May 13, 2016
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Louisville, Colorado’s GlobeImmune provided its first quarter financial results yesterday, and it wasn’t pretty. The company started with an indication it continues to “seek potential strategic transactions,” and has hired Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. to help review “ways to maximize stockholder value.”
In May 2015, GlobeImmune announced disappointing results from its Phase II clinical trial of GS-4774 for hepatitis B. Though found to be safe and well-tolerated, GS-4774 did not meet its primary endpoint. In 2011, Gilead Sciences and GlobeImmune inked an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration deal to develop and commercialize vaccine products for hepatitis B for use in conjunction with Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumate) and other oral therapies.
GlobeImmune indicated in its first quarter financial report that it has three ongoing trials with Gilead and Celgene . The Phase II trial for GS-4774 trial is fully enrolled and the 48-week results are expected in the second half of 2016. A GI-6207 Phase II trial in patients with medullary thyroid cancer is also expected in the second half of this year. And another Phase II trial, which evaluates the safety and efficacy of GI-6301 in combination with radiation therapy in chordoma patients, is still enrolling subjects.
As of March 31, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $8.7 million, and its leadership believes it has enough cash to continue operations through the middle of 2017. “If a strategic alternative is not found in the near future, we could decide to wind down the operations of the Company which will consume cash faster than currently planned as a going concern,” the company said.
GlobeImmune reported a first-quarter loss of $900,000, which is about 15 cents per share. This was down from $1.6 million in the same period in 2015. But the decreased net loss was the result of lower compensation expenses because of the previous layoffs. In August, GlobeImmune first floated the idea of a sale. The company had laid off most of its employees, going from 22 staffers to only six full-time workers, which included “four scientists, one facility manager and one general and administrative employee.”
In 2015, the company borrowed more than $225 million to stay in business, which it clearly has burned through.
GlobeImmune has been fairly flat over the last six months. Shares traded on Nov. 7, 2015 for $2.16, rose to a high on Dec. 23 of $4.84, then dropped to $0.97 on Feb. 26. Shares are currently trading for $1.17.
Perhaps not surprisingly, on May 10, Franklin Independent noted that it had registered an increase of 18.82 percent in short interest in GlobeImmune stock. “GBIM’s total short interest was 84,600 shares in May as published by FINRA. It’s up 18.82 percent from 71,200 shares, reported previously. With 84,400 shares average volume, it will take short sellers one day to cover their GBIM’s short positions.”
