Thursday, May 8, 2008

Vion to appeal Nasdaq stock delisting

By Mass High Tech

Vion Pharmaceuticals Inc. says that it will appeal the decision that its stock is scheduled to be delisted from the Nasdaq Capital Market on May 16.

Vion (Nasdaq: VION), which is based in New Haven, Conn., reports that the delisting follows noncompliance of requirements such as the company maintaining $2.5 million in stockholders' equity. The company plans to request a hearing before May 14, which would automatically stay the delisting until a listing qualifications panel reaches a decision on the matter, officials said.

Vion Pharmaceuticals, founded in 1992 as OncoRx Inc., employs about 45 workers.

In May 2007, Vion suspended a Phase 3 trial for blood cancer drug Cloretazine on the advice of an independent safety panel. The firm was testing Cloretazine in patients with relapsed leukemia. The trial was suspended after the independent panel reviewed interim data from 210 patients who took the experimental drug and found that "any remission could be compromised by the observed on-study mortality to date," the company reported.

Today, however, Vion announced a new Cloretazine trial. The company has begun a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of Cloretazine in combination with cytarabine in elderly patients with previously untreated acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes.

For 2007, Vion reported a loss of $34.3 million on $70,000 in revenue.