GlobeImmune receives delisting warning from Nasdaq
LOUISVILLE — The Nasdaq stock exchange this week issued a delisting warning to troubled Louisville biopharmaceutical company GlobeImmune (Nasdaq: GBIM).
GlobeImmune officials disclosed the letter in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Nasdaq notified GlobeImmune that it has fallen out of compliance with one of its rules that requires companies included on the Nasdaq Capital Markets listings to maintain minimum stockholders equity of $2.5 million. In GlobeImmune’s most recent financial results for the quarter ending March 31, the company reported stockholders equity (total assets minus total liabilities) of $2.15 million, down from about $3 million at the end of 2015.
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The company also falls shy of alternative benchmarks for market cap and net income from continuing operations. Market cap for Nasdaq CM companies must remain above $35 million, while net income from continuing operations for the most recent fiscal year must have been $500,000 or greater.
GlobeImmune’s market cap, using Friday’s closing price of $1.32 per share, is only roughly $7.6 million. It posted a net loss from continuing operations for 2015 of $2.7 million.
GlobeImmune has 45 days to submit a plan for regaining compliance. If the plan is accepted by Nasdaq, the company would have 180 days from the original notice to regain compliance or face delisting, potentially impairing the liquidity of GlobeImmune shares and limiting the company’s access to capital markets.
In the company’s first-quarter earnings report last week, GlobeImmune officials disclosed that they could be forced to shut down the company if a strategic alternative, such as a buyer, is not found “in the near future.” They added that the company has enough cash to operate as a going concern through the middle of next year, but that a decision to wind down the company would burn through its cash more quickly.
Having laid off all but six employees last summer, GlobeImmune’s most-recent quarterly report states that the company has only 2.5 full-time employees left. Vice president Jeffrey Dekker and a scientist remain onboard full-time, while chief executive Timothy Rodell is a half-time employee at this point.
GlobeImmune is focused on developing products for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. The company has three ongoing clinical trials being conducted by Gilead Sciences Inc. and Celgene Corp.
The company’s slide largely began a year ago, when results of a trial for its Hepatitis B drug candidate being developed with Gilead failed to show a reduction of the disease at the end of a 24-week study.
GlobeImmune was founded in 1995 as a spinoff of University of Colorado technology. The company raised a Series A funding round in 2003 and pulled in a total of $119 million in private equity before going public in 2014 with a $17.25 million initial public offering.
