Haemacure Restructures - Seeks Financing or Sale of t...( HAE:TSX MONTREAL Feb. 13 / Hae...),Health

HAE:TSX

MONTREAL, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Haemacure Corporation (TSX:HAE) announces that it has implemented cost-cutting measures in order to preserve cash. At the same time, the Company will continue to seek financing and will initiate a process intended to lead to a sale or merger of the Company.

Haemacure has been seeking financing since the third quarter of 2008. Several parties have expressed interest in an equity financing; however, this interest has not materialized into a viable financing. In light of the state of the financial markets, Haemacure believes that without operational changes its cash reserves will be exhausted before equity financing is completed, given Haemacure's operational burn rate and its previously-announced objective of getting into the clinic by mid-2009.

    Cost-Cutting Measures

    Haemacure has implemented the following measures, effective today:

    - 12 of Haemacure's 18 employees have been placed on leave in Montreal
      and Sarasota, Florida;
    - All major consulting agreements have been suspended;
    - Joseph Galli, Chairman & CEO, and Marc Paquin, President, will both
      continue to work with the Company for nominal compensation; and
    - The Company is undertaking measures with suppliers to restructure its
      obligations to them.

These restructuring measures provide the Company with a window of approximately 90 days in which to either arrange a bridge loan, obtain new financing, or to sell or merge the Company. As a result of these restructuring measures, and unless new financing is obtained, the Company will not commence the pivotal phase II/III clinical trials for its lead product candidate, an all-human fibrin sealant, as planned in mid-2009. However, the Company will continue, to the extent possible, with the preparation for these trials so that should funds become available the trials could commence without undu
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