NEW YORK and LONDON, May 21, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Akari Therapeutics, Plc (NASDAQ:AKTX), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative therapeutics to treat orphan autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, today announced that as a result of its inability to timely file its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017 (the “Annual Report”), on May 17, 2018 it received a notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC (“Nasdaq”) that the Company is not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) for continued listing. Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) requires Nasdaq-listed companies to timely file all periodic reports. Akari intends to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s filing requirements for continued listing.

 As previously disclosed, on May 8, 2018, our former CEO resigned. His resignation followed the results of an investigation conducted, with the assistance of an independent law firm, which revealed that our former CEO incurred personal charges on the Company’s corporate credit cards in violation of Company policy.

The notification from Nasdaq notes that Akari is required to submit a plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s filing requirements for continued listing within 60 calendar days of the date of the Nasdaq notification letter. Upon acceptance of the Company’s compliance plan, Nasdaq is permitted to grant an extension of up to 180 calendar days from the Annual Report’s filing due date, or until November 12, 2018, for the Company to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s filing requirements for continued listing.

The notice has no immediate effect on the listing of the Company’s American Depositary Shares on Nasdaq. This announcement is made in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5810(b) which requires prompt disclosure of receipt of a deficiency notification.

About Akari Therapeutics

Akari is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhibitors of acute and chronic inflammation, specifically the complement and the eicosanoid system for the treatment of rare and orphan diseases, in particular those where the complement system or leukotrienes or both complement and leukotrienes together play a primary role in disease progression. Akari's lead drug candidate Coversin™ is a C5 complement inhibitor currently being evaluated in paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). In addition to its C5 inhibitory activity, Coversin independently and specifically inhibits leukotriene B4 (LTB4) activity. Akari intends to evaluate Coversin in two conditions, the skin and eye diseases bullous pemphigoid and atopic keratoconjunctivitis, where the dual action of Coversin on both C5 and LTB4 may be beneficial. Akari is also developing other tick derived proteins, including long acting versions.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views about our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to us and on assumptions we have made. Although we believe that our plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved. Furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond our control. Such risks and uncertainties for our company include, but are not limited to: needs for additional capital to fund our operations, an inability or delay in obtaining required regulatory approvals for Coversin and any other product candidates, which may result in unexpected cost expenditures; risks inherent in drug development in general; uncertainties in obtaining successful clinical results for Coversin and any other product candidates and unexpected costs that may result therefrom; failure to realize any value of Coversin and any other product candidates developed and being developed in light of inherent risks and difficulties involved in successfully bringing product candidates to market; inability to develop new product candidates and support existing product candidates; the approval by the FDA and EMA and any other similar foreign regulatory authorities of other competing or superior products brought to market; risks resulting from unforeseen side effects; risk that the market for Coversin may not be as large as expected; risks associated with the putative shareholder class action and SEC requests for information; inability to obtain, maintain and enforce patents and other intellectual property rights or the unexpected costs associated with such enforcement or litigation; inability to obtain and maintain commercial manufacturing arrangements with third party manufacturers or establish commercial scale manufacturing capabilities; the inability to timely source adequate supply of our active pharmaceutical ingredients from third party manufacturers on whom the company depends; our inability to obtain additional capital on acceptable terms, or at all; unexpected cost increases and pricing pressures; uncertainties of cash flows and inability to meet working capital needs; and risks and other risk factors detailed in our public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 20-F and in our Report on Form 6-K filed with the SEC on October 17, 2017. Except as otherwise noted, these forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after this press release. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

For more information

Investor Contact:

Peter Vozzo
Westwicke Partners
(443) 213-0505
peter.vozzo@westwicke.com

Media Contact:

Mary-Jane Elliott / Sukaina Virji / Nicholas Brown
Consilium Strategic Communications
+44 (0)20 3709 5700 
Akari@consilium-comms.com

Source: Akari Therapeutics Plc