BOTHELL, WA, and VANCOUVER, Aug. 6 /CNW/ - OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("OncoGenex" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: OGXI) today reported unaudited financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2009 and reviewed the Company's highlights for the second quarter of 2009.

The following consolidated results reflect the operations of OncoGenex Technologies Inc. ("OncoGenex Technologies") prior to the August 21, 2008 reverse takeover of Sonus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Sonus"), and the consolidated results of OncoGenex thereafter.

The loss attributable to common shareholders for the second quarter increased to $4.6 million from $2.9 million in 2008. For the six months ended June 30, 2009 the loss attributable to common shareholders increased to $7.0 million from $5.4 million in 2008.

Research and development expenses for the second quarter increased to $3.6 million from $1.1 million in 2008. For the six months ended June 30, 2009 research and development expenses increased to $5.3 million from $2.0 million in 2008. The increases in 2009 were primarily due to manufacturing costs incurred in the first six months of 2009 associated with the development of our product candidates OGX-011 and OGX-427, an increase in employee expenses and higher facility costs resulting from the reverse takeover of Sonus. Reducing the expenses in the first six months of 2008 was a Scientific Research and Development (SRED) claim, which offset R&D expenses in that period. The SRED program is a Canadian federal tax incentive program that encourages Canadian businesses to conduct research and development in Canada. As OncoGenex Technologies became an affiliate of a public company as a result of the reverse takeover, SRED claims can now only be applied against taxes payable.

General and administrative expenses for the second quarter increased to $1.0 million from $0.6 million in 2008. For the six months ended June 30, 2009 general and administrative expenses increased to $1.8 million from $1.2 million in 2008. The increases in 2009 were primarily due to increased employee expenses and increased costs associated with operating as a public company.

The second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2008 also included $0.8 million and $1.6 million respectively in preferred share accretion, a non-cash item, which did not recur in the second quarter or six months ended June 30, 2009, as subsequent to the reverse takeover there are no preferred shares outstanding.

The Company had $5.7 million in cash, cash equivalents and short- term investments as of June 30, 2009, compared to $12.4 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments as of December 31, 2008.

On July 24, 2009, subsequent to the end of the second quarter, the Company announced that it had completed a registered direct offering of 475,000 shares of its common stock to institutional investors at a price of $20.00 per share, for gross proceeds of $9.5 million. The $20.00 offering price represented a 3.5% discount to the closing price on July 17, 2009, the last trading day prior to announcement. After deducting the estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, the net proceeds are expected to be approximately $9.4 million. The Company had 6,027,631 shares outstanding as at August 5, 2009.