Athenex Announces $60 Million Private Placement

BUFFALO, N.Y., Dec. 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Athenex, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATNX), a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment of cancer and related conditions, today announced that it has directly entered into an agreement for the sale of its common stock in a private placement with a group of institutional investors. The lead investor in the private placement is Kingdon Capital Management, LLC. The transaction is expected to result in gross proceeds to Athenex of approximately $60 million, before deducting offering expenses. Net proceeds from the transaction are expected to be used to fund clinical development and regulatory activities for oral paclitaxel and encequidar; regulatory activities for tirbanibulin ointment for the treatment of actinic keratosis; commercialization activities, including pre-launch activities for oral paclitaxel and encequidar; manufacturing infrastructure; and working capital and general corporate purposes.

The Company will issue 3,945,750 shares of common stock for a purchase price of $15.30 per share, for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $60 million. The closing of the private placement is expected to occur on or about December 9, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey has acted as an exclusive placement agent to the Company in this private placement.

The offering of shares of common stock has not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or applicable state securities laws, and the shares are being offered pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and similar exemptions under applicable state securities laws. At the closing of the offering, the Company will enter into a registration rights agreement with the investors, pursuant to which the Company will agree to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission registering for resale the shares issued in this private placement.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any offer or sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction.

About Athenex, Inc.
Founded in 2003, Athenex, Inc. is a global clinical stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to becoming a leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of next generation drugs for the treatment of cancer. Athenex is organized around three platforms, including an Oncology Innovation Platform, a Commercial Platform and a Global Supply Chain Platform. The Company’s current clinical pipeline is derived from four different platform technologies: (1) Orascovery, based on non-absorbed P-glycoprotein inhibitor, (2) Src kinase inhibition, (3) T-cell receptor-engineered T-cells (TCR-T), and (4) Arginine deprivation therapy. Athenex’s employees worldwide are dedicated to improving the lives of cancer patients by creating more active and tolerable treatments.  Athenex has offices in Buffalo and Clarence, New York; Cranford, New Jersey; Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Hong Kong; Taipei, Taiwan; multiple locations in Chongqing, China; Manchester, UK; Guatemala City, Guatemala and Buenos Aires, Argentina. For more information, please visit www.athenex.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are typically identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “foresee,” “goal,” “guidance,” “intend,” “likely,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “preliminary,” “probable,” “project,” “promising,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” and similar expressions.  Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: the development stage of our primary clinical candidates and related risks involved in drug development, clinical trials, regulation, manufacturing and commercialization; our reliance on third parties for success in certain areas of Athenex’s business; our history of operating losses and need to raise additional capital to continue as a going concern; our ability to integrate CIDAL’s assets into our existing operations; competition; intellectual property risks; risks relating to doing business in China; the uncertainty of when, if at all, we will be able to resume producing API in our Chongqing plant; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in our SEC filings, copies of which are available for free in the Investor Relations section of our website at http://ir.athenex.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=254495&p=irol-sec or upon request from our Investor Relations Department. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof and we assume no obligation and do not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

CONTACTS
Investor Relations:
Tim McCarthy
Managing Director, LifeSci Advisors, LLC
Direct: 212-915-2564

Athenex, Inc.:
Randoll Sze
Chief Financial Officer
Email: [email protected] 

Jacqueline Li
Corporate Development and Investor Relations
Email: [email protected]