SHELTON, CT / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2020 / NanoViricides, Inc. (NYSE American:NNVC) (the "Company"), a leader in the development of highly effective antiviral therapies based on a novel nanomedicines platform, announced today that it has raised $10.22 Million in gross proceeds from the sale of 1.4 million shares of common stock, and no warrants, at a price of $7.30 per share, in a previously announced registered direct offering (the "Offering").
Maxim Group LLC and Kingswood Capital Markets, a division of Benchmark Investments, Inc. acted as co-Placement Agents in connection with the Offering. The co-Placement Agents were paid a total cash fee of 8% of the gross proceeds, plus $75,000 for reimbursement of legal fees.
The net proceeds to the Company were approximately $9.327 Million, after deducting placement agent fees and other costs. The purchase price reflects a discount of 19.7% to the closing price of $9.09 on May 21st, 2020, when the Securities Purchase Agreement was entered into. The Offering closed on May 22, 2020.
"We have substantially improved our balance sheet with this Offering," said Meeta R. Vyas, CFO, adding, "The proceeds provide us with an additional runway of over a year at our current rate of expenditures."
The Company intends to use the net proceeds of approximately $9.327 Million, after deducting placement agent fees and other costs towards general business purposes. The purchase price reflects a discount of 19.7% to the closing price of $9.09 on May 21st, 2020, when the Securities Purchase Agreement was entered into. The Offering closed on May 22, 2020.
"This infusion of funds will help us accelerate our drug development to cure the SARS-CoV-2 infection that is causing the global COVID-19 disease pandemic," said Anil R. Diwan, PhD, President and Executive Chairman of the Board, adding, "The funds will also enable us to further advance our first drug candidate for Shingles through initial human clinical trials, and further advance additional HerpeCide™ program candidates against HSV-1 that causes cold sores, and HSV-2 that causes genital ulcers, towards clinical candidate selection."
The Company has recently announced (on May 12th) that its nanoviricides coronavirus drug candidates were highly effective against certain human coronaviruses, namely hCoV-NL63 and hCoV-229E, in cell culture studies, indicating broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus effectiveness. The Company has also announced on May 20th that these drug candidates were highly effective in combatting lethal lung infection by hCoV-NL63 in a rat animal model study. HCoV-NL63 uses the same ACE2 receptor as the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the pandemic, and also exhibits similar disease pathology in human infections, albeit causing a much milder disease. HCoV-NL63 can be used in a BSL2 lab whereas SARS-CoV-2 currently requires BSL3/BSL4 labs. Therefore, the Company believes hCoV-NL63 serves as a useful model for drug development against SARS-CoV-2.
The Company believes that these results are significant and indicate that a clinical nanoviricide drug candidate, once selected, would be worthy of human clinical trials for curing SARS-CoV-2 infection that causes the COVID-19 spectrum of diseases. NanoViricides is one of a few biopharma companies with its own cGMP-capable drug manufacturing facility. The Company believes it will be able to manufacture thousands of doses in a short period of time at this facility.
Maxim Group LLC and Kingswood Capital Markets, a division of Benchmark Investments, Inc. acted as co-Placement Agents in connection with the Offering. The co-Placement Agents were paid a total cash fee of 8% of the gross proceeds, plus $75,000 for reimbursement of legal fees.
The Shares were issued pursuant to a prospectus supplement dated May 21, 2020 which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on May 22, 2020 in connection with a takedown from the Company's shelf registration statement on Form S-3, as amended (File No. 333-237370), which became effective on April 2, 2020 and the base prospectus dated April 2, 2020 contained in that registration statement.
A Current Report on Form 8-K was filed on May 22, 2020 with the SEC. The description of the Offering contained herein is qualified in its entirety by reference to this Current Report and attached Exhibits thereto.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor will there be any sales of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.
About NanoViricides, Inc.
NanoViricides, Inc. (www.nanoviricides.com) is a development stage company that is creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company's novel nanoviricide® class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. Our lead drug candidate is NV-HHV-101 with its first indication as dermal topical cream for the treatment of shingles rash. The Company is also developing drugs against a number of viral diseases including oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others. The Company's technology is based on broad, exclusive, sub-licensable, field licenses to drugs developed in these areas from TheraCour Pharma, Inc. The Company has recently engaged in drug development against coronaviruses, in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The Company does not currently have a license to the coronavirus field, however, TheraCour has not denied any licenses to the Company. The Company typically begins the licensing process only after demonstrating effectiveness of some candidates in optimization stage.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect the Company's current expectation regarding future events. Actual events could differ materially and substantially from those projected herein and depend on a number of factors. Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by NanoViricides, Inc. 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. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Company's control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the company's expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in documents filed by the company from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Although it is not possible to predict or identify all such factors, they may include the following: demonstration and proof of principle in preclinical trials that a nanoviricide is safe and effective; successful development of our product candidates; our ability to seek and obtain regulatory approvals, including with respect to the indications we are seeking; the successful commercialization of our product candidates; and market acceptance of our products.
As with any drug development efforts, there can be no assurance that any of these candidates would show sufficient effectiveness and safety for human clinical development at this time. There can be no assurance that the Company will be successful in establishing the necessary collaborations, although the Company has been successful at establishing necessary collaborations for its drug programs in the past.
