From: Christine Cassiano |
ATTN: Nancy M. Morris, Secretary, Securities and Exchange Commission On behalf of the management team at Abraxis BioScience, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company, please consider our concerns regarding NASDAQ's proposal to significantly increase listing fees by bundling certain additional services, such as dissemination of news releases, web casting and EDGAR services. This proposal, if approved, would essentially deprive our organization, as well as all other NASDAQ-listed companies, the freedom to choose certain important vendors, unless we are willing to incur substantial additional costs. Our organization has a fiduciary responsibility to be prudent with our resources and enhance shareholder value. To this end, we select our vendors based on a number of criteria, of which cost is a significant factor. Because NASDAQ has not clearly identified how the additional listing fee is allocated among the new services, we are unable to compare such services with our current vendors. We believe it important to point out that, in addition to cost, we evaluate our suppliers by, among other things, quality of service, reputation and ease of doing business. In many cases, we have come to rely on our vendors because they have earned our trust over a long period of time. This NASDAQ proposal eliminates our ability to use a best-of-breed approach when engaging our service providers. In summary, we believe this proposal forces us to pay for services we may not want, limits our ability to freely choose or change vendors, reduces our leverage when negotiating with potential vendors, unfairly penalizes us if we believe another vendor is superior and eviscerates the goodwill we have built with our existing vendors and service providers. Thank you for considering these matters in your decision, and we respectfully request that you do not approve the proposed NASDAQ listing fee increase. Regards, |