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Really Berlin? Nice B.S. press release. Game's over. After decimating shareholders with the collapse of the companys value and reverse split, there are no more suckers left. Enough already about the potential of NEO. Amgen dumped the program after seeing the data. That was after investing $60m in the program. You would have thought they would seen through their investment? They would have if there were promise in the program. You're praying on unsophisticated retail imvestors and toxic fianacing to extend you paycheck as long as possible before bankrupcy like your last company.
Comments about being victims of shorts are ridiculous. If Big Pharma or investors saw strong data from the trials, the value would be much higher because of demand to invest in the company. The trial data has fallen short of expectations, hence we ended up making a poor investment decision. Capitalism 101.
Pretty straight forward at this point, the trial results have not been strong enough to merit further investor or big pharma interest. We all made a bet the data would be stronger, but unfortunately it has collectively been unimpressive amid an extremely competitive biotech market. No management team can change the clinical results or demand for the platform.
Some of those quotes sound like the same hot air we have heard from the company since the beginning of 2017 when they said they were starting to evaluate commercialzation deals (all hype and no follow through or actual interest from anyone willing to back the trials given the lackluster data).
Did Berlin give an update on all those term sheets he said he was reviewing months ago?
ADXS' LLM technology has not met investor or Big Pharma expectations, as evidenced by the less than impressive clinical trial data, investor exodus and final nail in the coffin of Amgen bailing after seeing early NEO trial data. Looking back a few years ago, Aduro experienced similar weak clinical results with its LLM technology and decided it was in the best interest of its shareholders to shut down the program. Ask yourself, why has ADXS not done the same and returned remaining cash to shareholders? I bet Ken Berlin can give you $500,000 reasons each year why he has not shut down the trials and returned cash to shareholders...
When no one wamted to partner AXAL because the clincial data wasn't strong enough, NEO was billed ADXS' next gen (i.e. last hope). That all changed when Amgen saw the initial data and bailed. Hence the company's platform is valued very little for valid reasons, not because of hedge funds or manulipulation but be cause of lack of interest and demand for the platform.
The company also would have loved to strike a deal after searching for the last three years, but when you have weak clinical trial results to work with, no one is interested. Amgen took a leap of faith in August 2016 on pre-clinical NEO platform potential but when they saw the actual prelim NEO trial data they too bailed.
Bottom line, the fall from a peak value of $1b to the current $25m fair value is because ADXS' trial results have not been good enough. So goes the LLM platform into the graveyard of failed biotechs.
Whether the clincial hold was lifted or not was irrelevant. The market is assigning fair value to the platform, clincal data and science.
Amgens decision has officially been validated. "Stable disease" is what you expect from current standard of care, while NEO was touted as a ground breaking treatment offering much more.
You do wonder if five years from now ADXS will be regarded on par with companies like Enron, albeit on a much smaller scale in terms of size of the company.
There's a reason Amgen is considered "smart money" and decided it was wasn't worth spending another dime on the platform and instead flushed $65 million already spend on NEO down the drain when prelim data became available and opted not to partner AIM2CERV, but hey what do they know...
Waiting for the science to pan out, that's funny. Over a decade of trials and clincial data, no partnering interest currently, no investor interest except on terrible terms, reverse split, now the last diehard believer, Petit, leaving. The jury is out, the science has not panned out.
You are not alone. History has plenty of examples of deceitful companies and their investors who took the fall, think of Lehman Brothers or WorldCom or Enron.
I wouldn't get your hopes up. Amgen evaluated the initial data and though it wasn't good enough. The fact they would rather flush $65m already invested down the drain rather than put another dime in NEO says a lot about whether the program will be a success. The jury is out, ADXS' science through years of trials and clincial data has fallen short of expectations especially in context of the rapid development of more promising tech.
I respect that at least you are being honest with yourself now. ADXS' LLM platform is all but dead. After a decade of trials and investors piling in more than $250m the company has generated plenty of clinical data, but unfortunately it hasn't been good enough to attract further investment on attractive terms.
The company's failure is due to the clinical trial data not being good enough relative to more promising cancer treatments in development that are attracting investor and pharma capital while interest in ADXS' LLM tech has evaporated because of the low chances it will ever have commercial success. Just ask Amgen why they bailed. Just ask Aduro why they shuttered their LLM program. Just ask yourself why ADXS why after two and a half years since declaring they were actively searching for an AXAL partner there have been no takers. Has nothing to do with hedge funds or ADXS management, but everything to do with the science.
Surprised you still say the science has only been positive. The facts tell a different story...no pharma interest, Amgen severed ties and and the only money the company can raise is on terrible terms. Berlin has done as good a job as he can with a clincial program that has not generated good enough data to hold commercial promise. We only have ourselves to blame. I wish I had seen the writing on the wall when ADURO shut down its LLM program. The market is valuing ADXS' science whether we like it or not.
I commend Berlin on the good job he has done running ADXS. He stepped into a tough situation. At the end of the day, he couldn't change the trial data to be more impressive and he couldn't force investor or pharma interest and he couldn't stop Amgen from terminating the NEO deal once prelim data was assessed. Aduro shut down its LLM program a while ago. At least Adxs' trial conitue even though the reality is that further investment is merely a charitable contribution with little chance of commercial success.
Exaclty, the science and trial results failed to meet expectations, hence very little interest from BP or institutional investors. At this point blaming shorts or managmemt is denial that ADXS has been a poor investment. If the science had showed promise, Berlin would have been in a position to strike a monetary deal and there would not have been a reverse and shorts would have been burnt.
Any sale of the company would likely be on similar terms as Berlin's last company, essentially for nothing.
Exaclty, the company is fortunate to even be able to raise $10m because smart investors recognize that their capital will likely be destroyed just like the money raised over the last several years since no pharma has been impressed enough by the data to believe it's worth supporting financially.
It's the science. The clincial trial data has not met expectations and point to low likelihood of commercial success, which is why the company can only raise money on terrible terms. Aduro shut down its LLM program for the same reasons, poor results, but Aduro has other technologies. ADXS only has LLM, so shutting down the program means shutting down the compnay, hence why management is squeezing the lemon dry before shutting it down.
Considering the early NEO didn't signal anything promising enough to keep Amgen from terminating, it's likely HOT won't impress either.
It's the science that the market is valuing at this point. The market was generous with ADXS giving the company more than $200m on attractive terms with high hopes the trial data would be strong. Beginning in 2017 it became more apparent the combo trial data was not good enough for Astra and Merck to partner, then in late 2018 when Amgen saw the prelim NEO data....game over.
No one wants to finance ADXS' because the clincial trial data has not met expectations.
At this point it doesn't matter who the CEO is. This one and the last two capital raises have been on terrible terms because the clincial trial data has not been good enough to convince BP or sophisticated investors that ADXS' platform and science will ever be a commercial success. Biotech is binary, with winners (e.g. Kite) and many more losers like ADXS whose technology doesn't make enough difference over SOC to attract further investment on good terms.
Yea, but ADXS is late stage and still hasn't been able to find a partner willing to invest in AXAL even after looking for two years. The market valuation reflects clinical data in aggregate that has not been very impressive and points to low probability ADXS will ever get anything to market that is a commercial success.
I just am mad at myself and my judgment for not seeing clearer earlier. The writing was on the wall when the majority if institutional holders sold out when the initial AXAL combo data was released and it didn't entice Astra to step up and partner. I was holding out for NEO thinking Amgens endorsement outweighed funds making snap judgment sell decision. Well, boy was I wrong, and Amgens termination was the catalyst for me to sell. I would have been much better off if I had sold in 2017 when things started to unravel.
Agreed, being out of the stock lets one see more clearly. In hindsight, feeling pretty foolish for holding out as long as I did. Poor management aside, the overriding reason the company is valued at sub-$50 million is because the data has not been good enough to attract and sustain any paying partner who believes the platform has a chance at commercial success. ADXS is late stage so it is the clinical trial data in aggregate that has led to the collapse of the company's value and institutional investors and partners fleeing and why for the last two years across the three different CEOs ADXS has not been able to find any BP willing to invest in AXAL or HOT and why Amgen decided it was better to loose $65 million already put into NEO rather than the likelihood of loosing more after assessing the prelim NEO trial data.
Again, follow the money, Amgens assessment of NEO is less optimistic, which is why they discontinued support of the program and decided they were better off writing off the $65m they already sunk in NEO because further investment was not worth it.
Merck has assessed the ADXS PSA combo data and decided it was not good enough to partner. That is the reality and why ADXS was forced into this reverse split and terrible financing that just wiped out shareholders. Hope springs eternal even though the PSA data showed more a reality that confirmed why the company value has collapsed.
The biggest factors that have contributed to the company's demise have been poor management and clincial trial data that has not been as good as the market had hoped. Shorting of the stock has been a response to those two factors.
Just trying to warn others, the company does not have much going for it, as the valuation is based on the trial data. A late stage company whose value has shrunk to ADXS' level means one thing: the chances that an investment in the company will be a success is akin to winning the pottery - pure luck because the data so far points to failure.
In all seriousness, in hindsight while most of us called out the "Best Place to Work" campaign by O'Connor to be misguided, it was a taletale sign of a scam and now after 90%+ value erosion, those of us who stuck with it can only blame ourselves because by not selling we fell for it when the writing was on the wall. Pumping the company as the best place to work was a stunt to to keep the scam goimg to line insider pockets. By the time the Board actually stopped the charade O'Connor was gone knowing shareholders would be left dry. Live and learn, now Berlin is praying on a new group but the data shows the platform is not good enough to have commercial success.
ADXS is as close as it gets to a scam within the limits of what is legal. How about those term sheets Berlin touted? Everyone had their hopes up but as usual ADXS has failed to deliver. Also, referring to term sheets was misleading because it implies a material deal, but EVERY deal starts with term sheets, including the Biocon and Asia and Sellas cashless deals that eroded to nothing. If there were a deal worth anything, they would not habe been forced to resort to the terrible warrant conversion financing.
Duh, but you cannot sell the company if there is no interested buyer, which after two years of unsuccessful attempts to try to partner different constructs, points to no Big Pharma interested in putting money on the line to support the platform since the trial data has not been strong enough.
I don't disagree with your point, but your point and my point are not mutually exclusive. Ultimately, Amgen's strategic priority decisions are based on where the company believes data has shown that their investment dollars will generate the largest return on investment and have the most impact commercially and in advancing cancer treatment. Interpret it how you want, but IMO it is very telling that Amgen saw early NEO data and decided it was a better decision to write off $65 million already invested as a loss than to back the platform further.
Unlikely there will be any good news with NEO in terms of the trials. If there were promise in the platform Amgen would not have bailed after seeing the prelim data.
It's not about Berlin being smart or not, it's about lack of demand for the technology because the clincal trial results have not been very good across multiple trials. That's why the company's value is so low and they have to do a reverse split and accept terrible terms for any capital raise.