Stockholders approve BioSante Pharmaceuticals–Cell Genesys merger

BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPAX) and Cell Genesys, Inc. (NASDAQ:CEGE), today announced that BioSante stockholders have approved the merger between the two companies with BioSante as the surviving company.

Ninety percent (90%) of the Cell Genesys shares voted to date have been voted in favor of the merger proposal. This leaves Cell Genesys approximately five percent of its outstanding shares short of having stockholder approval of the merger. Therefore, Cell Genesys has adjourned its stockholders meeting until October 14, 2009 to provide Cell Genesys stockholders additional time to cast their votes regarding the merger proposal. To date, a total of approximately 49.3 million shares of Cell Genesys have voted in favor of the merger. A majority of the outstanding shares, or 55.2 million shares, of Cell Genesys common stock as of August 21, 2009 must vote in favor of the merger proposal in order for the merger to be approved.

“With such a large percentage of Cell Genesys’s stockholders being individual investors, we believe it is appropriate to extend the voting period in order to give as many of these investors as possible a chance to vote,” said Stephen A. Sherwin, M.D., chairman and CEO of Cell Genesys. “The votes we have received have been voted overwhelmingly in favor of the merger with BioSante. While we believe most Cell Genesys stockholders recognize the benefits of our proposed merger with BioSante, we are concerned that many of them may not realize how important their individual votes are to moving this merger forward. The Board of Directors of Cell Genesys unanimously approved this merger and we continue to believe strongly that it is very much in the interest of our stockholders from a financial perspective.”

“We are pleased and want to thank our stockholders for voting their shares and approving our merger with Cell Genesys,” said Stephen M. Simes, president and CEO of BioSante. “We look forward to Cell Genesys getting the remaining votes needed to approve our merger. We are gratified that Cell Genesys’s largest stockholder LeRoy Kopp and Kopp Investment Advisors have voted all their shares in favor of the merger. We continue to believe that the merger between our companies is in the best interests of our and Cell Genesys’s stockholders.”