Accelr8 Attracts Up To $35 Million Private Equity Investment
April 23 2012 - 2:01PM
Business Wire
Accelr8 Technology Corporation (Amex: AXK) announced today that
an investment group formed by Jack Schuler, John Patience, and
Larry Mehren will invest a total of up to $35 million in Accelr8’s
common stock. The purpose is to complete the product development
and market introduction of Accelr8’s BACcel™ culture-free,
diagnostic system for same-shift identification and antibiotic
resistance testing of bacterial and fungal pathogens.
Jack Schuler and John Patience are the principals and founders
of Crabtree Partners LLC. Crabtree has been instrumental in the
success of numerous companies including founding Stericycle, and
leading the investment group that provided the capital for Ventana
Medical Systems’ first instrument. As Chairman and Vice-Chairman
for over ten years, Jack Schuler and John Patience were
instrumental in the growth of both organizations, resulting in the
successful sale of Ventana to Roche for $3.4B, and the growth of
Stericycle’s current market capitalization to over $7.4B.
Prior to forming Crabtree, Jack Schuler was the President and
COO of Abbott Laboratories. He is a principal shareholder and
director of Quidel Corp. (NASDAQ: QDEL), a point of care
diagnostics company, a current director of Medtronic (NYSE: MDT)
and the lead director of Stericycle (NASDAQ: SRCL).
John Patience headed the worldwide healthcare consulting
practice of McKinsey & Co., Inc. and was a co-founder of
Marquette Venture Partners. He is a director of Stericycle and
Biodesix.
Larry Mehren was most recently Head of Global Business/COO of
Roche Tissue Diagnostics and, immediately prior to that, CFO of
Ventana Medical Systems. He is a director of Medical Referral
Source, and a former investment banker. He will be named CEO of
Accelr8 upon closing.
“We are enthusiastic about the potential of our company and
technology, and realized we needed the right partner,” says Tom
Geimer, CEO of Accelr8. Tom further states that, “After a thorough
and deliberate process, the board chose Crabtree due to their
unique hands-on expertise in life sciences development, operations,
and commercialization, as well as their unparalleled track record
of creating shareholder value for the companies they invest
in.”
Terms include purchase of 14 million shares of Accelr8‘s common
stock at $1.03 per share for an initial investment of $14.42
million. The investors also will be issued a total of 7 million
warrants with an exercise price at $1.03, and 7 million warrants
with an exercise price at $2.00. The parties anticipate closing on
or before July 1, 2012, subject to obtaining shareholder approval
on the transaction.
In addition to changes in corporate officers, the investment
contemplates a substantial increase in development staff. According
to David Howson, Accelr8’s current president and future Chief
Scientific Officer, “This leadership team and investment will allow
us to rapidly advance BACcel™ development, and demonstrate its
ability to quickly determine multi-drug resistance through the
system’s unique method of identification and sensitivity testing.”
Mr. Howson concludes, “Crabtree and Accelr8 are a perfect
partnership of business and science. It should yield significant
success.”
About Accelr8
Accelr8 Technology Corporation (www.accelr8.com) is a developer of innovative
materials and instrumentation for advanced applications in medical
instrumentation, basic research, drug discovery, and bio-detection.
Accelr8 is developing a rapid analytical platform for infectious
pathogens, the BACcel™ system, based on its innovative assay
processing and detection technologies. In addition, Accelr8
licenses certain of its proprietary technology for use in
applications outside of Accelr8’s own products.
Certain statements in this news release may be “forward-looking
statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934, as amended. Statements regarding future prospects and
developments are based upon current expectations and involve
certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and
developments to differ materially from the forward-looking
statement, including those detailed in the company's filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. Accelr8 does not undertake
an obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information or future
events.
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