HOUSTON, May 31, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLCM), a leader in developing novel, controllable cellular immunotherapies for cancers and orphan inherited blood disorders, today announced equity inducement grants to four new employees consisting of an aggregate of 114,800 stock options. The Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors approved the grants with an effective date of May 31, 2019. The stock options were granted as inducements material to the employees entering into employment with the Company in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4).

The stock options have an exercise price of $2.06 per share and vest over four years, with 25% of the shares vesting on the one-year anniversary of the applicable vesting commencement date and 1/48 of the shares vesting monthly thereafter, subject to the new employee's continued service relationship with the Company. The stock options are subject to the terms and conditions of the Company's 2014 Equity Incentive Plan and a stock option agreement covering the grant.

About Bellicum Pharmaceuticals

Bellicum is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company striving to deliver cures through controllable cell therapies. The company’s next-generation product candidates are differentiated by powerful cell signaling technologies designed to produce more effective CAR-T and allogeneic T cell therapies. Bellicum’s lead GoCAR-T® candidate, BPX-601, is designed to be a more efficacious CAR-T cell product capable of overriding key immune inhibitory mechanisms. Bellicum’s rivo-cel product candidate is an allogeneic polyclonal T cell therapy that has shown promising clinical trial results in reducing leukemia relapse after a stem cell transplant. More information can be found at www.bellicum.com.