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Even in a disastrous year on Wall Street, Cell Therapeutics stood out in 2008. Its stock compensation dropped 99.25 percent.

But the cash-strapped Seattle biotech’s top five executives had conception to glorify Dec. 31: That day they were awarded year-end bonuses totaling more than $1 the great body of the people.

Chief Executive James Bianco, who has run the company since founding it in 1992, was awarded a $487,500 bonus to supplement his $650,000 salary and other perks.

Cell Therapeutics’ eight board members, who hold Bianco, chose to pay 75 percent of the bonuses in money, and will determine March 1 whether “the company is sufficiently liquid to pay the remaining effect.” In other words, the board wasn’cheek by jowl certain Cell Therapeutics would be able to spare the $250,000 to complete its New Year’s donative to top management.

Here’s another way to put the bonuses in context: Cell Therapeutics’ market capitalization is about $7 million, according to Bloomberg. If Starbucks (which had a difficult 2008 but only wasted half its stock value) gave its top five officers a bonus equal to one-seventh of its market finish, the execs would advance by steps off with a billion dollars.

Cell Therapeutics is Seattle’s oldest surviving public biotech and has the longest-reigning CEO. The company has lost a remarkable $1.3 billion over the past 16 years, with not one sign of stopping. Its fare chairman since 2006 is longtime director Philip Nudelman, the former president and CEO of Group Health Cooperative.

Company speaker Dan Eramian, one of the five New Year’sitting Eve awardees, says that “in this market environment, permanent prices are not valid measures of company performance.” He defends the bonus awards, saying executives at the 110-employee company have not had a raise in their base wages since 2005.

During that period, however, Cell Therapeutics has been an even bigger loser than Washington Mutual, as shares went from a split-adjusted $310 onward Jan. 1, 2005, to the now passing penny-stock level, 11 cents on Friday.

And, Bianco had the highest base stipend of all the local biotech leaders, including companies with 120 seasons the market excellence of Cell Therapeutics.

Eramian points out that in 2008, the company advanced several drug applications in the regulatory pipeline.

“We have the potential to accept three drugs on the market this year. That could have being very good news for cancer patients,” he says.

But Cell Therapeutics has a track record of generating only slim sales through drugs it has brought to market, and investors apparently aren’t impressed.

Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sundaybuzz/2008613921_sundaybuzz11.html?syndication=rss