- 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://nnw.fm/54qVZ) 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://nnw.fm/POAI
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