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The shutdown of Oxis International Inc.'s research laboratory in Cedex, France, is expected to buy the struggling Portland company more time operation. It's uncertain how long it can continue, however, without a biotech or pharmaceutical partner or additional investment.
The publicly traded company continues to lose nearly $5 million a year and was forced to reschedule its annual stock meeting due to a technical filing snafu with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Oxis plans several product announcements in the next few weeks that should help boost the stock price, which is in danger of being delisted by Nasdaq after falling below $1. Its stock is trading at 93 cents, down from a high of $4.06 in September 1998.
"Something should be done fairly soon which would take the heat off the stock price," said Oxis spokesman Mike DeMello.
As of June 30, Oxis had $1.1 million in cash on hand, he said. Closure of the French lab, along with an infusion of $500,000 from the sale of a therapeuticdrug-monitoring subsidiary to Delawarebased Opus Diagnostics Inc. last June, would keep the company going until a new deal is made. The Opus deal involved cash and stock totaling $911,000.
"What you've done is shut down the outflow of money," DeMello said. "As far...