prana’s u.s. capital approved by australian shareh

COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT
Prana’s U.S. capital approved by Australian shareholders
Melbourne, Australia – 2 June, 2004: Shareholders in Prana Biotechnology Limited
(NASDAQ: PRAN, ASX: PBT) have approved the issuing of securities worth US $20
million to institutional and professional investors, led by New York-based global
healthcare fund managers, OrbiMed Advisors and XMark Funds. The transaction was
originally announced on April 28, 2004.
Geoffrey Kempler, Executive Chairman of Prana commented: “This substantial support
shown by leaders in the healthcare investment community reflects the progress and
strength of Prana’s technology.
“With this offering, we have been able to enhance shareholder value by increasing our
access and exposure to the vast US capital markets and br oaden our base of US
institutional investors, complementing our traditional Australian shareholder base.
“We continue to build on our already strong connection with the US and now have a
board member, Dr Jon Alsenas, and our chief scientist (one of the inventors of our
MPAC technology) Prof Ashley Bush, based there. This capital raising will provide the
funds to progress PBT-2, our proprietary MPAC for Alzheimer’s disease, into clinical
trials in Australia through 2005 and 2006,” said Mr Kempler.
Investors also purchased five-year warrants to purchase an additional 3 million ADR’s at
an exercise price of US$8.00 per ADR. If exercised, this would raise an additional
US$24 million for the Company. Investment bank, Rodman & Renshaw LLC acted as the
placement agent for the transaction.
ENDS
About Prana’s technology
PBT-1 and PBT-2 are Metal Protein Attenuating Compounds or MPACs. Prana’s MPACs are chemicals that
bind zinc and copper, and have been shown to lower the levels of amyloid beta (and associated toxicity) in
the brains of transgenic mice used as a model of Alzheimer’s Disease.
About Prana
Prana is a Melbourne-based biotechnology established in 1997 to commercialize research into Alzheimer's
disease and other major age-related degenerative disorders (Nasdaq: PRAN; ASX: PBT). Prana's
technology was discovered by the company's researchers at prominent international institutions including Dr
Ashley Bush and Dr Rudy Tanzi at the Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School and
Professor Colin Masters at the University of Melbourne. For more information about Prana, please visit
www.pranabio.com
For more information contact:
Company Media and Investor, US Media, Australia
Geoffrey Kempler, Prana Ivette Almeida and Steven Silver Kate Mazoudier
+61 (3) 9690 7892 212-983-1702 ext. 209 and 212 +61 3 9866 4722
[email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]