SEC Filing Reveals NW Bio May No Longer be Capable of Paying Its Operating Expenses

August 17, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

BETHESDA, Md. – The financial woes of Northwest Biotherapeutics continue as a new report indicates the company may not have enough cash to support its operating expenses.

Citing the beleaguered company’s quarterly report, The Street’s Adam Feuerstein said the company showed it ended the quarter with $2.1 million in cash. Coupled with a July infusion of $3.7 million from two new investors, which gives the company only $5.8 million cash-on-hand. However, Feuerstein said the company has a monthly burn rate of about $5 million. Now that the company is halfway through August, Feuerstein questioned how the company is able to operate, if it maintained the same monthly burn rate. While the company has relied on personal loans from top executives, such as Chief Executive Officer Linda Powers, Feuerstein said the company may have to resort to “vulture investors” to keep its doors open. That might be a problem though, as shares of company stock have fallen to 40 cents per share, down from $9.67 per share one year ago today.

BioSpace reached out to Les Goldman, Northwest Bio’s senior vice president of business development, for comment regarding the company’s cash situation. Goldman has not yet responded by press time, but BioSpace will update the article when he does.

Northwest Bio’s problems date back more than a year, stemming in part due to the company’s inability to enroll any patients in its Phase III study of the brain cancer vaccine DCVax-L. The halt had once been considered temporary, but after a year, it seems more like the halt has become permanent.

In May, the company noted in a press release that its Phase III trial of DCVax-L for GBM brain cancer is ongoing. NW Bio said “well over 300 patients have been enrolled in the trial and the patients are continuing to be treated in accordance with the trial protocol.” However, NW Bio said the trial remains “subject to a partial clinical hold on screening of additional patient candidates.” NW Bio said it is maintaining an ongoing dialog with regulators and providing further information to them regarding the trial. Three months later though, the trial is still on a partial hold.

Last year, Feuerstein said the lead investigator of DCVax-L, Linda Liau, a distinguished UCLA neurosurgeon and brain tumor expert, revealed in a conference that patients were living longer, but that wasn’t helping the study because it hurt the chance of showing survivability rates between the drug and placebo.

The company though has largely remained silent about the issues. Certainly they have made presentations at various scientific forums. In January, Powers presented information about DCVax and its use against solid tumors in January at the Phacilitate Immunotherapy World Forum.

In April, NW Bio received a letter of noncompliance from the Nasdaq Exchange. Northwest Bio said it is currently in discussions with the Nasdaq about two potential approaches to remedy the non-compliance and “intends to take the appropriate steps to address the issues raised by the Nasdaq Staff as quickly as possible.”