Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:NWBO) shares were up 4.33% on Wednesday to $0.547 and an additional 9.79% in after-hours trading. Share prices have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.32 to $4.66. The company has a market cap of $70.66 million at 124.66 million shares outstanding.
Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc is a biotechnology company that is focused on developing immunotherapy products to treat cancer. One of the product lines, DCVax-L, is designed to cover all solid tumor cancers in which the tumors can be surgically removed and isin an ongoing Phase III trial for diagnosed Glioblastome multiforme, with over 60 trial sites. Another product line, DCVax-Direct) is designed for all solid tumor cancers. It is being studied in a 60-patient Phase I/II trial for all types of inoperable solid tumors. Its platform technology, DCVax, uses activated dendritic cells to mobilize a patient’s own immune system, including T cells, B cells and antibodies and natural killer cells, among others to attack cancer cells to attack their cancer.
In a press release this week, Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc announced that the Nasdaq Staff has not accepted the company’s plan of remediation for certain violations of Listing Rules previously reported. Because of that, the company has notified Nasdaq of its intention to voluntarily withdraw the common stock listing and begin trading on the OTC Markets. This serves as its ten days notice so trading on Nasdaq is expected to be suspended on or about December 19, 2016, and trading on the OTC is expected to begin the same day.
This follows Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc receiving a letter from the Nasdaq Staff on November 7, 2016 indicating that they determined to aggregate a series of financing transactions that were completed between May 15, 2016 and October 13, 2016, although the transactions were in many cases small and diverse, and involved a number of unrelated parties. The company engaged in remediation discussions with the Nasdaq Staff who ultimately determined not to accept the Company’s proposed plan of remediation.
The Company’s Board of Directors considered a variety of factors and reached a unanimous decision for the Company to voluntarily withdraw its listing on Nasdaq and undertake the actions necessary to trade on the OTCQB, rather than seeking to remain on Nasdaq and go through the hearing process. Such factors include the likely expenses and uncertainty associated with the hearing process and seeking to regain compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rules, the value to the Company of being able to raise and accept financing to proceed with multiple Phase 2 trials while also completing the Phase 3 trial,” the company explained in the press release.
With that, a bit of investor jitters could be expected as the company moves to delist from the Nasdaq and transition to OTC Markets. However, operations remain mostly the same and management’s decision to delist instead of pursuing the case makes sense from a financial standpoint in terms of reducing expenses and turning company focus away from ongoing clinical trials. As such, a rebound could be in the cards for Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc at some point after their listing in the OTC Markets but not after a potential dip to bargain prices.
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