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Re: stockweiser post# 174273

Thursday, 04/24/2014 6:08:36 PM

Thursday, April 24, 2014 6:08:36 PM

Post# of 345554
Here you go stockweiser..

TWST: Could we start by asking you to give us a background summary and brief profile of Techniclone Corporation?
Dr. Bonfiglio: Techniclone was founded around 1982 and went public as a penny stock around 1984. It didn't go through a formal IPO format, so it has never been properly capitalized in my opinion. It was founded to become both a manufacturer of monoclonal antibodies, which at the time was a brand new technology, and also to be a diagnostic and therapeutic company. The company has struggled for a number of years because of the financing. As late as 1997 it did a financing, which caused a severe dilution in the stock, with the stock going from 27 million shares in 1997 to approximately 70 million shares in 1998. At this time we had some management shakeups. I joined the company in July 1997 as Vice President of Business Development, basically because I felt there were a number of technologies in this company that were incredibly sophisticated and needed good partners in order to ever get them developed into commercial products. I thought it was an opportunity to be able to do that. As of December 1999, the company went through another serious financial crisis, where we announced, I believe in November, that we had less than two months of cash left. The stock went down to approximately $0.25 at its low point in December 1999, and I was brought in to become the interim CEO and President. We've done a major turnaround since then. We've added $12 million into the bank since then. We've announced and closed two licensing deals, one with Scotia Holdings, and the other with Oxigene, Inc. for one of our technologies, the vascular targeting technology. We've restarted our clinical trials and have begun to actually increase the number of clinical trials for our lead commercial candidate Cotara, which is a drug for treating brain cancer and other solid tumors as well. The company is going to develop monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. Right now the business plan is set to develop these compounds through human clinical trials, and then look for partners to help us finish the commercialization process. At some point we believe that we'll take a product all the way through to commercialization. But right now, because of our financing, we believe that this is the most prudent strategy. We recently reduced our burn rate by over $350,000 a month. We've moved out of one facility into a much smaller facility. We've closed our commercial monoclonal antibody facility, leaving it open just for making clinical batches to supply our clinical supplies. We also have a partnership with Schering AG Germany for one of our other lead products, which is called Oncolym'. Oncolym is a monoclonal antibody designed to treat non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and Schering is in charge of the clinical trials. We recently restarted the trials with Schering taking the lead in that area. It's a multi-site trial. So basically, that's the company in a nutshell. I joined the company because I really believe in the technologies. I believe that for a company this size, has more technologies, more platform technologies than the next two or three companies of similar size.
TWST: When you look out over the next 12 to 24 months, what accomplishments would make that time frame a success?
Dr. Bonfiglio: Results, clinical results. Basically, this company has been around for a number of years without providing any clear-cut evidence of the clinical efficacy of the drugs that we have other than Oncolym. We have a lot of animal models. We have a lot of patents. The next step is to provide results, and that's what the company is all about right now. There are only two things that I'm focusing on as CEO and the company is focusing on. One of them is clinical trial results as the startup of new clinical trials for our TNT drugs. The other is our licensing strategy to take whatever compounds, or whatever technologies we can't afford to develop because of resources and cash constraints and put those into the hands of partners that can help us finish the development process.
TWST: Give us a look at your top management team today. Do you feel you have the right inventory, for the next two to three years?
Dr. Bonfiglio: Yes, I think we do. I think we've come a long way in the last two years. I'll start with me. My background is a PhD in chemistry and an MBA from Pepperdine University. I spent 11 years at Allergan Pharmaceuticals in a variety of roles starting as a scientist. But I have a lot of training and experience in the actual development of drugs because I did project management for a number of years, taking compounds from the laboratory and getting them into clinical development. Actually, several of the compounds I worked on are now products at Allergan. I also did strategic marketing and business development at Allergan before moving over to Baxter Immunotherapy, which is now Nexell Therapeutics, another cancer company devoted to looking at monoclonal antibodies in a different way for the treatment of cancer using high- dose chemotherapy. Then I joined Techniclone after a short stay at a different Baxter Division in the cardiovascular group, also doing business development. So I feel that I know what it takes to get a drug developed. I know what kind of people it takes, so I also know how expensive it is. We have a good handle on what we need to do in order to move these things along. My partnership background in doing alliances is helping with our trying to find strategic alliances.
Dr. Terry Chew, who is our Vice President of Clinical and Regulatory affairs, has about 20 years of experience in the industry. He's a medical oncologist. He was with Rohne-Poulenc Roer for a while doing clinical trials for them. He joined Agouron Pharmaceuticals and was involved in its metallaprotease inhibitor technology and clinical trials for drugs that are currently still under development. He then went to SkyePharma to help develop its oncology-based products as well before joining Techniclone. Terry has been in large part responsible for turning around the clinical program here and adding new trials, which are just about to start in other solid tumor indications. So he has a wealth of experience. Paul Lytle, who is the Vice President of Finance and Accounting is out of Deloitte & Touche. He's a CPA. He has been with the company since 1997, and he has a lot of experience as a controller. He's very good at controlling costs and helping to keep up with all the SEC filings and everything that needs to go on with financing the company. There's Steve King, who is our Vice President of Technology and Product Development. Steve actually worked in the laboratory of
Dr. Philip Thorpe, one of our inventors of our technology. He's responsible for all of the product development issues that are associated with antibodies and products and has come a long way in helping to develop that. Rich Richieri is our Director of Manufacturing. He has about 10 years of experience in the manufacturing of antibodies. Before coming to Techniclone he was at Xoma Ltd. The team is young, is hungry, and works really hard at getting things done. I think that's apparent from what we've been able to accomplish in the last six months.
TWST: Is cash or capital a limitation as you look at the opportunities ahead over the next few years?
Dr. Bonfiglio: I think for a biotech company in general, cash is always a limitation, unless you happen to have $100 million in the bank, which we don't. We have, right now, enough cash in the bank to get us through between 12 and 18, months, depending on how fast the clinical trials get escalated. We also have a line of credit in place, an equity line of credit, which would allow us to draw, depending on the stock price, around $20 million additional capital on a monthly basis as we need it. We're also planning on doing several other licensing deals, which will help bring in the cash as well. In addition, we have a commitment from Schwartz Equity to provide us with a second equity line of credit after this one that's remaining runs out. So I think it is a limitation. I think we have to be very careful about how we spend our cash. But I think that as long as we're focusing on clinical trials and getting results, I think we'll be fine.
TWST: At this point, how could the investment community better understand Techniclone? As you speak with potential investors and analysts, what are the misperceptions that you encounter?
Dr. Bonfiglio: The company has been around a long time and has made a number of promises to the Street that have not been fulfilled. It has caused a black mark against us in a lot of ways. I think that's changing. I recently was at a bio conference in San Francisco, the Robertson Stephens conference, and one of the leading analysts, biotech newsletter analysts, listened to my talk and actually commented to another writer that this sounds like a new company, that we're really making progress. It really is a new company. I think the technologies speak for themselves. One of the things that is a misconception is that people really don't understand how broad these technologies are in terms of the market potential. There has been a lot of talk of these things, but no one has seen enough real clinical results that would drive people to believe. We're at the verge of being able to provide that. My goal is to complete and evaluate the clinical trials, get the information out there, and let the scientists and the market makers assess the data. That's what we're doing right now.
TWST: What role might mergers and acquisitions play in this company's future?
Dr. Bonfiglio: The Board and I, are open for any kind of merger or alliance, which makes sense. I think what we need to do is assess everything on an individual basis at this point. So what we're doing right now is talking to companies that have similar needs and could provide synergy. Obviously we're looking for cash, but we're not in any serious discussions at this point over a merger or an acquisition. I think we have enough technology here and can do enough licensing deals along with our line of credit to keep us afloat. But if the right opportunity came along, of course we wouldn't turn it down and would also have to be approved by the shareholders.
TWST: What is the summary statement that would convince an investor to buy in?
Dr. Bonfiglio: I think we're a refocused company. We're financially stable. We are undervalued, in my opinion, based upon the fact that we're in a Phase II trial for brain cancer right now with a chance to go into Phase III next year. We're starting two more Phase I trials in solid tumors. We have a trial in a different drug for a Phase I/II trial for a non-Hodgkins lymphoma drug. I believe that a lot of news will be coming out over the next 12 months, which could increase the value of the stock and also increase our visibility on Wall Street.
TWST: Thank you. (DA)
Dr. JOHN N. BONFIGLIO President & CEO Techniclone Corporation 14282 Franklin Avenue Tustin, CA 92780 (714) 508-6000 (714) 838-9433 - FAX www.techniclone.com e-mail: info@techniclone.com
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