- Company hosts Investor and Business Update call on
December 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET
- Partial spin-off of Bentrio® business first step in transition
to become ‘pure play’ RNA delivery company
- Transition expected to complete in 2024 through partnering of
further legacy assets
- Spending levels and cash burn aligned with strategic
repositioning and to decrease significantly in 2024
- Free of financial debt following early repayment of convertible
loan
- Expects to regain full compliance with Nasdaq continued listing
rules through reverse split
HAMILTON, BERMUDA, Dec. 11, 2023 -- Altamira
Therapeutics Ltd. (Nasdaq: CYTO) ("Altamira" or the
"Company"), a company dedicated to addressing unmet medical needs,
today provided an investor and business update highlighting recent
activities and milestones achieved following the Company’s partial
spin-off of its Bentrio® business and pivot towards becoming a
pure-play RNA delivery business.
“The Bentrio transaction marks a significant
first milestone on our journey towards becoming a pure-play RNA
delivery company,” commented Thomas Meyer, Altamira
Therapeutics' founder, Chairman, and CEO. “With the
transaction we still retain the majority of Bentrio’s attractive
upside potential, while unlocking part of the intrinsic value of
our legacy assets. We expect to complete the repositioning of the
Company through partnerships with the remaining legacy assets in
2024. We will enter the new year with a streamlined cost structure,
free of financial debt and expect to be fully compliant with Nasdaq
listing rules. 2024 promises to be a very exciting year as we
continue to advance our OligoPhore/SemaPhore platform technology
within the promising field of RNA therapeutics.”
Bentrio Transaction / Legacy Assets
The partial Bentrio spin-off closed on November
21, 2023, resulting in the sale of a 51% stake in the Company’s
subsidiary Altamira Medica AG (“Medica”) to a Swiss private equity
investor for a cash consideration of approximately $2.3 million.
Apart from the raise of non-dilutive cash, the transaction
generated a financial gain of about USD $5.2 million in accordance
with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Altamira
will be entitled to receive 25% of the future licensing income of
Medica and of Medica’s value appreciation in case of a sale, which,
together with the 49% stake, captures 62% of the business upside
potential.
Bentrio is a drug free, preservative free nasal
spray for the treatment of allergic rhinitis and is the key asset
of Medica. The product is marketed primarily through distributors.
Medica expects sales to grow significantly from 2024 and onward,
driven by the launch of Bentrio in a growing number of countries.
In the coming year, Nuance Pharma will aim for market approval in
Mainland China and South Korea. Medica will initially supply
Bentrio to Nuance and may receive development and commercial
milestones of up to $3 million and up to $19.5 million,
respectively. Once Nuance assumes local production of Bentrio, it
will pay to Medica a staggered royalty on net sales at a
high-single to low-double-digit percentage. In Scandinavia, Pharma
Nordic will launch the product in Q1 2024. In addition, discussions
and negotiations for distribution in the US, Europe and other key
markets are ongoing.
Meanwhile, Altamira is also pursuing the
partnering of its other legacy assets, which include several
development programs in inner ear therapeutics. Discussions are
most advanced regarding AM-125, a nasal spray for the treatment of
acute vestibular syndrome, a very frequent type of dizziness.
Altamira invested more than $18 million to date and demonstrated
proof of concept in a Phase 2 trial. There is no comparable product
in the US. The Company expects significant partnering progress
during the first half of 2024. The inner ear legacy assets further
comprise early and late stage development programs in tinnitus and
hearing loss. Any proceeds derived from the partnering of the
remaining legacy assets will have a direct and positive impact on
the Company’s bottom line.
RNA Delivery Business Perspectives
In its future core business of RNA delivery
technology, Altamira is progressing with the development of the
OligoPhore™ and SemaPhore™ platforms for extrahepatic RNA delivery.
The technology allows for delivering RNA formulated in
nanoparticles to diseased tissues beyond the liver – in particular
cancer cells or inflamed cells in inflammatory or autoimmune
diseases. Within target cells, the nanoparticles disassemble and
release their RNA payload at a rate that represents approximately a
10-fold increase over lipid nanoparticles, the current industry
standard. The platform has been validated across more than 15
distinct animal disease models, utilizing both siRNA and mRNA, by
various research groups world-wide.
Altamira is pursuing with the RNA delivery
business a ‘picks and shovels’ strategy based on the licensing of
its platform technology to partners in the biotech and pharma
industry for use in their own RNA drug product development
programs. The Company has an expanding pipeline of business
development projects with potential collaboration partners and
expects important progress in 2024. Altamira’s two flagship
programs, AM-401 and AM-411, for KRAS-driven cancer and rheumatoid
arthritis respectively, serve to demonstrate the technology’s
potential and shall be licensed out following the IND (expected for
early 2025) or after a Phase 1 trial, at the latest.
Cost streamlined; strengthened balance
sheet
In 2023, the Company realigned its cost
structure with the strategic shift towards the RNA delivery
business. Following the conclusion of its clinical trials within
the legacy business, which were the key spending drivers over the
past 3 years, Altamira has substantially lowered spending levels
and is operating with a significantly reduced ‘burn rate’. The
streamlining included a reduction in headcount by approximately
25%, a reduction in office space and lower expenditures on legacy
assets. Altamira expects to realize the full impact of these
reductions in 2024.
Further, Altamira strengthened its balance sheet
in 2023 despite challenging capital market conditions in the
biotech sector. In July 2023, the Company raised $5 million in
equity through a public offering with the last pre-funded warrants
from the transaction getting exercised in mid-November 2023. In
addition, shareholders’ equity was reinforced through the financial
gain of about $5.2 million related to the partial spin-off of the
Bentrio business. Additionally, the Company repaid the convertible
loan of about $2.7 million from FiveT Investment Management ahead
of schedule through a combination of conversion into shares and
cash amortizations. Thanks to the early repayment, Altamira today
is free of financial debt.
Nasdaq Listing
Thanks to its improved equity position, on
November 21, 2023 Altamira regained compliance with the minimum
equity requirements for continued listing on Nasdaq. Further, the
Company’s Board of Directors has decided to effect a 20-for-1
reverse stock split on December 13, 2023. This measure shall ensure
Altamira’s timely compliance also with Nasdaq’s one-dollar minimum
bid price listing rule and make the stock more attractive for
institutional investors. Altamira anticipates meeting the Nasdaq
requirements before the close of 2023.
Investor Conference Call & Webcast
Details
Altamira management will hold an investor
teleconference on Monday, December 11, 2023, at 8:30
a.m. ET to discuss its investor and business update.
Founder, Chairman, and CEO Thomas Meyer will deliver prepared
remarks that will be available via teleconference or webcast with
audio and presenter-controlled slides.
Event: Altamira Therapeutics
Business Update CallDate: Monday, December 11,
2023Time: 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT)
Webcast URL: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/k7s8zdkg
Register for Teleconference:
-
Online: https://register.vevent.com/register/BIc43c7804270544c6bac8d34949816636
- Upon registering you will receive the dial-in info and a unique
PIN to join the call as well as an email confirmation with the
details.
- Select a method for joining the call.
- A dial-in number and unique PIN are displayed to connect
directly from your phone.
- Call Me: Enter your phone number and click “Call Me” for an
immediate callback from the system. The call will come from a US
number.
Webcast Replay:
A replay of the call will be available after the
live event and accessible through the webcast
link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/k7s8zdkg
About Altamira Therapeutics
Altamira (Nasdaq: CYTO) is dedicated to
developing RNA-based therapeutics for extrahepatic targets
(OligoPhore™ / SemaPhore™ delivery platforms). The Company
currently has two flagship siRNA programs in preclinical
development beyond in vivo proof of concept: AM-401 for KRAS driven
cancer and AM-411 for rheumatoid arthritis. The versatile delivery
platform is also suited for mRNA and other types of RNA
therapeutics and is planned to be leveraged via out-licensing to
pharma or biotech companies. In addition, Altamira is in the
process of divesting and/or out-licensing its legacy assets in
allergology and viral infection (Bentrio® OTC nasal spray;
commercial) and inner ear therapeutics (AM-125 nasal spray for
vertigo; post Phase 2; Keyzilen® and Sonsuvi® for tinnitus and
hearing loss; Phase 3). Founded in 2003, Altamira is headquartered
in Hamilton, Bermuda, with its main operations in Basel,
Switzerland. For more information,
visit: https://altamiratherapeutics.com/
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain statements that
constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
Forward-looking statements are statements other than historical
facts and may include statements that address future operating,
financial or business performance or Altamira’s strategies or
expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by
forward-looking words such as "may", "might", "will", "should",
"expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates",
"predicts", "projects", "potential", "outlook" or "continue", or
the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.
Forward-looking statements are based on management's current
expectations and beliefs and involve significant risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results, developments and
business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by
these statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are
not limited to, the success of strategic transactions, including
licensing or partnering, with respect to Altamira’s legacy assets,
Altamira’s need for and ability to raise substantial additional
funding to continue the development of its product candidates, the
clinical utility of Altamira’s product candidates, the
timing or likelihood of regulatory filings and approvals,
Altamira’s intellectual property position and Altamira’s
financial position, including the impact of any future
acquisitions, dispositions, partnerships, license transactions or
changes to Altamira’s capital structure, including
future securities offerings. These risks and uncertainties also
include, but are not limited to, those described under the caption
"Risk Factors" in Altamira’s Annual Report on Form 20-F
for the year ended December 31, 2022, and in Altamira’s other
filings with the Securities Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which are
available free of charge on the SEC’s website
at: www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or
uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated.
All forward-looking statements and all subsequent written and oral
forward-looking statements attributable to Altamira or to persons
acting on behalf of Altamira are expressly qualified in their
entirety by reference to these risks and uncertainties. You should
not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made,
and Altamira does not undertake any obligation to update them in
light of new information, future developments or otherwise, except
as may be required under applicable law.
Investor Contact:
Hear@altamiratherapeutics.com
800-460-0183
Altamira Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CYTO)
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