PRESS RELEASE: Alzheimer's Drug Developer Gets $20 Million

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PRESS RELEASE: Alzheimer's Drug Developer Gets $20 Million
by Jeanhee Kim
Crain's New York Business, NY

May 4, 2004

Biotechnology firm Axonyx Inc. says it has entered agreements with new 
institutional investors for a $20 million
private placement, its third such financing deal in the past nine months.

The Manhattan-based company says it will use the proceeds to buy new 
technologies and fund working capital requirements
focused on its core concern: central nervous system disorders, including 
Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's
diseases. Axonyx will sell 3.1 million shares at $6.50 each and issue five-year 
warrants for nearly 1 million more
shares at $8.50 apiece. The increasing price of each private placement--last 
September 2003, the price was $3.25, and
last January 2004 at $5.15--is a positive sign, "indicating that the company is 
perceived to be making progress," says
Matthew Kaplan, senior biotech analyst at Punk Ziegel & Co., who rates the 
company a ?buy.?

Axonyx?s lead product, an Alzheimer?s drug called phenserine, is in Phase III 
trials to evaluate its ability to improve
memory. Phase II studies are looking at its ability to slow the progression of 
the disease. "We may have the first
Alzheimer's drug that is a true disease modifier," says Chief Financial Officer 
Colin Neill. Both trials are taking
place in Europe and are expected to be finished by the end of this year. Under 
the best-case scenario, Axonyx would
apply for U.S. FDA approval in 2006, says Mr. Neill.

SOURCE: Crain's New York Business, NY


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