Cell Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]) has been running dangerously low on cash this year, on a “tight-wire act” in the words of CEO James Bianco. Now the board has decided to hand out some rewards to management for not falling off.
The compensation committee of the Seattle biotech company’s board agreed on June 4 to pay bonuses worth more than $250,000 to its top executives, according to a regulatory filing today. Those amounts represent about one-fourth of the bonuses those executives earned in 2008, but the money was deferred until the company was considered “sufficiently liquid” to make the payments.
The board’s decision means that Bianco, the company’s CEO and founder, will receive $121,875; his brother, Louis Bianco, the executive vice president of finance, will get $41,250; and Jack Singer, the chief medical officer, will get $38,250. Dan Eramian, the executive vice president of corporate communications will receive $35,448, and president Craig Philips will get $16,750, the company said.
In its most recent quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed on May 8, Cell Therapeutics said it has enough cash to operate into August. Three days after that filing, it raised $20 million in equity, and started an auction process which it hopes will rid the company of its $118.9 million in debt.
