U.S. 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): April 8, 2020

 

AKERS BIOSCIENCES, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

New Jersey   001-36268   22-2983783
(State or other jurisdiction of   (Commission   (I.R.S. Employer
incorporation or organization)   File Number)   Identification Number)

 

201 Grove Road

Thorofare, New Jersey USA 08086

(Address of principal executive offices, including zip code)

 

(856) 848-8698

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

 

Not Applicable

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

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the Company under any of the following provisions:

 

[  ] 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-4(c))

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).

 

Emerging growth company [  ]

 

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. [  ]

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class   Trading Symbol(s)   Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, no par value   AKER   The NASDAQ Capital Market

 

 

 

 
 

 

Item 8.01 Other Events.

 

On April 8, 2020, Akers Biosciences, Inc. issued a press release announcing that its collaboration with Premas Biotech has successfully completed a second milestone, the successful expression of the three coronavirus antigens, Spike (S), Envelope (E), and Membrane (M), that were selected for their vaccine candidate. A copy of the press release is attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is hereby incorporated by reference herein.

 

Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.

 

(d) Exhibits

 

Exhibit
No. 		  Description
99.1   Press release, dated April 8, 2020

 

 
 

 

SIGNATURE

 

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

 

  AKERS BIOSCIENCES, INC.
   
Dated: April 14, 2020 /s/ Christopher C. Schreiber
  Christopher C. Schreiber
  Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director

 

 

 

Exhibit 99.1

 

 

Akers Biosciences and Premas Biotech Announce Successful Expression of Coronavirus Antigens

 

Thorofare, New Jersey, April 8, 2020/ — Akers Biosciences, Inc. (the “Company”) (NASDAQ: AKER), a developer of rapid health information technologies, today announced that its collaboration with Premas Biotech has successfully completed a second milestone, the successful expression of the three coronavirus antigens, Spike (S), Envelope (E), and Membrane (M), that were selected for their vaccine candidate. The antigens have been expressed using the D-CryptTM platform at Premas Biotech, which utilizes its vectors and S cerevisiae strain. Premas is now moving forward with purification and post-expression processing, which we believe should lead to a scaling up of the antigens.

 

Prabuddha Kundu, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Premas Biotech, commented, “We are happy to announce our success in expressing all three antigens. We continue to believe that the immune system is better served with three shots on goal and our inclusion of the S, E, and M antigens together should enhance the efficacy of our vaccine candidate. We are also pleased with the expedited nature of our milestones thus far, which is a positive step towards our goal to reach clinical trials.”

 

Christopher Schreiber, Executive Chairman of Akers, stated, “We are now halfway through our four-milestone plan that we believe will allow us to commence clinical trials. Our partnership with Premas is executing very well and we look forward to sharing the next milestones as they occur in the weeks to come.”

 

About Premas Biotech

 

Premas Biotech develops novel technologies and partners with global biopharmaceutical companies to build and develop novel biotherapeutic & vaccine candidates. Premas’ key focus areas are infectious diseases, cancer, metabolic disorders and inflammation. Besides D-CryptTM the difficult to express proteins expression platform, Premas’ leading technologies include Axtex-4D™: an ex-vivo tissueoid generation platform and C-Qwence™: a fully human naive India based scFv antibody library. Further information is available on the Company’s website: www.premasbiotech.com

 

Contact email: contact@premasbiotech.com

 

About Akers Biosciences Inc.

 

Akers Biosciences is pursuing the development of a newly acquired license to a coronavirus vaccine candidate. In addition, the company develops, manufactures, and supplies rapid, point of care screening and testing products designed to bring health related information directly to the patient or clinician in a timely and cost-efficient manner. Akers has previously announced that that it had identified the hemp and minor cannabinoid sectors as promising adjacent opportunities that could benefit from Akers’ existing facility and its core competencies.

 

Additional information on the company and its products can be found at www.akersbio.com.

 

 
 

 

Forward-Looking Statements

 

Statements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, trends, specific activities or investments, and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts and may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking information is inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, which include any risks detailed from time to time in Akers’ reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Forward-looking statements may be identified by terms such as “may,” “will,” “expects,” “plans,” “intends,” “estimates,” “potential,” or “continue,” or similar terms or the negative of these terms. Although Akers believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, they cannot guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements will be obtained. Akers does not have any obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law.

 

Contact:

Investor Relations:

Hayden IR

Brett Maas, Managing Partner

Phone: (646) 536-7331

Email: brett@haydenir.com

www.haydenir.com