Geron Sells Shares To Raise $40 Million

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Geron Sells Shares To Raise $40 Million
By Tim Simmers, BUSINESS WRITER

Article Last Updated: Friday, November 12, 2004 - 11:49:03 AM PST

MENLO PARK -- Striking while market interest is hot, stem-cell
pioneer Geron Corp. announced Thursday that it agreed to sell 6.5
million shares of its stock to institutional investors to raise $40
million.

Geron became the first among a tiny group of publicly traded stem
cell researchers to capitalize on the state's $3 billion stem cell
research initiative, Proposition 71, and will use the money partly to
expand its stem cell work.

"It's a quick and efficient way to raise capital to expand in the
stem cell area," said Steven Burrill, life science merchant banker at
Burrill & Co. in San Francisco.

Menlo Park-based Geron sold the shares in a private placement at a
discount price of $6.10 per share to two East Coast institutions. The
stock closed at $6.96 Thursday on the Nasdaq Exchange, down 34 cents.


The stock was down 3 cents to $6.93 per share at 9:30 a.m. today.

Geron expects to spend some of the money on a path to a regulatory
filing and clinical trials that target spinal cord injuries using
cells from human embryonic stem cells.

The passage of Prop. 71 fueled investor interest in Geron, said David
L. Greenwood, Geron's chief financial officer.

The company has a long history in stem cell research, about 200
patents in the field and spent $80 million of its own money on early
research in the field, targeting treatments and cures in Parkinson's
disease, Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes and other ailments.

"Sometimes you have to be opportunistic, and opportunity was flowing
from the passage of Prop. 71," said Greenwood. "There's been investor
interest in us leading up to the election and after it."

Greenwood declined to name the investors.

California's biotechnology community has been injected with new hope
from Prop. 71, and expects the $3 billion

funding over 10 years to create a local boom in recruiting research
scientists and construction of biotechnology research facilities at
universities.

Geron also said it will use  some of the money it raised to fund
trials on its cancer vaccine and its telomerase inhibitor next year.

In connection with the sale, the company issued warrants with a 60-
day exercise period to purchase about 2 million shares at the same
price per share, and longer term warrants, exercisable after 180
days, to purchase about 2.3 million shares at a premium.

The company's cash position is now about $130 million, Greenwood
said.

Tim Simmers can be reached at (650) 348-4361 or
tsimmers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SOURCE: San Mateo County Times, CA
http://tinyurl.com/72854

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