- POAI
CEO exchanges $2.1 million promissory note for newly issued stock shares
- Strategic
agreement enables company to strengthen balance sheet, simplify capital
structure in plan to commercialize highly valuable database
- Because
of its unique patient inventory, Helomics is only company with ability to
profile tumors
In a significant move indicating strong confidence in the
company’s future, Predictive Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: POAI) CEO Dr. Carl
Schwartz has entered into an agreement exchanging a $2.1 million promissory
note for equity in the company, which has established itself as a leader in the
cancer precision-medicine field. In addition, during a recent interview,
Schwartz called POAI’s subsidiary Helomics a “major asset,” and noted (http://ibn.fm/8knZX) that the
company’s “claim to fame is its inventory of over 150,000 cancer tumors
covering over 137 types of cancers, with over 30,000 related to ovarian cancer,
which is sort of our specialty.”
The agreement, which was released late last month, outlines
the details: Schwartz has exchanged the promissory note for newly issued
shares of common stock – $0.01 par value of the company at market value.
The debt-to-equity arrangement was negotiated on an arms-length basis between
Predictive Oncology and Schwartz and was approved by POAI’s board of directors’
audit committee in accordance with the listing requirements of the Nasdaq
Stock Market.
“This agreement enables the company to strengthen its
balance sheet and simplify its capital structure at a critical juncture in our
quest to commercialize our highly valuable database of cancer tumors for the
advancement of predictive medicine,” Schwartz stated in a news release. “At the
same time, it reinforces my commitment and demonstrates my beliefs in our
ability to emerge as a leader in the application of artificial intelligence to
oncology therapies.”
Upon delivery of the note, Predictive Oncology cancelled the
$2,115,000 debt in exchange for 1,533,481 shares of newly issued common stock
at an exchange rate of $1.43 per share, the closing price of the
common stock on April 21, 2020, prior to the execution of the exchange
agreement.
In addition to this strong vote of confidence in the
company, Schwartz touted POAI’s future during an exclusive NNW interview with
Stuart Smith. During the interview, Schwartz pointed out that Helomics’
collection of more than 150,000 cancer tumors is the largest inventory of its
kind in the world and that the impressive collection “was amassed over the last
two decades by physicians sending in cancerous tumors to be tested with the
known therapies of the time. The results of these tests were in turn sent back
to the referring physicians to be used as a guide or a reference as desired for
treatment of the evaluated tumor,” he continued. “And the evaluated tumor was
placed back in the physician’s therapy inventory. That’s how we amassed all
these tumors.”
Schwartz explained that POAI was intent on proving that it
can sequence, “which is genetically profile our tumors, and do what is called a
‘reach back,’ or examination of what eventually happened to these patients over
an extended period of time. I want to strongly emphasize that Helomics is the
only company with the ability to do this ‘reach back’ at this time because only
we have a patient history.”
Once Predictive Oncology validates the process, the
company’s plan is to obtain major funding from the pharma industry. “We’re
pretty excited about this,” Schwartz stated. “We think we’re going to finally
get to the top of the heap here very shortly.”
POAI is bringing precision medicine, or tailored
medical treatment using the individual characteristics of each patient, to the
treatment of cancer. Through the company’s Helomics division, the company
leverages its unique, clinically validated patient derived (PDx) smart tumor
profiling platform to provide oncologists with a road map to help individualize
therapy. In addition, the company is leveraging artificial intelligence and its
proprietary database of over 150,000 cancer cases tumors to build
AI-driven models of tumor drug response – improving outcomes for the patients
of today and tomorrow.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.Predictive-Oncology.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates
relating to POAI are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/POAI
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