Exhibit
1
NEWS
RELEASE ![](xomanewlogo.jpg)
XOMA
Refinances Royalty-Based Loan Facility for $55 Million
Adds
Approximately $31 Million to Cash Resources
Berkeley,
CA – May 12, 2008 - XOMA Ltd. (Nasdaq:XOMA), a leader in the discovery and
development of antibody therapeutics, announced today that it has entered into
an amended loan facility under which it has borrowed $55 million from Goldman
Sachs Specialty Lending Group, L.P. (Goldman Sachs). The loan is
secured by the royalty revenues the Company receives from sales of RAPTIVA®,
LUCENTIS® and
CIMZIA®. Using
proceeds from the new five-year loan, the Company paid off the remaining
principal, approximately $22.1 million, of its existing royalty-based loan from
Goldman Sachs and paid transaction-related fees and expenses. The
Company will use the remaining proceeds, approximately $31 million, to support
general corporate purposes. XOMA’s cash, cash equivalents and
short-term investments totaled $38.6 million at December 31, 2007.
No
shares, warrants, options or other equity components were or will be issued in
connection with the loan. Unlike many other royalty-related
financings with biotechnology companies, the loan involves no transfer of patent
ownership or licenses. The loan bears interest at an annual rate of
the greater of either six-month LIBOR or 3.0 percent, plus a margin of 8.5
percent. As of May 9, 2008, the six-month LIBOR rate was 2.78 percent and the
loan rate would have been 11.5 percent.
"This
loan strengthens the Company’s financial position and supports our ability to
move products forward in development without any dilution for our shareholders,”
said Steven Engle, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of XOMA. “The
loan preserves our ownership of the underlying intellectual property which
allows XOMA to continue to benefit from future increases in the sales of three
major products. The increase in available funds provides additional financial
strength at a particularly difficult time for the global credit and equity
markets.”
XOMA is
one of the few biotechnology companies receiving significant royalty revenue
from marketed therapeutic products. In 2006, the Company used these
revenue streams to obtain a $35 million loan from Goldman Sachs based on future
royalty payments for RAPTIVA® and
LUCENTIS® from
Genentech, Inc. and for CIMZIA® from UCB
Celltech.
Since
that time, XOMA’s royalty revenues have increased significantly as a result of
product sales growth. Combined sales of RAPTIVA® and
LUCENTIS® by
Genentech and its marketing partners increased to $1.6 billion for the trailing
four quarters ended March 31, 2008, compared to $0.8 billion for the prior year
period. As a result, XOMA’s royalty revenues increased 50 percent to
$18.0 million in the trailing four quarters ended March 31, 2008 from $12.0
million in the prior year period.
In
addition, XOMA expects to begin receiving royalty revenues from sales of
CIMZIA® by
UCB. CIMZIA® received
marketing approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2008
for the treatment of Crohn’s disease. UCB announced that CIMZIA® was
commercially available to patients in the US on April 24, 2008. CIMZIA® is
currently under review by the FDA in a second indication, rheumatoid
arthritis. UCB has said it
expects
the FDA to complete its review of CIMZIA® for
rheumatoid arthritis in the fourth quarter of 2008.
About
XOMA
XOMA is a
leader in the discovery, development and manufacture of therapeutic antibodies.
The Company's expanding pipeline includes XOMA 052, a broad anti-inflammatory
antibody drug candidate that targets the IL-1 pathway, and XOMA 629, an
anti-microbial drug candidate that is a synthetic peptide compound derived from
bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI). BPI is a human host-defense
protein that is one of the body's early lines of defense against invading
organisms.
XOMA has
multiple revenue streams from the licensing of its antibody technologies,
product royalties, development collaborations, and biodefense contracts. XOMA's
technologies and experienced team have contributed to the success of marketed
antibody products, including RAPTIVA®
(efalizumab) for chronic moderate to severe plaque psoriasis and LUCENTIS®
(ranibizumab injection) for wet age-related macular degeneration.
The
Company has a premier antibody discovery and development platform that
incorporates leading antibody phage display libraries and XOMA's proprietary
Human Engineering™ and bacterial cell expression technologies. Bacterial cell
expression is a key breakthrough biotechnology for the discovery and
manufacturing of antibodies and other proteins. As a result, more than 50
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have signed bacterial cell expression
licenses.
In
addition to developing its own products, XOMA develops products with premier
pharmaceutical companies including Novartis AG, Schering-Plough Research
Institute and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. XOMA has a fully integrated
product development infrastructure, extending from pre-clinical science to
product launch, and a team of 300 employees at its Berkeley location. For more
information, please visit http://www.xoma.com.
Certain
statements contained herein concerning product development or revenues or that
otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements are based on assumptions that
may not prove accurate. Actual results could differ materially from those
anticipated due to certain risks inherent in the biotechnology industry and for
companies engaged in the development of new products in a regulated
market.
These and
other risks, including those related to the results of discovery and
pre-clinical testing; the timing or results of pending and future clinical
trials (including the design and progress of clinical trials; safety and
efficacy of the products being tested; action, inaction or delay by the FDA,
European or other regulators or their advisory bodies; and analysis or
interpretation by, or submission to, these entities or others of scientific
data); changes in the status of existing collaborative relationships; the
ability of collaborators and other partners to meet their obligations; XOMA's
ability to meet the demands of the United States government agency with which it
has entered into its government contracts; competition; market demands for
products; scale-up and marketing capabilities; availability of additional
licensing or collaboration opportunities; international operations; share price
volatility; XOMA's financing needs and opportunities; uncertainties regarding
the status of biotechnology patents; uncertainties as to the costs of protecting
intellectual property; and risks associated with XOMA's status as a Bermuda
company,
are
described in more detail in XOMA's most recent filing on Form 10-K and in other
SEC filings. Consider such risks carefully when considering XOMA's
prospects.
Company
Contact:
|
Media
& Investors Contact:
|
Greg
Mann
|
Carolyn
Hawley
|
XOMA
|
Porter
Novelli Life Sciences
|
510-204-7270
|
619-849-5375
|
mann@xoma.com
|
chawley@pnlifesciences.com
|