Shareholders approve Cytocom-Cleveland BioPharma merger

FORT COLLINS — A proposed merger between Fort Collins-headquartered pharmaceutical company Cytocom Inc. and Cleveland BioLabs Inc. (Nasdaq: CBLI) was approved this week by CBI shareholders and is expected to close in the coming days. 

Upon closure, the combined company — called Cytocom Inc. — will be traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the CYTO ticker symbol.

The deal, approved by a 99.5% majority of voting shareholders, will “enhance our visibility and exposure to public markets,” and “revolutionize the field of immunotherapy,” Cytocom CEO Michael Handley said during a shareholder conference call.

Handley will lead the combined company, along with Cytocom executives and “selected members” of CBI’s management team, he said. 

When it becomes publicly traded, Cytocom is expected to have an initial market capitalization in excess of $200 million, Handley said.

The combined company will have drug candidates in the pipeline to treat a number of diseases, including COVID-19, cancer, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease and anemia. 

Cytocom was first established in a suburb of Orlando, Florida. The company moved into its head offices in the CSU Research Foundation building last December and will maintain its other offices in Maryland and Florida after the merger is complete.

Handley is a Colorado State University graduate who previously was chief executive for local pharmaceutical companies Armis Biopharma Inc. and Aletheia Therapeutics Corp. from 2012 to the fall of 2019.

Cytocom’s main drug of focus is naltrexone, which is approved for use in treating alcoholism and opioid addiction. It’s a similar compound to naloxone, the generic name for Narcan used in treating people with life-threatening opioid overdoses.

The company is studying the potential for low doses of naltrexone to treat Crohn’s disease.

In February, the company submitted an Investigational New Drug Application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its COVID-19 drug candidate CYTO-205, which is thought to help patient immune systems maintain the correct levels of cytokine release when fighting infection or illness.

The company said that the drug candidate has reduced the replication of COVID-19 in lung cells cultured in a lab.