Technology April 18, 2022 8:57:55 pm

Statera Biopharma dropped by accounting firm

By Tommy Wood

FORT COLLINS — Statera Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: STAB) is without a registered independent accounting agency after its auditor resigned last week, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agency, Dallas-based Turner, Stone & Co. LLP, informed Statera of its resignation April 11. Its resignation letter, which was filed with the SEC, did not contain any reasoning other than “information that has come to our attention.”

Last week, Statera also sold the rights to produce the cancer drug Entolimod to Wexford, Pennsylvania, company Coeptis Therapeutics Inc. for $6 million. Statera CEO Mike Handley said in a statement that the transaction is intended to help shore up Statera’s finances.

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This comes after a rough March in which the bioscience company was threatened with delisting from the Nasdaq exchange, accused of defaulting on a loan and faced the resignation of multiple members of its board of directors.

On March 23, it was informed that it was in violation of the bid price rule — the bid price for its common stock had traded below $1 per share for more than 30 days. That notice informed the company that it had until Sept. 19 to correct the issue.

Then on March 25, Statera received a letter from venture-capital firm Avenue Capital Group alleging that Statera had defaulted on an $11.2 million loan. The letter accused Statera of failing to:

Timely deliver monthly financial statements for certain periods.
Obtain Avenue’s consent to repurchase certain securities from stockholders.
Pay principal and interest when due, including on March 1, 2022.
Maintain unrestricted cash and cash equivalents in one or more accounts subject to control agreements in favor of Avenue in the amount of at least $5 million.

Avenue also foreclosed on $4.8 million of Statera’s cash in furtherance of the allegations set out in the letter.

Two members of Statera’s board resigned that same day.

Multiple representatives from Statera did not respond to requests for comment.