Steven
R.
London
direct
dial: +1 617.204.5107
direct
fax: +1 617.204.5150
londons@pepperlaw.com
August
21, 2008
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
100
F. Street, NE
Washington,
D.C. 20549-6010
Attn:
Mr. Russell Mancuso
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Re:
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Pressure
BioSciences, Inc.
Revised
Preliminary Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A
Filed
August 19, 2008
File
No. 000-21615
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Dear
Mr.
Mancuso:
On
behalf
of Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (the “Company”),
we
are responding to comments
by the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”)
contained in your letter dated August
20, 2008, relating to the Company’s Revised Preliminary Proxy Statement on
Schedule 14A filed on August 19, 2008.
Proposal
No. 3: To
Approve the Sale, Issuance …, page 24
1.
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Regarding
your disclosure in response to our prior comment 1 that the warrants
will
be included within the caps “if required under applicable Nasdaq
rules:”
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·
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It
is unclear how shareholders will know from that disclosure whether
you
will deduct the warrants from the caps. If you believe that the Nasdaq
rules are unclear, please disclose how you intend to apply them to
your
agreement with Emerging Growth Equities;
and
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·
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If
you will deduct the warrants from the caps, please clarify how you
will
calculate the deduction. For example, how will you value the consideration
received for the warrant in order to deduct from the $18,000,000
cap? Will
you also deduct the exercise price?
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Company
Response:
Depending
on the actual terms of a transaction in which Emerging Growth Equities
(“EGE”)
is
entitled to receive warrants as a component of its compensation, it is possible
under applicable Nasdaq rules that the shares underlying the warrants to be
issued to EGE may be aggregated and included within the maximum share and
aggregate dollar limitations subject to the proposal. For example, if the
issuance of securities in a transaction includes shares of common stock and
warrants to purchase shares of common stock, both of which are issued at a
discount, the shares underlying the warrants to be issued to EGE in such a
transaction will be aggregated with the number of shares of common stock sold
in
the transaction because the warrants issued to EGE will also have an exercise
price of less than the greater of book or market value. On
the
other hand, if the issuance of the securities in a transaction with investors
includes common stock issued at a price equal to or at a premium to market
and
warrants to purchase shares of common stock with an exercise price at a discount
to market, Nasdaq would likely aggregate the warrants with the common stock
issued in such transaction with investors and deem the common stock to be issued
at a discount to market for purposes of Nasdaq shareholder approval rules.
Despite the fact that the common stock and warrants issued to investors may
be
deemed to be issued at a discount for purposes of the Nasdaq shareholder
approval rules, it is possible that the shares underlying the warrants to be
issued to EGE for purposes of Nasdaq rules may not need to be aggregated with
the securities issued in the transaction with investors because the exercise
price for such shares underlying the warrants will be equal to the price of
the
common stock sold in the offering (in this case, equal to or at a premium to
market and not at a discount).
Securities
and Exchange Commission
August
21, 2008
Page
2
In
the
absence of knowing the actual terms of a transaction, and given the details
and
complexities of the Nasdaq rules to determine whether the warrants to be issued
to EGE will be included within the maximum share and aggregate dollar
limitations and the valuation of such warrants, we propose to include the
following language in the Company’s definitive proxy statement in lieu of the
last sentence of the first paragraph on page 22:
"Depending
on the actual terms of a financing transaction in which EGE is entitled to
receive its warrants, it is possible under Nasdaq rules that the shares
underlying the warrants to be issued to EGE will be aggregated and included
within the maximum share limitations subject to this proposal. In such event,
under applicable Nasdaq rules, the value attributed to such warrants, which
will
likely be calculated by multiplying the exercise price of the warrants times
the
number of shares underlying the warrants, will be included within the aggregate
dollar limitations subject to this proposal."
2.
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Your
response to prior comment 3 implies that you believe there may be
circumstances before the shareholder vote on the proposal in which
you
would enter into a plan, arrangement or contract to offer the securities
subject to the proposal without distributing revised proxy materials
and
resoliciting proxies. Please provide us the authority on which you
rely to
support your belief.
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Company
Response:
The
Company will revise the last sentence of the third paragraph on page 22 as
follows:
"If
any
material plans, arrangements or contracts regarding securities issuances subject
to this proposal arise after the date of this proxy statement and prior to
the
actual vote on this proposal, the Company will notify its stockholders and
distribute revised proxy solicitation materials."
In
connection with the response to the Staff’s comments, attached is a letter from
the Company with respect to the required acknowledgements.
Securities
and Exchange Commission
August
21, 2008
Page
3
We
thank
you for your prompt attention to this letter responding to your comments and
look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Please direct
any
questions concerning this filing to my attention at 617.204.5107.
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Very
truly yours,
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/s/
Steven R. London
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Steven
R. London
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cc:
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Geoffrey
Kruczek, Esq.
Richard
T. Schumacher, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pressure
BioSciences, Inc.
Edward
H. Myles, Chief Financial Officer, Pressure BioSciences,
Inc.
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