s22-8977_s3.htm
As
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 27,
2009
Registration
No. 333-
UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
FORM
S-3
REGISTRATION
STATEMENT
UNDER
THE
SECURITIES ACT OF 1933
ADEONA
PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
(Exact
name of registrant as specified in its charter)
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Delaware
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13-3808303
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(State
or other jurisdiction of
incorporation
or organization)
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(I.R.S.
Employer
Identification
No.)
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3930
Varsity Drive
Ann
Arbor, Michigan 48108
(734)
332-7800
(Address,
including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of principal
executive offices)
Nicholas
Stergis
Chief
Executive Officer
Adeona
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
3930
Varsity Drive
Ann
Arbor, Michigan 48108
(734)
332-7800
(Name,
address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent
for service)
With
a copy to:
Richard
Walawender
Miller
Canfield Paddock & Stone PLC
150 West
Jefferson
Suite
2500
Detroit,
Michigan
Telephone:
(313) 963-6420
Approximate
date of commencement of proposed sale to the public:
As
soon as practicable and from time to time after this Registration Statement is
declared effective.
If the
only securities being registered on this Form are being offered pursuant to
dividend or interest reinvestment plans, check the following
box. ¨
If any of
the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or
continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, other
than securities offered only in connection with dividend or interest
reinvestment plans, check the following box. x
If this
Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule
462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities
Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration
statement for the same offering. ¨
If this
Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the
Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration
statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same
offering. ¨
If this
Form is a registration statement pursuant to General Instruction I.D. or a
post-effective amendment thereto that shall become effective upon filing with
the Commission pursuant to Rule 462(e) under the Securities Act, check the
following box. ¨
If this
Form is a post-effective amendment to a registration statement filed pursuant to
General Instruction I.D. filed to register additional securities or additional
classes of securities pursuant to Rule 413(b) under the Securities Act, check
the following box. ¨
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,” “non-accelerated
filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange
Act.
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Large accelerated filer
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Accelerated
filer ¨
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Non-accelerated
filer ¨
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Smaller reporting company
x
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(Do
not check box if a
Smaller
reporting company)
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Title
of Each Class of Securities to be Registered
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Amount
to be
Registered
(1)
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Proposed Maximum
Offering Price per
Share
(3)
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Proposed Maximum
Aggregate Offering
Price
(3)
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Amount
of
Registration Fee (4)
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Common
Stock, $.001 par value per share
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9,965,671
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(2)
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$
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0.23
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$
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2,292,105
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$
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90.08
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(1)
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This
registration statement also relates to an indeterminate number of shares
that may be issued upon stock splits, stock dividends or similar
transactions in accordance with Rule 416 under the Securities
Act.
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(2)
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Includes
(i) 8,816,918 shares of common stock currently outstanding and
(ii) 1,148,753 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of
warrants.
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(3)
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Estimated
solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee in accordance
with Rule 457(c), using the average of the high and low prices of the
Registrant’s common stock as reported on the American Stock Exchange on
January 21, 2009.
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The
Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as
may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a
further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement
shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the
Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until this Registration Statement shall
become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting
pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.
The
information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. The selling
stockholders named in this prospectus may not sell these securities until the
registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is
effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and the
selling stockholders named in this prospectus are not soliciting offers to buy
these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer and sale is not
permitted.
Subject
to completion, dated January 27, 2009
PROSPECTUS
9,965,671
Shares of Common Stock
This
prospectus relates to the offer and sale from time to time by the selling
stockholders identified in this prospectus, and their pledgees, assignees and
successors-in-interest, of an aggregate of 8,816,918 shares of our common stock
that are currently outstanding and 1,148,753 shares of common stock that are
issuable upon the exercise of warrants. We are filing the registration statement
of which this prospectus is a part in order to fulfill contractual requirements
that we have with certain of the selling stockholders.
All of
the shares and warrants described above were previously issued in private
placement transactions completed prior to the filing of this registration
statement.
The
prices at which these selling stockholders may sell the shares in this offering
will be determined by the prevailing market price for the shares or in
negotiated transactions. We will not receive any of the proceeds from the sale
of the shares.
Our
common stock is traded on the American Stock Exchange under the symbol “AEN.” On
January 20, 2009, the last reported sale price of our common stock was $0.25 per
share. We urge you to obtain current market quotations for our common
stock.
Investing
in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” beginning
on page 2.
Neither
the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any state securities commission has
approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or
accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal
offense.
The
date of this prospectus is January __, 2009.
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Prospectus
Summary
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1
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Risk
Factors
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2
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Forward-looking
Statements
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13
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Use of
Proceeds
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14
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Selling
Stockholders
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14
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Plan of
Distribution
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16
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Legal
Matters
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17
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Experts
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18
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Where You Can Find More
Information
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18
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Incorporation of Certain
Documents by Reference
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18
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Important
Notice about the Information Presented in this Prospectus
You
should rely only on the information contained or incorporated by reference in
this prospectus or any applicable prospectus supplement. We have not authorized
any other person to provide you with different information. If anyone provides
you with different or inconsistent information, you should not rely on it. For
further information, see the section of this prospectus entitled “Where You Can
Find More Information.” We are not making an offer to sell these securities in
any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.
You
should not assume that the information appearing in this prospectus or any
applicable prospectus supplement is accurate as of any date other than the date
on the front cover of this prospectus or the applicable prospectus supplement,
or that the information contained in any document incorporated by reference is
accurate as of any date other than the date of the document incorporated by
reference, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any
prospectus supplement or any sale of a security. Our business, financial
condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since those
dates.
PROSPECTUS
SUMMARY
This
summary highlights important features of this offering and the information
included or incorporated by reference in this prospectus. This summary does not
contain all of the information that you should consider before investing in our
common stock. You should read this prospectus and the information and documents
incorporated by reference carefully. These documents contain important
information you should consider when making your investment decision. See
“Incorporation of Certain Documents by Reference” on page
12.
Unless
the context otherwise requires, all references to “we,” “our,” “our company, or
“the Company” in this prospectus refer to Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a
Delaware corporation, and its subsidiaries, considered as a single
enterprise.
About
Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
We are a
development-stage, specialty pharmaceutical company that is focused on advancing
its proprietary, late-stage drug candidates for the treatment of central nervous
system and autoimmune diseases. Our strategy is to exclusively
in-license clinical-stage drug candidates that have demonstrated preliminary
efficacy in human clinical trials for unmet medical diseases. We are
focused on drug candidates that address the following pharmaceutical market
opportunities: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Dry Age
Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), and Fibromyalgia. All of our products are in
the development
stage.
Our
executive offices are located at 3930 Varsity Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108.
Our telephone number is (734) 332-7800, fax number is (734) 332-7878.
Our website address is www.adeonapharma.com. The information on our website is
not incorporated by reference into this prospectus.
The
Offering
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Common
stock offered by selling stockholders:
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9,965,671
shares
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Use
of proceeds:
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We
will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares in this
offering.
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NYSE
Alternext Symbol:
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AEN
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RISK
FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE RESULTS
An
investment in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should
carefully consider the risks described below and the other information before
deciding to invest in our common stock. The risks described below are not the
only ones facing our company. Additional risks not presently known to us or that
we currently consider immaterial may also adversely affect our business. We have
attempted to identify below the major factors that could cause differences
between actual and planned or expected results, but we cannot assure you that we
have identified all of those factors.
If
any of the following risks actually happen, our business, financial condition
and operating results could be materially adversely affected. In this case, the
trading price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part
of your investment.
RISKS RELATING TO OUR BUSINESS
We are a
development stage company. We currently have no product revenues and will
need to raise additional capital to operate our
business.
We are a
development stage company that has experienced significant losses since
inception and has a significant accumulated deficit. We expect to incur
additional operating losses in the future and expect our cumulative losses to
increase. To date, we have generated no product revenues. As of September 30,
2008, we have expended approximately $22.4 million on a consolidated basis
acquiring and developing our current product candidates. Until such time as we
receive approval from the FDA and other regulatory authorities for our product
candidates, we will not be permitted to sell our drugs and will not have product
revenues. Therefore, for the foreseeable future we will have to fund all of our
operations and capital expenditures from equity and debt offerings, cash on
hand, licensing fees, and grants. We will need to seek additional sources of
financing and such additional financing may not be available on favorable terms,
if at all. If we do not succeed in raising additional funds on acceptable terms,
we may be unable to complete planned pre-clinical and clinical trials or obtain
approval of our product candidates from the FDA and other regulatory
authorities. In addition, we could be forced to discontinue product development,
reduce or forego sales and marketing efforts, and forego attractive business
opportunities. Any additional sources of financing will likely involve the
issuance of our equity or debt securities, which will have a dilutive
effect on our stockholders.
We
are not currently profitable and may never become profitable.
We have a
history of losses and expect to incur substantial losses and negative operating
cash flow for the foreseeable future. Even if we succeed in developing and
commercializing one or more of our product candidates, we expect to incur
substantial losses for the foreseeable future and may never become profitable.
We also expect to continue to incur significant operating and capital
expenditures and anticipate that our expenses will increase substantially in the
foreseeable future as we do the following:
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continue
to undertake pre-clinical development and clinical trials for our product
candidates;
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seek
regulatory approvals for our product candidates;
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implement
additional internal systems and infrastructure;
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lease
additional or alternative office facilities; and
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hire
additional personnel, including members of our management
team.
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We also
expect to experience negative cash flow for the foreseeable future as we fund
our technology development with capital expenditures. As a result, we will need
to generate significant revenues in order to achieve and maintain profitability.
We may not be able to generate these revenues or achieve profitability in the
future. Our failure to achieve or maintain profitability could negatively impact
the value of our common stock and underlying securities.
We
have a limited operating history on which investors can base an investment
decision.
We are a
development-stage company and have not demonstrated our ability to perform the
functions necessary for the successful commercialization of any of our product
candidates. The successful commercialization of our product candidates will
require us to perform a variety of functions, including:
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continuing
to undertake pre-clinical development and clinical
trials;
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participating
in regulatory approval processes;
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formulating
and manufacturing products; and
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conducting
sales and marketing activities.
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Our
operations have been limited to organizing and staffing our company, acquiring,
developing, and securing our proprietary technology, and undertaking
pre-clinical trials and Phase I/II, and Phase II and Phase III clinical trials
of our principal product candidates. These operations provide a limited basis
for you to assess our ability to commercialize our product candidates and the
advisability of investing in our securities.
We
may not obtain the necessary U.S. or worldwide regulatory approvals to
commercialize any other of our product(s).
On
November 28, 2007, we filed a New Drug Application (NDA) with the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) seeking approval to market oral TTM (oral
tetrathiomolybdate) for initially presenting neurologic Wilson's disease. On
January 28, 2008 representing sixty (60) days from the date of NDA filing we
received notification from the FDA that our NDA has not been accepted for
further review and the FDA issued a refusal to file letter ("RTF"). In the RTF
letter the FDA cited various deficiencies in the NDA filing, including, the the
adequacy and quality of the clinical evidence to support the safety and efficacy
of oral TTM for this indication, as well as chemistry, manufacturing and
controls issues regarding the identity, strength and purity of oral TTM. Given
the receipt of the RTF letter, our potential commercialization plan for oral TTM
has been and is, expected to be significantly delayed.
On
February 26, 2008, we completed a Type A meeting with the FDA to discuss the
deficiencies raised in the RTF letter. Based on this meeting with the FDA, we
believe we reached an understanding with the FDA on a course of action to
resolve all of the filing issues raised in the RTF letter. Given the issues
raised by the FDA in its RTF letter of January 28, 2008 as well as the FDA's
written clinical hold letter sent to the IND holder forwarded to us on
March 26, 2008, at the present time it appears that the FDA will not deem the
three existing clinical trials of oral TTM to be sufficient for a NDA of oral
TTM for initially presenting neurologic Wilson's disease, Given the
limited number of patients afflicted by this disease, an additional clinical
trial of oral TTM for this indication will necessarily take a substantial amount
of time and resources to plan, enroll and complete. Should we elect to abandon
our efforts to seek U.S. and/or European approval of oral TTM for neurologically
presenting Wilson's disease, we will most likely not have sufficient resources
to pursue all of the additional indications for oral TTM that are the subject of
our research and development, including, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,
Alzheimer's disease, primary biliary cirrhosis and Huntington's disease. We are
seeking potential business development corporate partners and potential
licensees that may assist in supporting the further development of oral TTM for
Wilson's disease and other indications. If we are are unable to identify
interested corporate partners or licensees for oral TTM, we may elect to abandon
our efforts to develop oral TTM for any or all indications, including, initially
presenting neurologic Wilson's disease.
We will
need FDA approval to commercialize our product candidates in the U.S. and
approvals from equivalent regulatory authorities in foreign jurisdictions to
commercialize our product candidates in those jurisdictions. In order to obtain
FDA approval for any of our product candidates, we must submit to the
FDA an NDA, demonstrating that the product candidate is safe for humans and
effective for its intended use and that the product candidate can be
consistently manufactured and is stable. This demonstration requires significant
research and animal tests, which are referred to as “pre-clinical studies,”
human tests, which are referred to as “clinical trials” as well as the ability
to manufacture the product candidate, referred to as “chemistry
manufacturing control” or “CMC.” We will also need to file additional
investigative new drug applications and protocols in order to initiate clinical
testing of our drug candidates in new therapeutic indications and delays in
obtaining required FDA and institutional review board approvals
to commence such studies may delay our initiation of such planned
additional studies.
Satisfying
the FDA’s regulatory requirements typically takes many years, depending on the
type, complexity, and novelty of the product candidate, and requires substantial
resources for research development, and testing. We cannot predict whether our
research and clinical approaches will result in drugs that the FDA considers
safe for humans and effective for indicated uses. The FDA has substantial
discretion in the drug approval process and may require us to conduct additional
pre-clinical and clinical testing or to perform post-marketing
studies.
The
approval process may also be delayed by changes in government regulation, future
legislation or administrative action, or changes in FDA policy that occur prior
to or during our regulatory review. Delays in obtaining regulatory approvals may
do the following:
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delay
commercialization of, and our ability to derive product revenues from, our
product candidates;
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impose
costly procedures on us; and
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diminish
any competitive advantages that we may otherwise
enjoy.
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Even if
we comply with all FDA requests, the FDA may ultimately reject one or more of
our NDAs. We cannot be sure that we will ever obtain regulatory clearance for
our product candidates. Failure to obtain FDA approval of any of our product
candidates will severely undermine our business by reducing our number of
salable products and, therefore, corresponding product revenues.
In
foreign jurisdictions, we must receive approval from the appropriate regulatory
authorities before we can commercialize our drugs. Foreign regulatory approval
processes generally include all of the risks associated with the FDA approval
procedures described above. We cannot assure you that we will receive the
approvals necessary to commercialize our product candidate for sale outside the
United States.
We
may not be able to retain rights licensed to us by others to commercialize key
products and may not be able to establish or maintain the relationships we need
to develop, manufacture, and market our products.
In addition to our own patent applications, we also currently rely
on an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the University of Michigan
relating to various uses of oral TTM. We also have an exclusive license
agreement with the McLean Hospital relating to the use of EFFIRMA
to treat fibromyalgia syndrome; an exclusive license agreement with
Thomas Jefferson University relating to our CD4 inhibitor program; an
exclusive license agreement with the Regents of the University of
California relating to our TRIMESTA technology; an exclusive license to our oral
immunotherapeutic tolerance program, named dnaJP1 from UCSD and an exclusive
license agreement with Dr. Newsome and Mr. Tate relating to our Zinthionein
program. Each of these agreements requires us to use our best efforts to
commercialize each of the technologies as well as meet certain diligence
requirements and timelines in order to keep the license agreement in effect. In
the event we are not able to meet our diligence requirements, we may not be able
to retain the rights granted under our agreements or renegotiate our
arrangement with these institutions on reasonable terms, or at all.
Furthermore,
we currently have very limited product development capabilities, and limited
marketing or sales capabilities. For us to research, develop, and test our
product candidates, we would need to contract with outside researchers, in most
cases those parties that did the original research and from whom we have
licensed the technologies.
We can
give no assurances that any of our issued patents licensed to us or any of our
other patent applications will provide us with significant proprietary
protection or be of commercial benefit to us. Furthermore, the issuance of a
patent is not conclusive as to its validity or enforceability, nor does the
issuance of a patent provide the patent holder with freedom to operate without
infringing the patent rights of others.
Developments
by competitors may render our products or technologies obsolete or
non-competitive.
Companies
that currently sell or are developing both generic and proprietary
pharmaceutical compounds to treat central-nervous-system and autoimmune diseases
include: Pfizer, Inc., Rigil Pharmaceuticals, Incyte Pharmaceuticals, Chelsea
Therapeutics International, Inc., Aton Pharma, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals,
Alcon, Inc., Shire Pharmaceuticals, Plc., Schering-Plough, Organon NV, Merck
& Co., Eli Lilly & Co., Serono, SA, Biogen Idec, Inc.,
Achillion, Ltd., Active Biotech, Inc., Panteri Biosciences, Meda, Merrimack
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Merch-Schering AG, Forest Laboratories, Inc.,
Attenuon, LLC, Cypress Biosciences, Inc., Genentech, Neurotech, Amgen, Inc.,
Centocor/Johnson and Johnson, UCB Group, Abbott, Wyeth, OM Pharma, Cel-Sci
Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Axcan Pharma, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
Intermune, Inc. Fibrogen, Inc., Active Biotech, CNSBio, Pty., Rare
Disease Therapeutics, Inc., Prana Biotechnology, Inc., Merz & Co.,
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,
Alcon, Inc., Bausch and Lomb, Inc., Targacept, Inc., and Johnson & Johnson,
Inc. Alternative technologies or alternative delivery or dosages of already
approved therapies are being developed to treat dry AMD, autoimmune
inflammatory, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Fibromyalgia, MS, Huntington’s,
Alzheimer’s and Wilson’s diseases, several of which may be approved or are in
early and advanced clinical trials, such as zinc based combinations,
Syk inhibitors, Jak inhibitors, connective tissue growth factors (CTGF),
FTY-720, Laquinimod, pirfenidone, milnacipram, Lyrica, anti-depressant
combinations, Rituxan, Enbrel, Cimzia, Humira, Remicade, Cymbalta, Effexor,
Actimmune and other interferon preparations. Unlike us, many of our competitors
have significant financial and human resources. In addition, academic research
centers may develop technologies that compete with our TRIMESTA, Zinthionein,
dnaJP1, CD4 inhibitors, EFFIRMA, CORRECTA and oral TTM technologies. Should
clinicians or regulatory authorities view these therapeutic regiments as more
effective than our products, this might delay or prevent us from obtaining
regulatory approval for our products, or it might prevent us from obtaining
favorable reimbursement rates from payers, such as Medicare, Medicaid and
private insurers.
Competitors
could develop and gain FDA approval of our products for a different
indication.
Since we
do not have composition of matter patent claims for oral TTM, EFFIRMA, and
TRIMESTA, others may obtain approvals for other uses of these products which are
not covered by our issued or pending patents. For example, the active
ingredients in both EFFIRMA and TRIMESTA have been approved for marketing in
overseas countries for different uses. Other companies, including the original
developers or licensees or affiliates may seek to develop EFFIRMA or TRIMESTA or
their respective active ingredient(s) for other uses in the US or any
country we are seeking approval for. We cannot provide any assurances that any
other company may obtain FDA approval for products that contain EFFIRMA or
TRIMESTA in various formulations or delivery systems that might adversely affect
our ability to develop and market these products in the US. We are
aware that other companies have intellectual property protection using the
active ingredients and have conducted clinical trials of EFFIRMA, oral TTM and
TRIMESTA for different applications that what we are
developing. Should a competitor obtain FDA approval for their product
for any indication prior to us, we might be precluded under the Waxman-Hatch Act
to obtain approval for our product candidates for a period of five
years. We cannot provide any assurances that our products will be FDA
approved prior to our competitors.
Other
companies could manufacture and develop oral TTM and its active ingredient,
tetrathiomolybdate, and secure approvals for different indications. We are aware
that a potential competitor has an exclusive license from the University of
Michigan (UM) to an issued U.S. patent that relates to the use of
tetrathiomolybdate to treat angiogenic diseases (the “Angiogenic
Patent”) and is currently in phase I and phase II clinical trials for the
treatment of various forms of cancer. To our knowledge, this competitor and UM
have filed additional patent applications claiming various analog structures and
formulations of tetrathiomolybdate to treat various diseases. Further, we cannot
predict whether our competitor might obtain approval in the U.S. or Europe to
market tetrathiomolybdate for cancer or another indication ahead of us. We also
cannot predict whether, if issued, any patent corresponding to the Angiogenic
Patent may prevent us from conducting our business or result in lengthy and
costly litigation or the need for a license. Furthermore, if we need to obtain a
license to these or other patents in order to conduct our business, we may find
that it is not available to us on commercially reasonable terms, or
is not available to us at all.
If the
FDA approves other products containing our active ingredients to treat
indications other than those covered by our issued or pending patent
applications, physicians may elect to prescribe a competitor’s products to treat
the diseases for which we are developing—this is commonly
referred to as “off-label” use. While under FDA regulations a competitor
is not allowed to promote off-label uses of its product, the FDA does not
regulate the practice of medicine and, as a result, cannot direct physicians as
to which source it should use for these products they prescribe to their
patients. Consequently, we might be limited in our ability to prevent off-label
use of a competitor’s product to treat the diseases we are developing, even if
we have issued patents for that indication. If we are not able to
obtain and enforce these patents, a competitor could use our products for a
treatment or use not covered by any of our patents. We cannot provide
any assurances that a competitor will not obtain FDA approval for a product that
contains the same active ingredients as our products.
We
rely primarily on method patents and patent applications and various regulatory
exclusivities to protect the development of our technologies, and our ability to
compete may decrease or be eliminated if we are not able to protect our
proprietary technology.
Our
competitiveness may be adversely affected if we are unable to protect our
proprietary technologies. Other than our CD4 inhibitor, oral dnaJP1 and
Zinthionein program, we do not have composition of matter patents for TRIMESTA,
EFFIRMA, oral TTM or their respective active ingredients estriol, flupirtine,
and tetrathiomolybdate. We also expect to rely on patent protection
from an issued U.S. Patent for the use of oral TTM and related compounds to
treat inflammatory and fibrotic diseases (U.S. Patent No 6,855,340). These
patents have been exclusively licensed to us. We have also filed various pending
patent applications which cover various formulations, packaging, distribution
& monitoring methods for oral TTM. We rely on issued patent and pending
patent applications for use of TRIMESTA to treat MS (issued U.S. Patent No.
6,936,599) and various other therapeutic indications which have been exclusively
licensed to us. We have exclusively licensed issued U.S. Patent No. 5,773,570,
6,153,200, 6,946,132, 6,989,146, 7,094,597, 7,301,005, including foreign
equivalents along with several patent applications which cover
dnaJP1, methods and its uses, We have also exclusively licensed an issued patent
for the treatment of fibromyalgia with EFFIRMA .
Our
Zinthionein product candidate is exclusively licensed from its inventors, David
A. Newsome, M.D. and David Tate, Jr. Zinthionein is the subject of
two issued U.S. patents, 7,164,035 and 6,586,611 and pending U.S. patent
application ser. no. 11/621,380 which cover composition of matter claims.In our
annual Form 10-KSB for the year ending December 31, 2007 filed March 31, 2008
(page 23), we described our receipt in March 2008 (and potential impact on claim
1 of our exclusively licensed issued U.S. patent 7,164,035) of an English
translation of a Russian disclosure, Zegzhda et. al. Chemical Abstracts Vol. 85
Abstract No. 186052 (1976) that was cited by the U.S. patent examiner during our
prosecution of the pending divisional U.S. patent application Ser. No.
11/621,390. In April 2008, we analyzed the zinc-cysteine complex described by
Zegzhda and concluded that such complex describes an insoluble zinc salt
and does not describe a non-zinc salt zinc monocyteine complex and
therefore believe that such disclosure should not affect the validity of any of
our issued U.S. patent claims relating our zinc-monocysteine
composition-of-matter claims. We have filed a response and
declaration describing the results of our analysis with the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office with respect to the Zegzhda reference with respect to U.S.
patent application ser. no. 11/621,380. In an office action
dated August 20, 2008, the U.S. patent examiner did not accept our arguments
filed May 23, 2008 in connection with the Zegzhda reference under pending
divisional application ser. no. 11/621,390, to which we intend to respond.
Public copies of relevant and future communications can be obtained using the
electronic PAIR system of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The
patent positions of pharmaceutical companies are uncertain and may involve
complex legal and factual questions. We may incur significant expense in
protecting our intellectual property and defending or assessing claims with
respect to intellectual property owned by others. Any patent or other
infringement litigation by or against us could cause us to incur significant
expense and divert the attention of our management.
We may
also rely on the United States Drug Price Competition and Patent Term
Restoration Act, commonly known as the “Hatch-Waxman Amendments,” to protect
some of our current product candidates, specifically oral TTM, dnaJP1, TRIMESTA,
zincmonocystine, Anti-CD4 802-2, EFFIRMA and other future product candidates we
may develop. Once a drug containing a new molecule is approved by the FDA, the
FDA cannot accept an abbreviated NDA for a generic drug containing that molecule
for five years, although the FDA may accept and approve a drug containing the
molecule pursuant to an NDA supported by independent clinical data. Recent
amendments have been proposed that would narrow the scope of Hatch-Waxman
exclusivity and permit generic drugs to compete with our drug.
Others
may file patent applications or obtain patents on similar technologies or
compounds that compete with our products. We cannot predict how broad the claims
in any such patents or applications will be, and whether they will be allowed.
Once claims have been issued, we cannot predict how they will be construed or
enforced. We may infringe intellectual property rights of others without being
aware of it. If another party claims we are infringing their technology, we
could have to defend an expensive and time consuming lawsuit, pay a large sum if
we are found to be infringing, or be prohibited from selling or licensing our
products unless we obtain a license or redesign our product, which may not be
possible.
We also
rely on trade secrets and proprietary know-how to develop and maintain our
competitive position. Some of our current or former employees, consultants, or
scientific advisors, or current or prospective corporate collaborators, may
unintentionally or willfully disclose our confidential information to
competitors or use our proprietary technology for their own benefit.
Furthermore, enforcing a claim alleging the infringement of our trade secrets
would be expensive and difficult to prove, making the outcome uncertain. Our
competitors may also independently develop similar knowledge, methods, and
know-how or gain access to our proprietary information through some other
means.
We
may fail to retain or recruit necessary personnel, and we may be unable to
secure the services of consultants.
As of
January 20, 2009, we have 3 full-time employees and 3 part-time employees. We
have also engaged regulatory consultants to advise us on our dealings with the
FDA and other foreign regulatory authorities. We intend to recruit certain key
executive officers, including a Chief Medical Officer and/or Vice President of
Regulatory Affairs during 2009. Our future performance will depend in part on
our ability to successfully integrate
newly hired executive officers into our management team and our ability to
develop an effective working relationship among senior
management.
Currently,
we have not entered into a written employment agreement with Mr. Stergis, our
cofounder and Chief Executive Officer. We intend to enter into an employment
agreement with Mr. Stergis in a form substantially similar to our other former
executive officers. However, we cannot provide any assurances that we
will be able to enter into this agreement with Mr. Stergis. Certain
of our directors, (including Jeffrey Kraws, a director and former VP of Business
Development, Jeffrey Wolf, a director, and Dr. Kuo, a director) scientific
advisors, and consultants serve as officers, directors, scientific advisors, or
consultants of other biopharmaceutical or biotechnology companies which might be
developing competitive products to ours. None of our directors are obligated
under any agreement or understanding with us to make any additional products or
technologies available to us. Similarly, we can give no assurances, and we do
not expect and stockholders should not expect, that any biomedical or
pharmaceutical product or technology identified by any of our directors or
affiliates in the future would be made available to us.
We can
expect this to also be the case with personnel that we engage in the future. We
can give no assurances that any such other companies will not have interests
that are in conflict with our interests.
Losing
key personnel or failing to recruit necessary additional personnel would impede
our ability to attain our development objectives. There is intense competition
for qualified personnel in the drug-development field, and we may not be able to
attract and retain the qualified personnel we would need to develop our
business.
We rely
on independent organizations, advisors, and consultants to perform certain
services for us, including handling substantially all aspects of regulatory
approval, clinical management, manufacturing, marketing, and sales. We expect
that this will continue to be the case. Such services may not always be
available to us on a timely basis when we need them.
We
may experience difficulties in obtaining sufficient quantities of our products
or other compounds.
In order
to successfully commercialize our product candidates, we must be able to
manufacture our products in commercial quantities, in compliance with regulatory
requirements, at acceptable costs, and in a timely manner. Manufacture of the
types of biopharmaceutical products that we propose to develop present various
risks. For example, manufacture of the active ingredient in oral TTM and
Zinthionein is a complex process that can be difficult to scale up for purposes
of producing large quantities. This process can also be subject to delays,
inefficiencies, and poor or low yields of quality products. Furthermore, the
active ingredient of Zinthionein has been difficult to scale up at larger
quantities. As such, we can give no assurances that we will be able
to scale up the manufacturing of Zinthionein. Oral TTM is also known
to be subject to a loss of potency as a result of prolonged exposure to moisture
and other normal atmospheric conditions. The active ingredient of our dnaJP1
program is a 15 amino acid peptide. Traditionally, peptide
manufacturing is costly, time consuming, resulting in low yields and poor
stability. We cannot give any assurances that we will not encounter this issues
when scaling up manufacturing for dnaJP1. We are developing
proprietary formulations and specialty packaging solutions to overcome this
stability issue, but we can give no assurances that we will be successful in
meeting the stability requirements required for approval by regulatory
authorities such as the FDA or the requirements that our new proprietary
formulations and drug product will demonstrate satisfactory comparability to
less stable formulations utilized in prior clinical trials for oral TTM. We may
experience delays in demonstrating satisfactory stability requirements and drug
product comparability requirements that could delay our planned clinical trials
of for any of our products.
For
manufacturing and nonclinical information for TRIMESTA, we rely upon an
agreement with Organon, a division of Schering-Plough for access to clinical,
nonclinical, stability and drug supply relating to estriol, the active
ingredient in TRIMESTA which is currently in a phase IIb clinical trial for MS.
Should Organon terminate our agreement, this might delay enrollment and
commercialization plans for our TRIMESTA clinical trial program. Organon has
manufactured estriol the active ingredient of TRIMESTA for the European and
Asian market for approximately 40 years.
Historically,
our manufacturing has been handled by contract manufacturers and compounding
pharmacies. We can give no assurances that we will be able to continue to use
our current manufacturer or be able to establish another relationship with a
manufacturer quickly enough so as not to disrupt commercialization of any
of our products, or that commercial quantities of any of our products, if
approved for marketing, will be available from contract manufacturers at
acceptable costs.
In
addition, any contract manufacturer that we select to manufacture our product
candidates might fail to maintain a current “good manufacturing
practices” (cGMP) manufacturing facility. During February 2007, we established a
commercial manufacturing facility for oral TTM product in Ann
Arbor, MI and we have hired and trained our employees to comply with the
extensive regulations applicable to such a facility. Given the delay of our NDA
for oral TTM, we are currently exploring strategic options for our GMP
facility. This might include sale of the equipment and/or sublease of
the facility.
The cost
of manufacturing certain product candidates may make them prohibitively
expensive. In order to successfully commercialize our product candidates we may
be required to reduce the costs of production, and we may find that we are
unable to do so. We may be unable to obtain, or may be required to pay high
prices for compounds manufactured or sold by others that we need for comparison
purposes in clinical trials and studies for our product candidates.
Clinical
trials are very expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to design and
implement.
Human
clinical trials are very expensive and difficult to design and implement, in
part because they are subject to rigorous regulatory requirements. The clinical
trial process is also time-consuming. We estimate that clinical trials of our
product candidates would take at least several years to complete. Furthermore,
failure can occur at any stage of the trials, and we could encounter problems
that cause us to abandon or repeat clinical trials. Commencement and completion
of clinical trials may be delayed by several factors,
including:
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unforeseen
safety issues;
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determination
of dosing;
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lack
of effectiveness during clinical trials;
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slower
than expected rates of patient recruitment;
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inability
to monitor patients adequately during or after treatment;
and
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inability
or unwillingness of medical investigators to follow our clinical
protocols.
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In
addition, we or the FDA may suspend our clinical trials at any time if it
appears that we are exposing participants to unacceptable health risks or if the
FDA finds deficiencies in our submissions or conduct of our trials.
The
results of our clinical trials may not support our product candidate
claims.
Even if
our clinical trials are completed as planned, we cannot be certain that the
results will support our product-candidate claims. Success in pre-clinical
testing and phase II clinical trials does not ensure that later phase II or
phase III clinical trials will be successful. We cannot be sure that the results
of later clinical trials would replicate the results of prior clinical trials
and pre-clinical testing. Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate that our
product candidates are safe for humans and effective for indicated uses.
Any such failure could cause us to abandon a product candidate and might
delay development of other product candidates. Any delay in, or termination of,
our clinical trials would delay our obtaining FDA approval for the affected
product candidate and, ultimately, our ability to commercialize that product
candidate.
Physicians
and patients may not accept and use our technologies.
Even if
the FDA approves our product candidates, physicians and patients may not accept
and use them. Acceptance and use of our product will depend upon a number of
factors, including the following:
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the
perception of members of the health care community, including physicians,
regarding the safety and effectiveness of our drugs;
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the
cost-effectiveness of our product relative to competing
products;
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availability
of reimbursement for our products from government or other healthcare
payers; and
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the
effectiveness of marketing and distribution efforts by us and our
licensees and distributors, if any.
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Because
we expect sales of our current product candidates, if approved, to generate
substantially all of our product revenues for the foreseeable future, the
failure of any of these drugs to find market acceptance would harm our business
and could require us to seek additional financing.
We depend on
researchers who are not under our control.
Since we
have in-licensed all of our product candidates, we depend upon independent
investigators and scientific collaborators, such as universities and medical
institutions or private physician scientists, to conduct our pre-clinical and
clinical trials under agreements with us. These collaborators are not our
employees and we cannot control the amount or timing of resources that they
devote to our programs or the timing of their procurement of clinical-trial
data. Should any of these scientific inventors/advisors become disabled or die
unexpectedly, we may be forced to scale back or terminate development of that
program. They may not assign as great a priority to our programs or
pursue them as diligently as we would if we were undertaking those programs
ourselves. Failing to devote sufficient time and resources to our
drug-development programs, or substandard performance, could result in delay of
any FDA applications and our commercialization of the drug candidate
involved.
These
collaborators may also have relationships with other commercial entities, some
of which may compete with us. Our collaborators assisting our competitors at our
expense could harm our competitive position. For example, we are highly
dependent on scientific collaborators for our dnaJP1, TRIMESTA,
Zinthionein, CD4 Inhibitor, EFFIRMA and oral TTM development programs.
Specifically, all of the clinical trials have been conducted under
physician-sponsored investigational new drug applications (INDs), not
corporate-sponsored INDs. Generally, we have experienced difficulty in
collecting data generated from these physican sponsored clinical trials or
physician sponsored INDs for our programs. We cannot provide any
assurances that we will not experience any additional delays in the
future. For example, the clinical trials for oral TTM for the
treatment of neurologic Wilson’s disease have been conducted and completed prior
to us licensing this technology from the University of Michigan. Due to various
patient privacy regulations and other administrative matters, we have
experienced delays and/or an inability to obtain clinical trial data relating to
oral TTM. We have also experienced similar difficulties with our
Zinthionein program. As such, this delay or inability to obtain any
data might result our inability to advance our products through the regulatory
process or obtain pharmaceutical partners for them.
We are
also highly dependent on government and private grants to fund certain of our
clinical trials for our product candidates. For example, TRIMESTA has received a
$5 million grant from the Southern California Chapter of the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which funds
a majority of our ongoing phase IIb clinical trial in relapsing
remitting multiple sclerosis. If our scientific collaborator is
unable to maintain these grants, we might be forced to scale back or terminate
the development of this product candidate.
We
have no experience selling, marketing, or distributing products and do not have
the capability to do so.
We
currently have no sales, marketing, or distribution capabilities. We do not
anticipate having resources in the foreseeable future to allocate to selling and
marketing our proposed products. Our success will depend, in part, on whether we
are able to enter into and maintain collaborative relationships with a
pharmaceutical or a biotechnology company charged with marketing one or more of
our products. We may not be able to establish or maintain such
collaborative arrangements or to commercialize our products in foreign
territories, and even if we do, our collaborators may not have effective sales
forces.
If we do
not, or are unable to, enter into collaborative arrangements to sell and market
our proposed products, we will need to devote significant capital, management
resources, and time to establishing and developing an in-house marketing and
sales force with technical expertise. We may be unsuccessful in doing
so.
If
we fail to maintain positive relationships with particular individuals, we may
be unable to successfully develop our product candidates, conduct clinical
trials, and obtain financing.
If we
fail to maintain positive relationships with members of our management team or
if these individuals decrease their contributions to our company, our business
could be adversely impacted. We do not carry key employee insurance policies for
any of our key employees.
We also
rely greatly on employing and retaining other highly trained and experienced
senior management and scientific personnel. The competition for these and other
qualified personnel in the biotechnology field is intense. If we are not able to
attract and retain qualified scientific, technical, and managerial personnel, we
probably will be unable to achieve our business objectives.
We
may not be able to compete successfully for market share against other drug
companies.
The
markets for our product candidates are characterized by intense competition and
rapid technological advances. If our product candidates receive FDA approval,
they will compete with existing and future drugs and therapies developed,
manufactured, and marketed by others. Competing products may provide greater
therapeutic convenience or clinical or other benefits for a specific indication
than our products, or may offer comparable performance at a lower cost. If our
products fail to capture and maintain market share, we may not achieve
sufficient product revenues and our business will suffer.
We will
compete against fully integrated pharmaceutical companies and smaller companies
that are collaborating with larger pharmaceutical companies, academic
institutions, government agencies, or other public and private research
organizations. Many of these competitors have therapies to treat autoimmune
fibrotic and central nervous system diseases already approved or in development.
In addition, many of these competitors, either alone or together with their
collaborative partners, operate larger research-and-development programs than we
do, have substantially greater financial resources than we do, and have
significantly greater experience in the following areas:
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developing
drugs;
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undertaking
pre-clinical testing and human clinical trials;
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obtaining
FDA and other regulatory approvals of drugs;
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formulating
and manufacturing drugs; and
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launching,
marketing and selling drugs.
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We
may incur substantial costs as a result of litigation or other proceedings
relating to patent and other intellectual property rights, as well as costs
associated with frivolous lawsuits.
If
any other person files patent applications, or is issued patents, claiming
technology also claimed by us in pending applications, we may be required to
participate in interference proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
to determine priority of invention. We, or our licensors, may also need to
participate in interference proceedings involving our issued patents and pending
applications of another entity.
We
cannot guarantee that the practice of our technologies will not conflict with
the rights of others. In some foreign jurisdictions, we could become involved in
opposition proceedings, either by opposing the validity of another’s foreign
patent or by persons opposing the validity of our foreign patents.
We
may also face frivolous litigation or lawsuits from various competitors or from
litigious securities attorneys. The cost to us of any litigation or other
proceeding relating to these areas, even if resolved in our favor, could be
substantial and could distract management from our business. Uncertainties
resulting from initiation and continuation of any litigation could have a
material adverse effect on our ability to continue our operations.
If we infringe
the rights of others we could be prevented from selling products or forced to
pay damages.
If our products, methods, processes, and other technologies are found to
infringe the proprietary rights of other parties, we could be required to pay
damages, or we may be required to cease using the technology or to license
rights from the prevailing party. Any prevailing party may be unwilling to offer
us a license on commercially acceptable terms.
Our
ability to generate product revenues will be diminished if our drugs sell for
inadequate prices or patients are unable to obtain adequate levels of
reimbursement.
Our
ability to commercialize our drugs, alone or with collaborators, will depend in
part on the extent to which reimbursement is available from government and
health administration authorities, private health maintenance organizations,
health insurers, and other healthcare payers.
Significant
uncertainty exists as to the reimbursement status of newly approved healthcare
products. Healthcare payers, including Medicare, are challenging the prices
charged for medical products and services. Government and other healthcare
payers increasingly attempt to contain healthcare costs by limiting both
coverage and the level of reimbursement for drugs. Even if our product
candidates are approved by the FDA, insurance coverage may not be available, or
may be inadequate, to cover the cost of our drugs. This could affect our ability
to commercialize our products.
We
may not be able to obtain adequate insurance coverage against product liability
claims.
Our
business exposes us to the product liability risks inherent in the testing,
manufacturing, marketing, and sale of human therapeutic technologies and
products. Even if it is available, product liability insurance for the
pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry generally is expensive. Adequate
insurance coverage may not be available at a reasonable cost.
RISKS
RELATING TO OUR STOCK
We
will seek to raise additional funds in the future, which may be dilutive to
stockholders or impose operational restrictions.
We expect
to seek to raise additional capital in the future to help fund development of
our proposed products. If we raise additional capital through the issuance of
equity or debt securities, the percentage ownership of our current stockholders
will be reduced. We may also enter into strategic transactions, issue equity as
part of license issue fees to our licensors, compensate consultants or settle
outstanding payables using equity that may be dilutive. Our stockholders may
experience additional dilution in net book value per share and any additional
equity securities may have rights, preferences and privileges senior to those of
the holders of our common stock. If we cannot raise additional funds, we will
have to delay development activities of our products candidates.
We
are controlled by our current officers, directors, and principal
stockholders.
Currently,
our directors, executive officers, and principal stockholders beneficially own a
majority of our common stock. As a result, they will be able to exert
substantial influence over the election of our board of directors and the vote
on issues submitted to our stockholders.
Our
shares of common stock are from time to time thinly traded, so stockholders may
be unable to sell at or near ask prices or at all if they need to sell shares to
raise money or otherwise desire to liquidate their shares.
Our
common stock has from time to time been “thinly-traded,” meaning that the number
of persons interested in purchasing our common stock at or near ask prices at
any given time may be relatively small or non-existent. This situation is
attributable to a number of factors, including the fact that we are a small
company that is relatively unknown to stock analysts, stock brokers,
institutional investors and others in the investment community that generate or
influence sales volume, and that even if we came to the attention of such
persons, they tend to be risk-averse and would be reluctant to follow an
unproven company such as ours or purchase or recommend the purchase of our
shares until such time as we became more seasoned and viable. As a consequence,
there may be periods of several days or more when trading activity in our shares
is minimal or nonexistent, as compared to a seasoned issuer which has a
large and steady volume of trading activity that will generally support
continuous sales without an adverse effect on share price. We cannot give
stockholders any assurance that a broader or more active public trading market
for our common shares will develop or be sustained, or that current trading
levels will be sustained.
Our
compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and SEC rules concerning internal
controls may be time consuming, difficult and costly.
Although
individual members of our management team have experience as officers of
publicly traded companies, much of that experience came prior to the adoption of
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. It may be time consuming, difficult and costly
for us to develop and implement the internal controls and reporting procedures
required by Sarbanes-Oxley. We may need to hire additional financial reporting,
internal controls and other finance staff in order to develop and implement
appropriate internal controls and reporting procedures. If we are unable to
comply with Sarbanes-Oxley’s internal controls requirements, we may not be able
to obtain the independent accountant certifications that Sarbanes-Oxley Act
requires publicly-traded companies to obtain.
We
cannot assure you that the common stock will be liquid or that it will remain
listed on a securities exchange.
We cannot
assure you that we will be able to maintain the listing standards of the
NYSEAlternext formerly the American Stock Exchange. The NYSEAlternext requires
companies to meet certain listing criteria including certain minimum
stockholders' equity and equity prices per share. We may not be able to
maintain such minimum stockholders' equity or prices per share or may be
required to effect a reverse stock split to maintain such minimum prices and/or
issue additional equity securities in exchange for cash or other assets, if
available, to maintain certain minimum stockholders' equity required by the
NYSEAlternext.
There
may be issuances of shares of preferred stock in the future.
Although
we currently do not have preferred shares outstanding, the board of directors
could authorize the issuance of a series of preferred stock that would grant
holders preferred rights to our assets upon liquidation, the right to receive
dividends before dividends would be declared to common stockholders, and the
right to the redemption of such shares, possibly together with a premium, prior
to the redemption of the common stock. To the extent that we do issue preferred
stock, the rights of holders of common stock could be impaired thereby,
including without limitation, with respect to liquidation.
We
have never paid dividends.
We have
never paid cash dividends on our common stock and do not anticipate paying any
for the foreseeable future.
RISKS RELATED TO OUR
INDUSTRY
Government
Regulation
The FDA,
comparable foreign regulators and state and local pharmacy regulators impose
substantial requirements upon clinical development, manufacture and marketing of
pharmaceutical products. These and other entities regulate research and
development and the testing, manufacture, quality control, safety,
effectiveness, labeling, storage, record keeping, approval, advertising, and
promotion of our products. The drug approval process required by the FDA under
the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act generally involves:
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Preclinical
laboratory and animal tests;
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Submission
of an IND, prior to commencing human clinical trials;
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Adequate
and well-controlled human clinical trials to establish safety and efficacy
for intended use;
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Submission
to the FDA of a NDA; and
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FDA
review and approval of a NDA.
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The
testing and approval process requires substantial time, effort, and financial
resources, and we cannot be certain that any approval will be granted on a
timely basis, if at all.
Preclinical
tests include laboratory evaluation of the product candidate, its chemistry,
formulation and stability, and animal studies to assess potential safety and
efficacy. Certain preclinical tests must be conducted in compliance with good
laboratory practice regulations. Violations of these regulations can, in some
cases, lead to invalidation of the studies, requiring them to be replicated. In
some cases, long-term preclinical studies are conducted concurrently with
clinical studies.
We will
submit the preclinical test results, together with manufacturing information and
analytical data, to the FDA as part of an IND, which must become effective
before we begin human clinical trials. The IND automatically becomes effective
30 days after filing, unless the FDA raises questions about conduct of the
trials outlined in the IND and imposes a clinical hold, as occurred with oral
TTM, in which case, the IND sponsor and FDA must resolve the matters before
clinical trials can begin. It is possible that our submission may not result in
FDA authorization to commence clinical trials.
Clinical
trials must be supervised by a qualified investigator in accordance with good
clinical practice regulations, which include informed consent requirements. An
independent Institutional Review Board (“IRB”) at each medical center reviews
and approves and monitors the study, and is periodically informed of the study’s
progress, adverse events and changes in research. Progress reports are submitted
annually to the FDA and more frequently if adverse
events occur.
Human
clinical trials typically have three sequential phases that may
overlap:
Phase I:
The drug is initially tested in healthy human subjects or patients for safety,
dosage tolerance, absorption, metabolism, distribution, and
excretion.
Phase II:
The drug is studied in a limited patient population to identify possible adverse
effects and safety risks, determine efficacy for specific diseases and establish
dosage tolerance and optimal dosage.
Phase
III: When phase II evaluations demonstrate that a dosage range is effective with
an acceptable safety profile, phase III trials to further evaluate dosage,
clinical efficacy and safety, are undertaken in an expanded patient population,
often at geographically dispersed sites.
We cannot
be certain that we will successfully complete phase I, phase II, or phase III
testing of our product candidates within any specific time period, if at all.
Furthermore, the FDA, an IRB or the IND sponsor may suspend clinical trials at
any time on various grounds, including a finding that subjects or patients are
exposed to unacceptable health risk. Concurrent with these trials and studies,
we also develop chemistry and physical characteristics data and finalize a
manufacturing process in accordance with good manufacturing practice (“GMP”)
requirements. The manufacturing process must conform to consistency and quality
standards, and we must develop methods for testing the quality, purity, and
potency of the final products. Appropriate packaging is selected and
tested, and chemistry stability studies are conducted to demonstrate that
the product does not undergo unacceptable deterioration over its shelf-life.
Results of the foregoing are submitted to the FDA as part of a NDA for marketing
and commercial shipment approval. The FDA reviews each NDA submitted and may
request additional information.
Once the
FDA accepts the NDA for filing, it begins its in-depth review. The FDA has
substantial discretion in the approval process and may disagree with our
interpretation of the data submitted. The process may be significantly extended
by requests for additional information or clarification regarding information
already provided. As part of this review, the FDA may refer the application to
an appropriate advisory committee, typically a panel of clinicians.
Manufacturing establishments often are inspected prior to NDA approval to assure
compliance with GMPs and with manufacturing commitments made in the
application.
Submission
of a NDA with clinical data requires payment of a fee (for fiscal year 2008,
$1,178,500). In return, the FDA assigns a goal of ten months for issuing its
“complete response,” in which the FDA may approve or deny the NDA, or require
additional clinical data. Even if these data are submitted, the FDA may
ultimately decide the NDA does not satisfy approval criteria. If the FDA
approves the NDA, the product becomes available for physicians prescription.
Product approval may be withdrawn if regulatory compliance is not maintained or
safety problems occur. The FDA may require post-marketing studies, also known as
phase IV studies, as a condition of approval, and requires surveillance programs
to monitor approved products that have been commercialized. The agency has the
power to require changes in labeling or prohibit further marketing based on the
results of post-marketing surveillance.
Satisfaction
of these and other regulatory requirements typically takes several years, and
the actual time required may vary substantially based upon the type, complexity
and novelty of the product. Government regulation may delay or prevent marketing
of potential products for a considerable period of time and impose costly
procedures on our activities. We cannot be certain that the FDA or other
regulatory agencies will approve any of our products on a timely basis, if at
all. Success in preclinical or early-stage clinical trials does not assure
success in later-stage clinical trials. Data obtained from pre-clinical and
clinical activities are not always conclusive and may be susceptible to varying
interpretations that could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. Even if
a product receives regulatory approval, the approval may be significantly
limited to specific indications or uses.
Even
after regulatory approval is obtained, later discovery of previously unknown
problems with a product may result in restrictions on the product or even
complete withdrawal of the product from the market. Delays in obtaining, or
failures to obtain regulatory approvals would have a material adverse effect on
our business.
Any
products manufactured or distributed by us pursuant to FDA approvals are subject
to pervasive and continuing FDA regulation, including record-keeping
requirements, reporting of adverse experiences, submitting periodic reports,
drug sampling and distribution requirements, manufacturing or labeling changes,
record-keeping requirements, and compliance with FDA promotion and advertising
requirements. Drug manufacturers and their subcontractors are required to
register their facilities with the FDA and state agencies, and are subject to
periodic unannounced inspections for GMP compliance, imposing procedural and
documentation requirements upon us and third-party manufacturers. Failure to
comply with these regulations could result, among other things, in suspension of
regulatory approval, recalls, suspension of production or injunctions, seizures,
or civil or criminal sanctions. We cannot be certain that we or our present or
future subcontractors will be able to comply with these
regulations.
The FDA
regulates drug labeling and promotion activities. The FDA has actively enforced
regulations prohibiting the marketing of products for unapproved uses. The FDA
permits the promotion of drugs for unapproved uses in certain circumstances,
subject to stringent requirements. We and our product candidates are subject to
a variety of state laws and regulations which may hinder our ability to market
our products. Whether or not FDA approval has been obtained, approval by foreign
regulatory authorities must be obtained prior to commencing clinical trials, and
sales and marketing efforts in those countries. These approval procedures vary
in complexity from country to country, and the processes may be longer or
shorter than that required for FDA approval. We may incur significant costs to
comply with these laws and regulations now or in the future.
The FDA’s
policies may change, and additional government regulations may be enacted which
could prevent or delay regulatory approval of our potential products. Increased
attention to the containment of health care costs worldwide could result in new
government regulations materially adverse to our business. We cannot predict the
likelihood, nature or extent of adverse governmental regulation that
might arise from future legislative or administrative action, either in the
U.S. or abroad.
Other Regulatory
Requirements
The U.S.
Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) also regulate certain
pharmaceutical marketing practices. Government reimbursement practices and
policies with respect to our products are important to our success.
We are
subject to numerous federal, state and local laws relating to safe working
conditions, manufacturing practices, environmental protection, fire hazard
control, and disposal of hazardous or potentially hazardous substances. We may
incur significant costs to comply with these laws and regulations. The
regulatory framework under which we operate will inevitably change in light of
scientific, economic, demographic and policy developments, and such changes may
have a material adverse effect on our business.
European
Product Approval
Prior
regulatory approval for human healthy volunteer studies (phase I studies) is
required in member states of the European Union (E.U.). Summary data from
successful phase I studies are submitted to regulatory authorities in member
states to support applications for phase II studies. E.U. authorities
typically have one to three months (which often may be extended in their
discretion) to raise objections to the proposed study. One or more independent
ethics committees (similar to U.S. IRBs) review relevant ethical
issues.
For E.U.
marketing approval, we submit to the relevant authority for review a dossier, or
MAA (Market Authorization Application), providing information on the quality of
the chemistry, manufacturing and pharmaceutical aspects of the product as well
as non-clinical and clinical data.
Approval
can take several months to several years, and can be denied, depending on
whether additional studies or clinical trials are requested (which may delay
marketing approval and involve unbudgeted costs) or regulatory authorities
conduct facilities (including clinical investigation site) inspections and
review manufacturing procedures, operating systems and personnel qualifications.
In many cases, each drug manufacturing facility must be approved, and further
inspections may occur over the product’s life.
The
regulatory agency may require post-marketing surveillance to monitor for adverse
effects or other studies. Further clinical studies are usually necessary for
approval of additional indications. The terms of any approval, including
labeling content, may be more restrictive than expected and could affect the
marketability of a product.
Failure
to comply with these ongoing requirements can result in suspension of regulatory
approval and civil and criminal sanctions. European renewals may require
additional data, resulting in a license being withdrawn. E.U. regulators have
the authority to revoke, suspend or withdraw approvals, prevent companies and
individuals from participating in the drug approval process, request recalls,
seize violative products, obtain injunctions to close non-compliant
manufacturing plants and stop shipments of violative products.
Pricing
Controls
Pricing
for products under approval applications is also subject to regulation.
Requirements vary widely between countries and can be implemented disparately
intra-nationally. The E.U. generally provides options for member states to
control pricing of medicinal products for human use, ranging from specific
price-setting to systems of direct or indirect controls on the producer’s
profitability. U.K. regulation, for example, generally provides controls on
overall profits derived from sales to the U.K. National Health Service that are
based on profitability targets or a function of capital employed in servicing
the National Health Service market. Italy generally utilizes a price monitoring
system based on the European average price over the reference markets of France,
Spain, Germany and the U.K. Italy typically establishes price within a
therapeutic class based on the lowest price for a medicine belonging to that
category. Spain generally establishes selling price based on prime cost plus a
profit margin within a range established yearly by the Spanish Commission for
Economic Affairs.
There can
be no assurance that price controls or reimbursement limitations will result in
favorable arrangements for our products.
Third-Party
Reimbursements
In the
U.S., the E.U. and elsewhere, pharmaceutical sales are dependent in part on the
availability and adequacy of reimbursement from third party payers such as
governments and private insurance plans. Third party payers are increasingly
challenging established prices, and new products that are more expensive than
existing treatments may have difficulty finding ready acceptance unless there is
a clear therapeutic benefit.
In the
U.S., consumer willingness to choose a self-administered outpatient prescription
drug over a different drug or other form of treatment often depends on the
manufacturer’s success in placing the product on a health plan formulary or drug
list, which results in lower out-of-pocket costs. Favorable formulary placement
typically requires the product to be less expensive than what the health plan
determines to be therapeutically equivalent products, and often requires
manufacturers to offer rebates. Federal law also requires manufacturers to pay
rebates to state Medicaid programs in order to have their products reimbursed by
Medicaid. Medicare, which covers most Americans over age 65 and the disabled,
has adopted a new insurance regime that will offer eligible beneficiaries
limited coverage for outpatient prescription drugs effective January 1, 2006.
The prescription drugs that are covered under this insurance are specified on a
formulary published by Medicare. As part of these changes, Medicare is adopting
new payment formulas for prescription drugs administered by providers, such as
hospitals or physicians that are generally expected to lower
reimbursement.
The E.U.
generally provides options for member states to restrict the range of medicinal
products for which their national health insurance systems provide
reimbursement. Member states can opt for a “positive” or “negative” list, with
the former listing all covered medicinal products and the latter designating
those excluded from coverage. The E.U., the U.K. and Spain have negative lists,
while France uses a positive list. Canadian provinces establish their own
reimbursement measures. In some countries, products may also be subject to
clinical and cost effectiveness reviews by health technology assessment
bodies. Negative determinations in relation to our products could affect
prescribing
practices.
In the U.K., the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (“NICE”) provides
such guidance to the National Health Service, and doctors are expected to take
it into account when choosing drugs to prescribe. Health authorities may
withhold funding from drugs not given a positive recommendation by NICE. A
negative determination by NICE may mean fewer prescriptions. Although NICE
considers drugs with orphan status, there is a degree of tension on the
application of standard cost assessment for orphan drugs, which are often priced
higher to compensate for a limited market. It is unclear whether NICE will adopt
a more relaxed approach toward the assessment of orphan drugs.
We cannot
assure you that any of our products will be considered cost effective, or that
reimbursement will be available or sufficient to allow us to sell them
competitively and profitably.
Fraud
and Abuse Laws
The U.S.
federal Medicare/Medicaid anti-kickback law and similar state laws prohibit
remuneration intended to induce physicians or others either to refer patients,
or to acquire or arrange for or recommend the acquisition of health care
products or services. While the federal law applies only to referrals, products
or services receiving federal reimbursement, state laws often apply regardless
of whether federal funds are involved. Other federal and state laws prohibit
anyone from presenting or causing to be presented false or fraudulent payment
claims. Recent federal and state enforcement actions under these statutes have
targeted sales and marketing activities of prescription drug manufacturers. As
we begin to market our products to health care providers, the relationships we
form, such as compensating physicians for speaking or consulting services,
providing financial support for continuing medical education or research
programs, and assisting customers with third-party reimbursement claims, could
be challenged under these laws and lead to civil or criminal penalties,
including the exclusion of our products from federally-funded reimbursement.
Even an unsuccessful challenge could cause adverse publicity and be costly to
respond to, and thus could have a material adverse effect on our business,
results of operations and financial condition. We intend to consult counsel
concerning the potential application of these and other laws to our business and
to our sales, marketing and other activities to comply with them. Given their
broad reach and the increasing attention given them by law enforcement
authorities, however, we cannot assure you that some of our activities will not
be challenged.
Patent
Restoration and Marketing Exclusivity
The U.S.
Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (Hatch-Waxman)
permits the FDA to approve Abbreviated New Drug Applications (“ANDAs”) for
generic versions of innovator drugs, as well as NDAs with less original clinical
data, and provides patent restoration and exclusivity protections to innovator
drug manufacturers. The ANDA process permits competitor companies to obtain
marketing approval for drugs with the same active ingredient and for the same
uses as innovator drugs, but does not require the conduct and submission of
clinical studies demonstrating safety and efficacy. As a result, a competitor
could copy any of our drugs and only need to submit data demonstrating that the
copy is bioequivalent to gain marketing approval from the FDA. Hatch-Waxman
requires a competitor that submits an ANDA, or otherwise relies on safety and
efficacy data for one of our drugs, to notify us and/or our business partners of
potential infringement of our patent rights. We and/or our business partners may
sue the company for patent infringement, which would result in a 30-month stay
of approval of the competitor’s application. The discovery, trial and appeals
process in such suits can take several years. If the litigation is resolved in
favor of the generic applicant or the challenged patent expires during the
30-month period, the stay is lifted and the FDA may approve the application.
Hatch-Waxman also allows competitors to market copies of innovator products by
submitting significantly less clinical data outside the ANDA context. Such
applications, known as “505(b)(2) NDAs” or “paper NDAs,” may rely on clinical
investigations not conducted by or for the applicant and for which the applicant
has not obtained a right of reference or use and are subject to the ANDA
notification procedures described above.
The law
also restores a portion of a product’s patent term that is lost during clinical
development and NDA review, and provides statutory protection, known as
exclusivity, against FDA approval or acceptance of certain competitor
applications. Restoration can return up to five years of patent term for a
patent covering a new product or its use to compensate for time lost during
product development and regulatory review. The restoration period is generally
one-half the time between the effective date of an IND and submission of an NDA,
plus the time between NDA submission and its approval (subject to the five-year
limit), and no extension can extend total patent life beyond 14 years after the
drug approval date. Applications for patent term extension are subject to U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) approval, in conjunction with FDA.
Approval of these applications takes at least six months, and there can be no
guarantee that it will be given at all.
Hatch-Waxman
also provides for differing periods of statutory protection for new drugs
approved under an NDA. Among the types of exclusivity are those for a “new
molecular entity” and those for a new formulation or indication for a
previously-approved drug. If granted, marketing exclusivity for the types of
products that we are developing, which include only drugs with innovative
changes to previously-approved products using the same active ingredient, would
prohibit the FDA from approving an ANDA or 505(b)(2) NDA relying on safety and
efficacy data for three years. This three-year exclusivity, however, covers only
the innovation associated with the original NDA. It does not prohibit the FDA
from approving applications for drugs with the same active ingredient but
without our new innovative change. These marketing exclusivity protections do
not prohibit FDA from approving a full NDA, even if it contains the innovative
change.
SPECIAL
NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This
prospectus and the documents incorporated by reference contain, in addition to
historical information, forward-looking statements within the meaning of the
“safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. These statements include statements that reflect the current view of our
senior management with respect to our financial performance and future events
with respect to our business and our industry in general and can be identified
by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “could,” “expect,”
“anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue” or other similar words. These
forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and
are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties which could cause actual
results to differ materially from those described in these statements. We
caution investors that actual results or business conditions may differ
materially from those projected or suggested in forward-looking statements as
a
result of
various factors including, but not limited to, those described in the Risk
Factors section of this prospectus. We cannot assure you that we have identified
all the factors that create uncertainties. Readers should not place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly
release the result of any revision of these forward-looking statements to
reflect events or circumstances after the date they are made or to reflect the
occurrence of unanticipated events, other than as required by law.
The
proceeds from the sale of each selling stockholder’s shares of common stock will
belong to that selling stockholder. We will not receive any proceeds from those
sales.
This
prospectus relates to the resale from time to time of up to a total of 9,965,671
shares of our common stock by the selling stockholders, comprising:
|
•
|
|
1,148,753
shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of
warrants;
|
|
•
|
|
8,816,918
shares of common stock already issued and
outstanding;
|
The
following table, based upon information currently known to us, sets forth as of
January 20, 2009: (i) the number of shares held of record or beneficially
by the selling stockholders as of that date; (ii) the percentage of the
outstanding shares that the shares held by the selling stockholder represents
(iii) the number of shares that may be offered under this prospectus, and
(iii) a footnote reference to any material relationship between us and the
selling stockholder, if any.
The
number of shares beneficially owned by each selling stockholder named in the
table below is determined under rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) and the information is not necessarily indicative of beneficial ownership
for any other purpose. Under those rules, beneficial ownership includes any
shares to which the individual or entity has sole or shared voting power or
investment power and also any shares that the individual or entity has the right
to acquire within 60 days after January 20, 2009 through the exercise of any
warrant or other right, or conversion of any security. The inclusion in the
table below of any shares deemed beneficially owned does not constitute an
admission of beneficial ownership of those shares.
None of
the selling stockholders is a broker-dealer or an affiliate of a broker-dealer,
except Accredited Venture Capital, Steve H. Kanzer are affiliates of
Accredited Equities, a broker dealer, and BioMed Cap, HefCap
Holdings, Kosta J. Moustakas and Sean A. Kund are affiliates of a broker
dealer. Noble International Investments, Inc., MidSouth Capital,
Inc., Redchip Securities, Inc., are broker dealers.
Each
selling stockholder’s percentage of ownership in the following table is based on
20,911,121 shares of common stock outstanding as of January 20,
2009.
|
|
|
|
Number
of common
|
|
|
|
Shares
beneficially owned
|
|
shares
registered in
|
Shares
beneficially
|
|
|
prior
to the offering
|
|
this
prospectus
|
owned
after offering
|
Selling Stockholder
|
|
Number
|
|
Percent
|
|
|
|
Number
|
|
Percent
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Accredited
Venture Capital, LLC
|
|
7,086,380
|
(1)
|
33.45%
|
|
7,086,380
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Steve
H. Kanzer, CPA, JD
|
|
7,732,684
|
(2)
|
36.51%
|
|
7,461,626
|
|
271,058
|
(3)
|
1.28%
|
Nicholas
and Jennifer Stergis
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
|
|
|
Tenancy
by Entirety
|
|
1,939,917
|
(4)
|
9.02%
|
|
1,709,361
|
|
230,556
|
(5)
|
1.09%
|
BioMed
Cap, LLC
|
|
41,342
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
41,342
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
HefCap
Holdings, LLC
|
|
41,342
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
41,342
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
RedChip
Securities, Inc.
|
|
4,594
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
4,594
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Midsouth
Capital Inc.
|
|
4,594
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
4,594
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Warrant
Stratagies
|
|
30,000
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
30,000
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Brio
Capital
|
|
30,000
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
30,000
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Sean
A. Kund
|
|
11,909
|
(6)
|
*
|
|
11,909
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
A.
Joseph Rudick, M.D.
|
|
194,729
|
(7)
|
0.93%
|
|
114,904
|
|
22,621
|
(14)
|
*
|
Kosta
J. Moustakas
|
|
10,711
|
(8)
|
*
|
|
10,711
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Stanley
G. Bisgaier Trust, 1/23/04
|
|
12,388
|
(8)
|
*
|
|
12,388
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Dena
G. Bisgaier Trust, 1/23/04
|
|
12,388
|
(8)
|
*
|
|
12,388
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Bisgaier
Family LLC
|
|
24,776
|
(8)
|
*
|
|
24,776
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Noble
International Investments, Inc.
|
327,456
|
(6)
|
1.54%
|
|
327,456
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Redington,
Inc.
|
|
100,000
|
(9)
|
*
|
|
100,000
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
Rachel
Glicksman
|
|
28,281
|
(10)
|
*
|
|
28,281
|
|
-
|
|
0.00%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(1), (2), (3) These 7,086,380
shares are held in the name of Accredited Venture Capital, LLC,
Pharmainvestors, LLC is the managing member of Accredited Venture
Capital, LLC, and Steve H. Kanzer is the managing member of Pharmainvestors,
LLC. As such, Mr. Kanzer may be considered to have control over the voting and
disposition of the shares registered in the name of Accredited Venture Capital,
LLC. Mr. Kanzer disclaims beneficial ownership of those shares, except to the
extent of his pecuniary interest. Mr. Kanzer currently serves as
Chairman
of our Board of Directors and the 7,732,684 shares listed as beneficially owned
by him includes the 7,086,380 shares held by Accredited Venture Capital, LLC
described above as to which Mr. Kanzer disclaims beneficial ownership except to
the extent of his pecuniary interest, 375,246 shares purchased by Mr. Kanzer in
the open market during 2007 and 2008 and 271,058 options issued under our stock
option plan exercisable at $2.01 per share.
(4), (5)
354,069 of these shares are issuable upon the exercise of warrants. 230,556 of
these shares are issuable upon exercise of presently exercisable
options. Mr. Stergis is our Chief Executive Officer and our
vice chairman of our board of directors. Jennifer Stergis is Mr.
Stergis’s wife.
(6) All
of these shares are issuable upon the exercise of presently exercisable
warrants.
(7)
114,904 of these shares are issuable upon the exercise of
warrants. 22,621 of these shares are issuable upon exercise of
presently exercisable. Dr. Rudick was a member of our Board of
Directors and was our Chief Medical Officer until August 2007.
(8) All
of these shares are issuable upon the exercise of presently exercisable
warrants. Charles L. Bisgaier and Patricia L. Bisgaier are the trustees of this
trust. Mr. Bisgaier was a member of our Board of Directors and was our President
and Corporate Secretary until July 1, 2008, at which time he resigned from all
three positions.
(9) All
of these shares are issuable upon the exercise of warrants. 50,000 warrants
remain unvested.
(10)
Represents shares of common stock.
PLAN
OF DISTRIBUTION
Each
selling stockholder and any of their pledgees, assignees and
successors-in-interest may, from time to time, sell any or all of his, her or
its shares on the American Stock Exchange or any other stock exchange, market or
trading facility on which the shares are traded or in private transactions.
These sales may be at fixed or negotiated prices. A selling stockholder may use
any one or more of the following methods when selling shares:
|
•
|
|
ordinary
brokerage transactions and transactions in which the broker-dealer
solicits purchasers;
|
|
•
|
|
block
trades in which the broker-dealer will attempt to sell the shares as agent
but may position and resell a portion of the block as principal to
facilitate the transaction;
|
|
•
|
|
purchases
by a broker-dealer as principal and resale by the broker-dealer for its
account;
|
|
•
|
|
an
exchange distribution in accordance with the rules of the applicable
exchange;
|
|
•
|
|
privately
negotiated transactions;
|
|
•
|
|
settlement
of short sales entered into after the effective date of the registration
statement of which this prospectus is a
part;
|
|
•
|
|
broker-dealers
may agree with the selling stockholders to sell a specified number of
shares at a stipulated price per
share;
|
|
•
|
|
through
the writing or settlement of options or other hedging transactions,
whether through an options exchange or
otherwise;
|
|
•
|
|
a
combination of any of these methods of sale;
or
|
|
•
|
|
any
other method permitted pursuant to applicable
law.
|
The
selling stockholders may also sell shares under Rule 144 under the Securities
Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), if available, rather than under
this prospectus.
Broker-dealers
engaged by the selling stockholders may arrange for other brokers-dealers to
participate in sales. Broker-dealers may receive commissions or discounts from
the selling stockholders (or, if any broker-dealer acts as agent for the
purchaser of shares, from the purchaser) in amounts to be negotiated, but,
except as set forth in a supplement to this prospectus, in the case of an agency
transaction not in excess of a customary brokerage commission in compliance with
NASDR Rule 2440; and in the case of a principal transaction a markup or markdown
in compliance with NASDR IM-2440.
In
connection with the sale of shares, the selling stockholders may enter into
hedging transactions with broker-dealers or other financial institutions, which
may in turn engage in short sales of the shares in the course of hedging the
positions they assume. The selling stockholders may also sell shares short and
deliver these shares to close out their short positions, or loan or pledge
shares to broker-dealers that in turn may sell these shares. The selling
stockholders may also enter into option or other transactions with
broker-dealers or other financial institutions or the creation of one or more
derivative securities which require the delivery to that broker-dealer or other
financial institution of shares offered by this prospectus, which shares that
broker-dealer or other financial institution may resell pursuant to this
prospectus (as supplemented or amended to reflect that
transaction).
The
selling stockholders and any broker-dealers or agents that are involved in
selling the shares may be deemed to be “underwriters” within the meaning of the
Securities Act in connection with those sales. In that event, any commissions
received by those broker-dealers or agents and any profit on the resale of the
shares purchased by them may be deemed to be underwriting commissions or
discounts under the Securities Act. Each selling stockholder has informed us
that it does not have any written or oral agreement or understanding, directly
or indirectly, with any person to distribute the shares. In no event shall any
broker-dealer receive fees, commissions and markups which, in the aggregate,
would exceed eight percent (8%) of the gross proceeds of any
sale.
Because
selling stockholders may be deemed to be “underwriters” within the meaning of
the Securities Act, they will be subject to the prospectus delivery requirements
of the Securities Act including Rule 172 there under. In addition, any
securities covered by this prospectus which qualify for sale pursuant to Rule
144 under the Securities Act may be sold under Rule 144 rather than under this
prospectus. There is no underwriter or coordinating broker acting in connection
with the proposed sale of the resale shares by the selling
stockholders.
We agreed
to keep this prospectus effective until the earlier of (i) the date on
which the shares may be resold by the selling stockholders without registration
or (ii) all of the shares have been sold pursuant to this prospectus or
Rule 144 under the Securities Act or any other rule of similar effect. The
shares will be sold only through registered or licensed brokers or dealers if
required under applicable state securities laws. In addition, in certain states,
the shares may not be sold unless they have been registered or qualified for
sale in the applicable state or an exemption from the registration or
qualification requirement is available and is complied with.
Under
applicable rules and regulations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended (the “Exchange Act”), any person engaged in the distribution of the
shares may not simultaneously engage in market making activities with respect to
the common stock for the applicable restricted period, as defined in Regulation
M, prior to the commencement of the distribution. In addition, the selling
stockholders will be subject to applicable provisions of the Exchange Act and
the rules and regulations there under, including Regulation M, which may limit
the timing of purchases and sales of the shares by the selling stockholders or
any other person. We will make copies of this prospectus available to the
selling stockholders and have informed them of the need to deliver a copy of
this prospectus to each purchaser at or prior to the time of the sale (including
by compliance with Rule 172 under the Securities Act).
The
validity of the shares of common stock being offered by this prospectus has been
passed upon for Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc. by Miller, Canfield, Paddock &
Stone PLC of Detroit, Michigan.
EXPERTS
The
financial statements incorporated into this Prospectus by reference from the
Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31,
2007, have been audited by Berman & Company, P.A. an independent registered
public accounting firm, as stated in their report, which is incorporated herein
by reference, which report expresses an unqualified opinion. Such financial
statements have been so incorporated in reliance upon the report of such firm
given upon their authority as experts in accounting and auditing.
We are a
reporting company and file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy
statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
You may read and copy any document we file with the SEC at the Public Reference
Room (Room 1580), 100 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20549. You may also
obtain information on the operations of the Public Reference Room by calling the
SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC maintains a website (www.sec.gov) that contains
the reports, proxy and information statements, and other information that we
file electronically with the SEC.
This
prospectus is part of a registration statement that we filed with the SEC. The
registration statement contains more information than this prospectus regarding
us and the securities, including exhibits. You can obtain a copy of the
registration statement from the SEC at the above address or from the SEC’s
Internet site.
The SEC
allows us to “incorporate by reference” information contained in documents that
we file with the SEC, which means that we can disclose important information to
you by referring you to those other documents. The information incorporated by
reference is an important part of this prospectus, and information that we file
later with the SEC will automatically update and supersede this information. We
incorporate by reference the documents listed below and any future filings we
will make with the SEC under Section 13(a), 13(c), 14 or 15(d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 prior to the termination of this
offering:
(1)
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Our
Annual Report on Form 10-KSB for the year ended December 31, 2007
filed on March 31, 2008 as amended by an amendment on Form 10KSB filed on
August 29, 2008;
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(2)
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Our
Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2008, June
30, 2008 and September 30, 2008;
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(3)
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Our
Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on January 29, 2008,
February 29, 2008, March 10, 2008, March 18, 2008, April 1, 2008, May 2,
2008, May 16, 2008, July 8, 2008, July 9, 2008; August 14, 2008, October
16, 2008, November 14, 2008, January 6, 2009 and January 20,
2009.
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(4)
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The
description of our common stock contained in our registration statement on
Form 8-A filed with the SEC on January 29, 1993 (File NO.
000-21156).
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You may
request, orally or in writing, a copy of these documents, which will be provided
to you at no cost, by contacting:
Adeona
Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
3930
Varsity Drive
Ann
Arbor, MI 48108
Attention:
Corporate Secretary
Tel.:
(734) 332-7800
PART
II
INFORMATION
NOT REQUIRED IN PROSPECTUS
ITEM 14.
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OTHER
EXPENSES OF ISSUANCE AND
DISTRIBUTION
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The
following table sets forth all costs and expenses to be incurred by Adeona
Pharmaceuticals in connection with the preparation and filing of this
Registration Statement. All amounts shown are estimates except for the SEC
registration fee. We will pay all expenses in connection with the distribution
of the shares of common stock being registered hereby, except for the fees and
expenses of any counsel and other advisors that any selling stockholders may
employ to represent them in connection with the offering and any brokerage or
underwriting discounts or commissions paid to broker-dealers in connection with
the sale of the shares.
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SEC
Registration Fee
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$
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100
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Printing
and Engraving Expenses
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2,000
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Accountants’
Fees and Expenses
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10,000
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Legal
Fees and Expenses
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15,000
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Transfer
Agent Fees and Expenses
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2,000
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Miscellaneous
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1,000
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Total
Expenses
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$
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30,100
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ITEM 15.
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INDEMNIFICATION
OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS
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Section
145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law provides that a director or officer
is not individually liable to the corporation or its stockholders or creditors
for any damages as a result of any act or failure to act in his capacity as a
director or officer unless it is proven that (1) his act or failure to act
constituted a breach of his fiduciary duties as a director or officer and (2)
his breach of those duties involved intentional misconduct, fraud or a knowing
violation of law.
This
provision is intended to afford directors and officers protection against and to
limit their potential liability for monetary damages resulting from suits
alleging a breach of the duty of care by a director or officer. As a consequence
of this provision, stockholders of our company will be unable to recover
monetary damages against directors or officers for action taken by them that may
constitute negligence or gross negligence in performance of their duties unless
such conduct falls within one of the foregoing exceptions. The provision,
however, does not alter the applicable standards governing a director’s or
officer’s fiduciary duty and does not eliminate or limit the right of our
company or any stockholder to obtain an injunction or any other type of
non-monetary relief in the event of a breach of fiduciary duty.
The
Registrant’s By-laws provide for indemnification of directors, officers,
employees or agents of the Registrant to the fullest extent permitted by
Delaware law (as amended from time to time) provided he acted in good faith and
in a manner he reasonably believed to be in, or not opposed to, the bet interest
of the Registrant and, with respect to any criminal action or proceeding, had no
reasonable cause to behave his conduct was unlawful.
The
Registrant’s Certificate of Incorporation eliminates the personal liability of
the directors of the Registrant to the fullest extent permitted by paragraph
(b)(7) of Section 102 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (as amended from
time to time).
The
Registrant’s Certificate of Incorporation also indemnifies all persons whom it
has the power to indemnify under Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation
Law to the fullest extent permitted by that section.
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Description
of Document
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5.1
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Opinion
of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone PLC regarding the legality of the
securities being offered
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23.1
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Consent
of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone PLC (included as part of Exhibit
5.1 hereto)
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23.2
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Consent
of Berman & Company, P.A., an independent registered public accounting
firm
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24
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Powers
of Attorney (included on signature
page)
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The
undersigned registrant hereby undertakes:
(1) To
file, during any period in which it offers or sells securities, a post-effective
amendment to this registration statement:
(i) To
include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”);
(ii) To
reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date
of the registration statement (or the most recent post-effective amendment
thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change
in the information in the registration statement. Notwithstanding the foregoing,
any increase or decrease in volume of securities offered (if the total dollar
value of securities offered would not exceed that which was registered) and any
deviation from the low or high end of the estimated maximum offering range may
be reflected in the form of prospectus filed with the Commission pursuant to
Rule 424(b) if, in the aggregate, the changes in the volume and price represent
no more than a 20% change in the maximum aggregate offering price set forth in
the “Calculation of Registration Fee” table in the effective registration
statement; and
(iii) To
include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not
previously disclosed in the registration statement or any material change to
such information in the registration statement;
provided, however , that
paragraphs (1)(i), (ii) and (iii) above do not apply if the
information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those
paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed with or furnished to the
Commission pursuant to section 13 or section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) that are incorporated by reference
in the registration statement, or is contained in a form of prospectus filed
pursuant to Rule 424(b) that is part of the registration statement.
(2) That,
for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such
post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement of
the securities offered therein, and the offering of the securities at that time
shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.
(3) To
remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the
securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the
offering.
The
Registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability
under the Securities Act, each filing of the registrant’s annual report pursuant
to section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act that is incorporated by reference
in this registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration
statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such
securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering
thereof.
Insofar
as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be
permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the Registrant
pursuant to the indemnification provisions herein, or otherwise, the Registrant
has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission
such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act
and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification
against such liabilities (other than the payment by the Registrant of expenses
incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the Registrant
in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such
director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being
registered, the Registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter
has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate
jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public
policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final
adjudication of such issue.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, the Registrant certifies that
it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements of
filing on Form S-3 and has duly caused this Registration Statement to be signed
on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in Ann Arbor,
Michigan on January 27, 2009.
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ADEONA
PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.
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Registrant
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By:
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Nicholas
Stergis
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Chief
Executive Officer
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KNOW ALL
MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, that each person whose signature appears below
constitutes and appoints Nicholas Stergis his true and lawful attorney-in-fact
and agent with full power of substitution and re-substitution, for him and in
his name, place and stead, in any and all capacities to sign any or all
amendments (including, without limitation, post-effective amendments) to this
Registration Statement, any related Registration Statement filed pursuant to
Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act of 1933 and any or all pre-effective or
post-effective amendments thereto, and to file the same, with all exhibits
thereto, and all other documents in connection therewith, with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, granting unto said attorney-in-fact and agent, full
power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing requisite and
necessary to be done in and about the premises, as fully for all intents and
purposes as he or she might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and
confirming that said attorney-in-fact and agent, or any substitute or
substitutes for him, may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue
hereof.
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, this Registration Statement
has been signed by the following persons in the capacities and on the dates
stated.
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Signature
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Title
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Date
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Chief Executive Officer and
Director
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January
27, 2009
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Nicholas
Stergis
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(Principal
Executive Officer and Principal Financial and Accounting
Officer)
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Chairman
of the Board
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January
27, 2009
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Steve
H. Kanzer
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Director
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January
27, 2009
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Jeffrey
J. Kraws
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Director
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January
27, 2009
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Jeffrey
Wolf
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Director
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January
27, 2009
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James
S. Kuo
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EXHIBIT
INDEX
|
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|
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Description
of Document
|
5.1
|
|
Opinion
of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone PLC (including the consent of
such firm) regarding the legality of the securities being
offered
|
|
|
23.1
|
|
Consent
of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone PLC (included as part
of Exhibit 5 hereto)
|
|
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23.2
|
|
Consent
of Berman & Company, P.A., an independent registered public accounting
firm
|
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24
|
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Powers
of Attorney (included on signature
page)
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II-4