Inovio establishes Asian unit with $5.4M offering

Inovio Biomedical Corp, a USA-based late-stage developer of therapies for cancer and other applications, has established Inovio Asia Pte Ltd, a majority-owned subsidiary in the Republic of Singapore, with the goal of pursuing business and scientific development opportunities in the east Asian marketplace.

Inovio has entered into a definitive agreement with foreign institutional and accredited investors, all Singapore-based, to sell approximately 2,201,644 ordinary shares of Inovio Asia at $2.43 per share, that will result in cash proceeds to the new subsidiary, of around $5.35 million, before offering expenses. These ordinary shares of Inovio's subsidiary will be exchanged for shares of common stock and warrants to purchase 770,575 shares of common stock of Inovio Biomedical no later than three months following the closing of the transaction and may be exchanged earlier following the closing upon the occurrence of certain events.

Separately, Inovio also entered into a definitive agreement to sell directly, to foreign institutional and accredited investors based primarily in Singapore, approximately 4,074,067 shares of Inovio Biomedical common stock at $2.43 per share and warrants to purchase 1,425,919 futher shares, that will result in proceeds to the US firm, before offering expenses, of $9.9 million. The price of the Inovio common stock to be issued upon completion of the direct financing and upon the exchange roughly represents a 105% premium to its September 15, 2006, closing price.