VAS-T Sedar - 2 reports plus NR 84m at 2.23
NB: This is just a portion of the release.
Vasogen loss stays flat at $19.3-million in Q1
2006-04-17 17:35 ET - News Release
Mr. Terrance Gregg reports
VASOGEN ANNOUNCES FIRST QUARTER 2006 RESULTS
Vasogen Inc. today released the results of operations for the three months ended Feb. 28, 2006.
At Feb. 28, 2006, the company's cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities held to maturity totalled $61.0-million, compared with $85.2-million at Nov. 30, 2005.
The company incurred a net loss for the three months ended Feb. 28, 2006, of $19.3-million, or 23 cents per common share, compared with a net loss of $19.9-million, or 27 cents per common share for the similar period in 2005. The loss has decreased as a result of a reduction in the costs associated with the company's phase III clinical programs and has been partially offset by expenses associated with the senior convertible notes. The difference between cash used in operations and the company's accounting loss includes such non-cash items as stock option grant expense, amortization expense, accretion and amortization of costs associated with the senior convertible notes payable, offset by payment of accrued expenses related to the company's phase III clinical trials.
For the three months ended Feb. 28, 2006, research and development expenditures decreased to $11.4-million from $16.8-million for the same period in 2005. The majority of the decrease in the company's research and development expense for the three months ended Feb. 28, 2006, when compared with the same period in 2005, resulted from a significant reduction in the clinical trial activities relating to the company's phase III programs.
General and administrative expenditures were $4.9-million for the three months ended Feb. 28, 2006, compared with $5.4-million for the same period in 2005.
Highlights
During the quarter, final patient assessments were completed in the 2,400-patient multinational pivotal phase III Acclaim trial of patients with advanced chronic heart failure. The Acclaim trial is designed to definitively assess the impact of the company's Celacade technology on reducing the risk of death and cardiovascular hospitalization in patients with advanced chronic heart failure. Based on the company's current timeline projections for completing the processes necessary to lock the Acclaim database, the company expects to report the initial results from this trial in the first half of 2006.
In March, 2006, the results of the Simpadico trial were presented at a late-breaking clinical trial session of the 55th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta. While the Simpadico study did not reach the primary end point of change in maximal treadmill walking distance, therapy using the company's Celacade technology significantly reduced high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, a prespecified end point and a widely recognized marker of systemic inflammation associated with increased cardiovascular risk, including heart failure, stroke and heart attack. Therapy using the company's Celacade technology was also shown to significantly reduce the number of patients progressing to critical limb ischemia, a condition manifested by sharply diminished blood flow to the legs often resulting in the need for amputation. Exploratory analyses of the per-protocol population also showed improvements in certain quality-of-life measures and a statistically significant improvement in ankle-brachial index (measure of change in blood flow to the legs) at 26 weeks in the Celacade group.
On March 22, 2006, following the company's annual meeting of shareholders, Terrance H. Gregg succeeded William R. Grant as chairman of the company's board of directors. Mr. Gregg, who joined Vasogen's board of directors in 1999, has been vice-chairman since November, 2005, and has served as the chair of the compensation, nominating and corporate governance committee of the board for the past several years. Mr. Gregg's extensive experience in the health care sector includes his role as president and chief operating officer of MiniMed Inc., where he successfully transformed the company from a development-stage therapeutic device-company into a global leader in diabetes management systems. In 2001, Medtronic acquired MiniMed for $3.4-billion (U.S.). William R. Grant, who has served as Vasogen's chairman for the last five years, will remain a director on Vasogen's board.
The company also announced the appointment of Ronald M. Cresswell, PhD, hon. DSc, FRSE, former senior vice-president and chief scientific officer of Warner-Lambert, and Calvin R. Stiller, CM, O.ONT, MD, FRCP (C), co-founder and former chairman/chief executive officer of the Canadian Medical Discoveries Fund, to the company's board of directors during the quarter. Both Dr. Cresswell and Dr. Stiller have considerable experience directing the research, development and business initiatives of companies commercializing products for the health care industry. Dr. Cresswell has over 30 years of research and commercial development experience in cardiovascular and other important therapeutic areas and his vision and leadership in the development of Lipitor was instrumental in the product's ultimate success. Dr. Stiller was principal investigator of the Canadian multicentre study that established the importance of cyclosporine and led to its worldwide use as first-line therapy for transplant rejection.
As previously announced, a conference call and slide presentation will be conducted on April 18, 2006, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The slide presentation may be viewed at Vasogen's website, and the conference call may be accessed by calling 416-695-6622 or 1-800-769-8320, 10 minutes prior to the call. An audio webcast of the event will also be available at Vasogen's website. A rebroadcast of the conference call may be accessed by calling 1-800-293-5765, pin code 8019, and will also be available at Vasogen's website.
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