Hana Biosciences Announces Financing Of Up To $100 Million

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hana Biosciences Inc., (OTCBB:HNAB), a biopharmaceutical company focused on strengthening the foundation of cancer care, today announced that it has entered into an Investment Agreement with Warburg Pincus and Deerfield Management for the sale of up to $100 million in preferred stock. Warburg Pincus, the lead investor in the financing, is a new investor in Hana, and Deerfield is the company's largest existing shareholder prior to this financing. The sale of $40 million of preferred stock under the Investment Agreement closed today.

Hana intends to use the net proceeds from the financing to advance its clinical development and commercialization programs, including regulatory activities related to Marqibo's New Drug Application preparation and submission, and for general corporate purposes. In conjunction with the financing, the Company's Board of Directors will expand to nine members with Warburg Pincus having the right to designate five new members.

"We are pleased that Warburg Pincus and Deerfield have made such a significant investment in the Company and view it as further validation of the potential of Hana's pipeline of product candidates," said Steven R. Deitcher, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Hana Biosciences. 

Hana expects that the financing will provide the funds needed to develop Marqibo to approval and commercialization for relapsed/refractory adult ALL patients; to study Marqibo® in front-line adult ALL and lymphoma patients; and to unlock the full potential of menadione topical lotion, a first-in-class therapeutic targeted at the dose-limiting skin toxicities in cancer patients taking EGFR inhibitors.

"We are very pleased to be able to provide the financing necessary to advance Hana's promising product pipeline," said Jonathan Leff, a Managing Director of Warburg Pincus. "We look forward to working closely with the company's board and management team to address important unmet needs in oncology."