuate from quarter to quarter as
a result of differences in the timing of significant expenses incurred and
receipt of licensing fees and/or cost recovery treatment revenue.
ITEM 2: Unregistered
Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds
During the quarter ended June 30, 2009,
we issued an aggregate of 1,779,534 shares for services performed.
All of
the foregoing transactions were conducted pursuant to the exemption from
registration provided by Section 4(2) of the Securities Act of
1933.
We did
not repurchase any of our securities during the quarter ended June 30,
2009.
See also,
Item 5 below
ITEM
3: Defaults upon Senior Securities
None.
ITEM
4: Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security
Holders
Our Annual Meeting of
Stockholders was held on June 24, 2009. As with last year's meeting,
there was an extremely low turnout. Even with the quorum lowered to 40% for the
meeting, only approximately 40.34% of our outstanding shares voted. At the
meeting, stockholders approved the following:
Election
of Directors:
Nominees
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For
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Withheld
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William
A. Carter
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30,618,449 |
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3,720,471 |
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Richard
C. Piani
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32,415,702 |
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1,923,218 |
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William
M. Mitchell
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33,076,787 |
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1,262,133 |
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Iraj-Eqhbal
Kiani, Ph.D.
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32,532,815 |
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1,806,105 |
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Thomas
K. Equels
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32,489,167 |
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1,849,753 |
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