NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – BioTime has raised a further $4 million through the second tranche of a private placement of its common stock and purchase warrants.
The Alameda, Calif.-based firm said that Broadwood Partners and George Karfunkel have each purchased 1.1 million common shares in the firm as well as 1.1 million stock purchase warrants. The warrants are "substantially the same" as BioTime's publicly traded stock purchase warrants, the firm said, and entitles holders to purchase additional common shares at an exercise price of $2 per share.
The warrants will expire on Oct. 31, 2010, and may not be exercised after that date. BioTime's shares closed Monday at $3.20 on the OTC Bulletin Board.
The firm completed the first $4 million tranche of the private offering in May.
BioTime could receive more than $24 million of equity capital if all of its class of publicly traded warrants and the warrants sold to Broadwood Partners and Karfunkel are exercised prior to the Oct. 31, 2010, expiration date, BioTime CEO Michael West said in a statement.
BioTime's primary business is focused on its Hextend blood plasma expander. But the firm also is developing regenerative medicine products. In addition, its Embryome Sciences subsidiary sells research products for stem cell products and regenerative medicine. That subsidiary inked a deal last week with Millipore, under which Millipore will be the worldwide distributor of its ACTCellerate human progenitor cell lines.