Hemogenyx reverses into Silver Falcon, issues shares to Cornell Uni

Preclinical-stage biotechnology company Hemogenyx began trading on on Thursday after reversing into fully listed cash shell Silver Falcon.

Brooklyn-based Hemogenyx, which is primarily focused on developing new treatments for blood diseases such as leukaemia, lymphoma and blood marrow failure, joined with an initial market cap of £12.46m after Silver Falcon issued 228.5m shares to acquire the business for £8m and then £2m was raised through the issue of 57m new ordinary shares in a placing and subscription offer at 3.5p per share that was approved by shareholders a day earlier.

The company plans use the proceeds, which take it's cash balance up to around £3.1m, to complete its IND-enabling preclinical development and to finance further preclinical development of its Hu-PHEC cell therapy product.

Hemogenyx's therapies are aimed to do away with the need for chemotherapy or radiation before bone marrow transplants, which would eradicate the need to find a matching donor.

The company also announced that Cornell University will receive payment of the $372,350 sum due to it on the change of control of Hemogenyx half in new shares and half in cash, rather than all in cash as originally expected.

The sum related to the patents covering the method of isolation of post-natal hemogenic endothelial cells, invented by Vladislav Sandler, chief executive and co-founder, while Cornell's shares will give it a 1.13% stake in the company.

Dr Sandler, who is also a research assistant professor at the State University of New York, said he was excited by the prospect of taking the therapies forward into human trials and beyond thanks to the fund-raising.

"We believe the products we are developing should greatly reduce the dangers of patient conditioning procedures and create a new form of blood stem cell transplantation which, if successful, would greatly enhance the long-term success of stem cell replacement therapy. We look forward to keeping shareholders fully abreast of developments as they occur."

As 0920 BST, Silver Falcon shares had dropped back 2.67% to 3.65p.