UNITED STATES

 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

 

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 8-K

 

CURRENT REPORT

 

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934

 

Date of Report (date of Earliest Event Reported): March 14, 2017

 

 

moleculin biotech, INC.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

 

DELAWARE 001-37758 47-4671997
(State or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation or Organization)
(Commission File No.) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

 

2575 WEST BELLFORT, SUITE 333, HOUSTON TX 77054

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

 

(713) 300-5160

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

(Former name or former address, if changed from last report)

 

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions ( see General Instruction A.2. below):

 

¨ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 

¨ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 

¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 

¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-14(c)).

 

 

 

 

Item 8.01. Other Events.

 

On March 15, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (the “Company”) will be featured as a presenting company at the 29th Annual Roth Conference. Representatives of the Company will use the presentation set forth as Exhibit 99.1 herein in connection with the foregoing presentation and in various meetings with investors from time to time.

 

 

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

 

(d) Exhibits.

 

Exhibit No. Description

 

99.1 Moleculin Biotech, Inc. Investor Presentation
99.2 Press release dated March 10, 2017

 

 

SIGNATURE

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

 

  MOLECULIN BIOTECH, INC.
Date: March 14, 2017    
  By: /s/ Jonathan Foster  
    Jonathan Foster
    Chief Financial Officer

 

 

 

 

 

EXHIBIT INDEX

 

Exhibit No. Description

 

99.1 Moleculin Biotech, Inc. Investor Presentation
99.2 Press release dated March 10, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

Exhibit 99.1

 

NASDAQ : MBRX March 15, 2017

 

 

Disclaimer All statements contained herein other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our future results of operations and financial position, our business strategy and plans, and our objectives for future operations, are forward - looking statements . The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward looking statements . We have based these forward - looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short - term and long - term business operations and objectives, and financial needs . These forward - looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section of the Form S - 1 filed with the SEC on February 7 , 2017 . Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment . New risks emerge from time to time . It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward - looking statements we may make . In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this presentation may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward looking statements . More detailed information about Moleculin is set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission . Investors and security holders are urged to read these documents free of charge on the SEC’s web site at http : //www . sec . gov . 2

 

 

Recent Offering Issuer Moleculin Biotech, Inc. Security Unit consisting of one share of common stock and 1) an “A” five year w arrant to purchase 0.50 shares at $1.50 per share; 2) a “B” 90 day warrant to purchase 1.00 share of common stock at $1.35 per share; and 3) Upon exercise of the “B” warrant a “C” five year warrant to purchase 0.50 share at $1.50 per share NASDAQ Ticker MBRX Shares Outstanding After Completion of Offering 15,874,851 Units offered / Est. Net Proceeds 3,170,000 units / $4.4 million proceeds net of external and internal costs Price $1.35 per unit Use of Proceeds Preclinical and clinical development of drug pipeline Mgmt. Lock - Up Agreement 90 day lock - up Underwriter Roth Capital Partners and National Securities Corporation Closing Date February 14 , 2017 3

 

 

4 Robust pipeline 3 distinctly different technologies, all with blockbuster potential World - leading collaboration MD Anderson Cancer Center Breakthrough disruptive technologies Annamycin for AML: little to no cardiotoxicity , avoids MDR1 WP1066: STAT3 inhibitor that also stimulates immune response WP1122: metabolic inhibitor with improved BBB transmission Highly experienced leadership Veteran pharma/biotech, life science micro - cap managers Proprietary positioning Orphan drug (applied) and/or patents, exclusive licenses

 

 

Experienced Management Team Selected Prior Experience Walter Klemp Chairman & CEO Don Picker, PhD President & COO Jonathan P. Foster. CPA, CGMA EVP & CFO Robert Shepard, MD, FACP Chief Medical Officer 5 #1

 

 

Selected Prior Experiene Waldemar Priebe, PhD Madeleine Duvic, MD John Paul Waymack, MD, SCD Sandra Silberman, MD, PhD Science Advisory Board Members 6

 

 

Development Pipeline 7 Discovery (Finding potential new drugs) Pre - Clinical Development (Laboratory Testing) IND Filing (Investigational New Drug; FDA Filing) Phase I/II (Human safety & proof of concept) Approval Trial (Phase IIb or III as required) Adult AML WP1066 (Glioblastoma, metastatic melanoma) WP1122 (Glioblastoma) CNS malignancies Pediatric acute leukemia WP1220 (CTCL) Diagnostics WP1066 (Pancreatic, other) Annamycin WP1066 Portfolio WP1122 Portfolio Sponsored Research = Potential key value inflection point

 

 

Value Inflection Points Points we consider to be key development milestones that may influence big pharma’s decision to license or acquire: • Annamycin – generation of Phase I/II data consistent with the clinical trials already completed • WP1066 and WP1122 – Proof of concept (showing activity against the targeted indication) in planned Phase I/II trials We believe we have the potential to hit one or more of these value inflection points within 2 - 3 years 8

 

 

Development Strategy 9 • Orphan Drug targets with high revenue potential • Focus on game - changing breakthroughs • Collaborate closely with MD Anderson Cancer Center • Minimize cash burn through virtual structure • Worldwide exclusive licenses and regulatory exclusivity create proprietary positioning for all projects

 

 

Industry Opportunity 10 • Orphan Drug sales represented approximately $29 billion in revenue in 2013 • There are no approved second - line therapies for AML • CPXX sold for $1.5 billion based on improving OS by 3.5 months, yet still leaves most AML patients without hope • Similar opportunities exist in brain tumors, pancreatic cancer and other rare diseases we are pursuing

 

 

Most of our technologies were developed at MD Anderson Cancer Center, the world’s largest cancer research facility centered within the world’s largest medical center With over 1 , 500 cancer researchers, our sponsored research has been supported by truly state of the art resources 11

 

 

Delivering Solutions 12

 

 

Annamycin Critical Advantages over Leading Drug Leading drugs are cardiotoxic and lose efficacy due to multidrug resistance Annamycin has shown little to no cardiotoxicity , avoids multidrug resistance, has been shown to be more potent in AML cell lines and has shown activity in patients who failed standard of care Potential to Significantly Improve Health Annamycin has shown the potential to significantly improve health in a Phase I/II acute myeloid leukemia (AML) trial Potential for Orphan Drug status as single agent for relapsed or refractory AML Positioned for Accelerated Approval Annamycin appears to be well suited for an accelerated approval pathway here in the US, and in Europe Absence of any approved second - line drug represents a significant unmet need Potentially shorter time scale for saving lives than with typical cancer drugs 13 Annamycin Process

 

 

14

 

 

Annamycin Delivers Remarkable Performance In a proof - of - concept Phase I/II clinical trial, Annamycin was given to patients who had failed an average of five previous induction therapy attempts 37% of those patients cleared enough of their leukemic cells to qualify for a bone marrow transplant We believe repeating this performance in a larger clinical trial, could warrant new drug approval However, we believe MTD was understated in this trial, giving us an opportunity to do even better Relapsed/Refractory Acute Leukemia Patients 63% Efficacy Signal 37% Cleared Bone Marrow Blasts Annamycin gives new hope to patients who have run out of options 15 Relapsed/Refractory Acute Leukemia Patients

 

 

20% 80% Induction Therapy (Qualify for BMT) Success Failure 80 % 20 % BMT (Results in Cure) Leukemia is a cancer of the white blood cells and the acute forms of leukemia can manifest quickly and leave patients with limited treatment options The only viable option for acute leukemia patients is a bone marrow transplant (BMT), and those BMTs are successful about 80% of the time The problem is that in order to qualify for a BMT, patients have to first eliminate most of their cancerous white blood cells through what is called “induction therapy” However, induction therapy is currently only successful in about 20% of patients Annamycin has the potential to qualify more people for induction therapy 16

 

 

17 Annamycin (based on last trial) What is possible if we get to patients sooner with a higher MTD?

 

 

WP1066 Portfolio Overview Based On Natural Compound Built from chemical backbone of bee pollen compound Unique Dual Action First drug to both directly inhibit tumor signaling while also stimulating patient immune response Activity Against Hardest - to - Treat Cancers Pre - clinical testing shows high level of activity against pancreatic cancer, metastatic melanoma, glioblastoma and others; yet very low potential for toxicity Independently Validated Subject of numerous peer reviewed journals validating findings across multiple institutions around the world 18 WP1066 Process

 

 

Proposed MOA of WP1066: Deubiquitinase - Mediated Control of p - STAT3 19 Proteasome Proteasomal Degradation p - STAT3, an activated form of STAT3 Ubiquitinated STAT3 Activated STAT3 (p - STAT3) relies on deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs) to reverse ubiquitination and decrease proteasomal hydrolysis WP1066 inhibition of DUBs increases ubiquitination of p - STAT3 and leads to the depletion of this oncogenic protein in the tumor cell WP1066 blockade Aberrant deubiquitination can lead to constitutive activation of STAT3 WP1066 blocking of DUBs shifts the equilibrium towards ubiquitinated p - STAT3

 

 

WP1122 Portfolio Overview Tumor cell Normal cell Addicted to Sugar A brain tumor requires as much as 18 to 37 times as much glucose to survive as a healthy brain cell Starving a Tumor to Death This eventually led to the theory that, if we feed tumor cells a glucose decoy (one that can’t convert into energy), we can kill the tumor This works well in a laboratory setting, but the problem is making these decoys drugable Breakthrough design WP1122 has been combined with a pro - drug to increase half - life and enable transmission across the blood brain barrier Potential to Change Standard of Care WP1122 (at suboptimal doses) performs as well or better than temozolomide in live human brain tumors; even better performance by combining the two drugs was shown in trials 20 Tumors are hyper - consumers of glucose and starve to death without it

 

 

WP1122 is Effective In Vivo against Gliomas 21 Orthotopic Glioblastoma Model in Mice WP1122 used alone has at least the same or greater activity than temozolomide ( Temodar ® ), a current standard of care in patients diagnosed with glioblastoma 0 2 4 6 8 10 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 # of Animals Days Control Temodar WP1122

 

 

Financial Overview 22

 

 

Financial Statement Summary The above unaudited financial information should be read with the notes, the financial statements of Moleculin and the notes the reto which are included in the Form 10 - Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 . 23 For the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2016 From July 29, 2015 (Inception) to September 30, 2015 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) Statement of Operations Data - MBI Revenue $ - $ - Research and development expense 616,498 38,409 General and administrative expense 1,849,242 184,344 Other expense 37,307 1,562 Net loss ($2,503,047) ($224,315) Net loss per common share ($0.28) ($0.05) September 30, 2016 (Unaudited) Balance Sheet Data - MBI Cash and cash equivalents $6,183,783 Working capital deficit 5,148,499 Total assets 17,573,788 Accumulated deficit (3,251,407) Total stockholders’ equity 16,243,635

 

 

Upcoming Potential Milestones Annamycin • Approval of an Investigative New Drug application by the FDA (first half of 2017) • Receipt of Orphan Drug Status (first half of 2017) • Announcement of the beginning of Phase I/II clinical trials (first half of 2017) • Establishment of the MTD (2017) • Results of the Phase I/II trial (2018) W1066 • Approval of a physician sponsored Investigative New Drug application by the FDA (2017) • Benefits of Sponsored Research Agreements with MD Anderson (2017 - 2018)

 

 

25 Robust pipeline 3 distinctly different technologies, all with blockbuster potential World - leading collaboration MD Anderson Cancer Center Breakthrough disruptive technologies Annamycin for AML: little to no carditoxicity , avoids MDR1 WP1066: STAT3 inhibitor that also stimulates immune response WP1122: metabolic inhibitor with improved BBB transmission Highly experienced leadership Veteran pharma/biotech, life science micro - cap managers Proprietary positioning Orphan drug (applied) and/or patents, exclusive licenses

 

Exhibit 99.2

 

 

 

Moleculin to Present at the 29 th Annual Roth Capital Conference

 

Presentation Scheduled for Wednesday, March 15 th at 9:00 am PT

 

HOUSTON – March 10, 2017 – Moleculin Biotech, Inc., (NASDAQ: MBRX) ("Moleculin" or the "Company"), a preclinical pharmaceutical company focused on the development of anti-cancer drug candidates, some of which are based on license agreements with The University of Texas System on behalf of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, today announced that it will present at the upcoming 29th Annual Roth Conference, which will take place from March 12-15, 2017 at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California.

 

The presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, March 15, 2017 at 9:00 am PT (12:00 PM ET). Moleculin’s Chairman and CEO, Walter Klemp and Jonathan Foster, CFO, will be available to meet with investors who are registered to attend the conference. If you are an investor and wish to attend the Company's presentation or schedule a meeting, please click the following link: http://www.roth.com/main/page.aspx?PageID=7280 .

 

 

About Moleculin Biotech, Inc.

 

Moleculin Biotech, Inc. is a preclinical pharmaceutical company focused on the development of anti-cancer drug candidates, some of which are based on discoveries made at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Our lead product candidate is Annamycin, a Phase II clinical stage anthracycline for the treatment of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia, more commonly referred to as AML. We also have two pre-clinical small molecule portfolios, one of which is focused on the modulation of hard-to-target tumor cell signaling mechanisms and the recruitment of the patient’s own immune system. The other portfolio targets the metabolism of tumors.

 

For more information about Moleculin, please visit  http://www.moleculin.com

 

Forward-Looking Statements

 

Some of the statements in this release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events, future expectations, plans and prospects. Although Moleculin Biotech believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Moleculin Biotech has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''projects,'' ''intends,'' ''potential,'' ''may,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''approximately'' or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including those discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Registration Statement on Form S-1 originally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 7, 2017, as amended (Registration No. 333-214898).  Any forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of its date. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

 

Contacts

PCG Advisory Group

Investors:

Kirin M. Smith

Chief Operating Officer

D: 646.863.6519

E: ksmith@pcgadvisory.com