Cell Therapeutics agrees to sell $20M of Series 4 Preferred Stock and warrants to institutional investors

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq and MTA:CTIC) (the "Company") today announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell $20 million of shares of its Series 4 Preferred Stock and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock in a registered offering to three institutional investors.  Each share of Series 4 Preferred Stock is convertible at the option of the holder, at any time during its existence, into 2,000 shares of common stock at a conversion price of $0.50 per share of common stock, for a total of 40,000,000 common shares.

In connection with the offering, the investors received warrants to purchase up to 20,000,000 shares of common stock.  The warrants have an exercise price of $0.6029 per warrant share, for total potential additional proceeds to the Company of approximately $12 million upon exercise of the warrants.  The warrants are exercisable six months after issuance and terminate four years after the date of issuance.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things, paying interest on and/or retiring portions of its outstanding debt, funding research and development, preclinical and clinical trials, the preparation and filing of new drug applications, and general working capital.

Shares of the Series 4 Preferred Stock will receive dividends in the same amount as any dividends declared and paid on shares of common stock and have no voting rights on general corporate matters.

The closing of the offering is expected to occur on April 6, 2010, at which time the Company will receive the cash proceeds and deliver the securities.

Rodman & Renshaw, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rodman & Renshaw Capital Group, Inc., (Nasdaq:RODM), acted as the exclusive placement agent for the offering.  Trout Capital LLC provided financial advisory services.