Drug discovery company Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE: CGEN) said that it has received approximately $3.6 million from the private sale of 1,000,000 shares of agritech subsidiary Evogene (TASE: EVGN) shares to a single purchaser.
The funds generated from this transaction are expected to be used by Compugen for general corporate purposes through mid-2010.
After the sale, Tel Aviv-based Compugen still holds 1,150,000 Evogene shares.
Compugen co-CEO Martin Gerstel noted, that "the path from computational prediction to experimental validation in the target organism is much quicker when dealing with agricultural crops than with humans." However, Compugen is apparently also progressing on medical research, and is in talks with "a number of major pharmaceutical and biotech companies regarding various forms of strategic arrangements".
Gerstel added, "As we move forward with these discussions, the funds generated through this sale of a portion of our Evogene holdings provides us with the cash required to fully support our operations through mid next year, even in the absence of any other sources of cash, and without any dilution to Compugen’s shareholders.”
Shares in Compugen closed at $1.89 yesterday, giving a market cap of $53.89 million. Evogene shares rose 2.2% by mid-afternoon, and are up over 105% in 2009.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 30, 2009
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