Pro-Pharmaceuticals will commence a rights offering

Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Newton said today it will commence a rights offering to shareholders and use the proceeds to advance its drug candidate Davanat through the regulatory process.

In mid September, Pro-Pharmaceuticals said that it would reallocate resources in order to extend the company's cash runway and fund operations into December after previously warning that it could run out of cash.

In today's press release, the company said that its board of directors has "approved a rights offering to its shareholders whereby the company will distribute non-tradable rights to purchase common stock and warrants."

Davanat is designed for use as a component in chemotherapy treatments for cancers such as advanced colorectal cancer.

"We intend to use the capital raised in this rights offering to meet our goal of getting our lead product in development, Davanat, through the regulatory process and into the marketplace," David Platt, chief executive, said in a statement. "We are devoting, and expect to continue to devote for the foreseeable future, substantially all of our resources to the preparation and filing a New Drug Application with the US Food and Drug Administration for Davanat to treat colorectal cancer patients. Davanat is our number one priority, and the funds raised from our loyal shareholders in the rights offering will allow us to continue to focus on this priority."

To read some earlier stories about Pro-Pharmaceuticals and Davanat, please click here.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)