Australia's Prana gets funding for Ph II Alzheimer's program via $2 million equity investment from Quintiles

In a move that will help Australia's Prana Biotechnology progress its planned Phase II clinical program in Alzheimer's disease, the firm says that it had reached an agreement with leading clinical research provider Quintiles Transnational that will see the latter subscribe for up to $2 million in new Prana shares.

Quintiles, which has been intimately involved with Prana for a number of years and acted as the clinical research partner for Prana's last successful clinical trial, has agreed to support the future activities of Prana via:

1. The acquisition of 7,064,749 new ordinary shares in Prana at an issue price of A$0.1624 (16.24 cents per share) raising A$1.15 million ($1 million).

2. An agreement to subscribe for up to a further $1 million of new Prana shares in the private placement being conducted by Southern Cross Equities.

Prana also announced that it had signed a mandate with Southern Cross Equities for the placement of up to 225 million new shares at a price no less than 80% of the volume weight average price (VWAP) of Prana shares for the five days prior to the date of the placement. This placement, which is subject to shareholder approval, has been initiated to raise sufficient capital to enable the company to conduct a definitive Phase II clinical trial of its lead Alzheimer's disease drug PBT2.