SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., April 9, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --VaxGen, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VXGN), a biopharmaceutical company,announced that the Company has initiated a restructuring to minimize expensesfollowing the termination of the proposed merger between VaxGen and Ravenbiotechnologies, inc. VaxGen has moved to terminate the staff which it hadretained in anticipation of the needs of the merged company. As a result,VaxGen will be terminating approximately 75% of its remaining staff of22 persons, including Matthew Pfeffer, the Company's CFO and Senior VicePresident of Finance and Administration.
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'It is quite unfortunate that VaxGen must now terminate so many of ourmost capable and loyal staff, including Matt Pfeffer,' said James P. Panek,VaxGen President and CEO. 'Matt's performance since joining VaxGen in 2006has been nothing short of outstanding. His talents, both as CFO and as asenior leader, became increasingly obvious as he brought VaxGen current withits financial filing obligations, worked to reduce expenditures and financialliabilities, and contributed notably to our pursuit of strategic initiatives.'
'My tenure at VaxGen, while filled with many challenges, has also beenmarked by many successes and opportunities to work with many remarkablecolleagues,' said Matthew Pfeffer. 'With VaxGen's financial filingobligations now current and the scope of its business greatly reduced, I amconfident that VaxGen can ably fulfill all required financial andadministrative responsibilities in my absence.'
VaxGen's near term plan of action is quite straightforward: reducestaffing and expenses to reflect the realities of not merging with Raven;continue our efforts to sell the Anthrax vaccine program and manufacturingfacility, and deal as best we can with our lease obligations; and importantly,reconfigure our board to deal with the future course of the Company. VaxGenis speaking with a number of its largest stockholders in order to get theirinput, including suggestions for potential new board members, and will becompleting this reconfiguration process as expeditiously as possible.
About VaxGen
VaxGen is a biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco,California. The company owns a state-of-the-art biopharmaceuticalmanufacturing facility with a 1,000-liter bioreactor that can be used to makecell culture or microbial biologic products. For more information, pleasevisit the company's web site at http://www.vaxgen.com.
Note: This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within themeaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regardingrestructuring of VaxGen, the reconfiguration of its Board of Directors and itscontinuing efforts to divest assets. These statements are subject to risks anduncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materiallyfrom those anticipated. Additional information concerning these and other riskfactors is contained in VaxGen's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year endedDecember 31, 2007. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on theseforward-looking statements that speak only as of the date of this release.VaxGen undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-lookingstatements to reflect new information, events, or circumstances after the dateof this release except as required by law.
SOURCE VaxGen, Inc.
