Health & Fitness
Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness
Thu, January 8, 2009
Wed, January 7, 2009 Acusphere, Inc. Announces Receipt of NASDAQ Panel Decision to Delist Common Stock
WATERTOWN, Mass.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Acusphere, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACUS) announced today that it has received notification that the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel has determined to delist the Company's common stock from The NASDAQ Stock Market, effective with the open of business on Friday, January 9, 2009. The delisting is the result of the Company's failure to meet the $2.5 million stockholders' equity requirement for continued listing on The NASDAQ Capital Market or one of the alternative continued listing criteria.
Acusphere expects that its common stock will be eligible for trading on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board (the "OTCBB"), an electronic quotation service maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), effective with the open of business on Friday, January 9, 2009. The Company's shares are expected to continue to trade under the symbol ACUS.
About the OTCBB
The OTCBB is a regulated quotation service that displays real-time quotes, last-sale prices, and volume information in over-the-counter equity securities. An over-the-counter equity security generally is any equity that is not listed or traded on a national securities exchange. OTCBB securities include national, regional, and foreign equity issues, warrants, units, ADRs, and Direct Participation Programs. More information is available at [ http://www.otcbb.com ].
About Acusphere, Inc.
Acusphere (NASDAQ: ACUS) is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops new drugs and improved formulations of existing drugs using its proprietary microsphere technology. We are focused on developing proprietary drugs that can offer significant benefits such as improved safety and efficacy, increased patient compliance, greater ease of use, expanded indications or reduced cost. Our lead product candidate, ImagifyTM (Perflubutane Polymer Microspheres) for Injectable Suspension, is a cardiovascular drug for the detection of coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, for which a New Drug Application (NDA) was submitted to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in April 2008 and filed in June 2008. Imagify is designed to enable ultrasound to compete more effectively with nuclear stress testing, the leading procedure for detecting coronary artery disease. It is estimated that more than 10 million procedures are done each year in the U.S. to detect coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. The Company estimates that the potential annual U.S. market opportunity for Imagify exceeds $2 billion. Imagify and the Company's other product candidates were created using proprietary technology that enables Acusphere to control the porosity and size of nanoparticles and microspheres in a versatile manner that allows them to be customized to address the delivery needs of a variety of drugs. For more information about Acusphere visit the Company's web site at [ www.acusphere.com ].
"Acusphere" and "Imagify" are trademarks of Acusphere, Inc.
The above press release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding the development and commercial opportunity for Imagify. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements based upon a number of factors, including anticipated operating losses and existing capital obligations, uncertainties associated with research, development, testing and related regulatory approvals, including uncertainties regarding regulatory evaluation of the Company's statistical analysis plan and clinical trial results and uncertainties regarding the potential effects of not achieving clinical endpoints, limited time to date for the Company to review the details of the clinical trial results, future capital needs and uncertainty of additional financing, uncertainties regarding the cost, timing and ultimate success of the qualification of the Company's commercial manufacturing facility in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, complex manufacturing, high quality requirements, lack of commercial manufacturing experience, dependence on third-party manufacturers, suppliers and collaborators, uncertainties associated with intellectual property, competition, loss of key personnel, uncertainties associated with market acceptance and adequacy of reimbursement, technological change and government regulation, a trading market may not develop for our common stock on the OTCBB and other risks and challenges detailed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007 and the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
