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My account under Schwab shows "NWBO (2 stocks)" and lists shares under two NWBO headings. I can tell from the share amounts that the first listing is for shares I bought way back when the company was still listed, and the other heading is for shares bought OTC. At least that's my interpretation, but it doesn't sound like this applies to your situation.
Another way of looking at today's meeting: if any of the following were true:
- things were off track and the trial was not on schedule;
- there were real doubts about the effectiveness of the treatment;
- the trial process itself has been compromised and therefore the data is useless;
- failure is imminent, as a few who post regularly on this board have stated repeatedly as fact,
then . . .
- today's meeting would have been handled very differently and many of the things that were said would not have been said. The fact that the negative scenario – a scenario that has been pounded over and over again by a few on this site – is now essentially off the table is a remarkable relief and a tremendous piece of good news for all investors. I sense the bitter taste of defeat in the tone of some who are still harping the negative even after today's meeting, including one who has now turned his desperate pitch to claiming the company CEO is killing people by not prematurely releasing data. Time to look at the bright side, and that side is very bright indeed following what we now know about today's meeting.
". . . how much of an additional home run if we continue . . ." means, unequivocally, that a home run has already been hit.
Ike, thank you very much for your detailed transcription. I take this as very positive information, although I expect the stock will get hammered tomorrow, and probably will be played up and down until publication. But it's all coming together, and things are going to start happening very quickly starting very soon.
If Lp had anything negative to give she would have previewed it today so the ASM will produce nothing slamming us monday.
There, fixed it for you.
Wow, so much pessimism, negativity and frustration as we watch the shorters and seedy market makers do their thing on the inherently corrupt OTC. Personally, I am not surprised at all to see this pull back after such a significant run up in the last two months, but I am a little surprised that it would happen on the last trading day before the ASM. It's going to be this way in the absence of news. For the record, I think most of you on this board know that in the field of PR/corporate communications, you never release positive news on a Friday. It's not out of the question, but would be highly unusual and not very strategic, imo. Friday is the day you release negative news, so we've at least got that going for us (so far). Who knows, maybe we will see a rebound before the end of the day. Hang in there, and remember all the reasons you have stayed invested this long.
Thank you for the reply. I have come to believe that the hypothetical I mentioned is a likely scenario. I don't think they are going to release any hard data, but I do think they are going to provide a more thorough "update" on the process than usual.
Serious question: what will happen to current mid-.30s share price if either Sunday, Tuesday or both they announce not results, but an optimistic statement along the lines that things are going as planned and they anticipate releasing results "soon" or, perhaps even a more specific timeline for releasing data?In other words, they don't actually provide results, but do provide an optimistic "update". Does stock tank back below .20, or will it continue climbing?
Released yesterday – apologies if this has already been posted:
Electric device slows growth of deadly brain tumors
Dec. 20 (UPI) -- In a recent clinical trial, researchers at Northwestern Medicine successfully slowed the growth of a deadly type of brain tumor using a new electric device.
The device is attached to a shaved portion of the patient's scalp and delivers a constant supply of low-intensity electric fields. The device's network of insulated electrodes direct so-called tumor-treating fields at the glioblastoma.
Aside from a few short breaks to replace the device's electrodes, the patient wears the device 24-7. A small battery provides the electrode network with power.
Patients who received tumor-treating fields in conjunction with chemotherapy survived an average of nearly 21 months. Those who received only chemo survived an average of 16 months.
"This trial establishes a new treatment paradigm that substantially improves the outcome in patients with glioblastoma, and which may have applications in many other forms of cancer," Dr. Roger Stupp, professor of neurological surgery and of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a news release.
The group of patients who received tumor-treating fields included a great number of patients still alive two, three and four years after diagnosis.
"With TTFields therapy combined with radiation and temozolomide chemotherapy, up to 43 percent of glioblastoma patients will survive longer than two years," Stupp said. "In a disease where, until 2004, the great majority of patients died within one year, this is yet another example how systematic and interdisciplinary research will benefit patients in everyday care."
Researchers published the results of their clinical trial this week in JAMA. The findings showed both groups of patients experienced similar levels of treatment-related side effects. Mild to moderate skin irritation on the scalp was the most common complaint from patients treated with tumor-treating fields.
If topline comes before or simultaneous to publication then so be it. The point is this: the fact that the company has not announced anything remains entirely consistent with everything they have said previously. Nothing is final at this point, and they do not have anything to announce – yet.
As far as the SEC is concerned, your definition of timely would seem to differ from mine. I believe timely refers to having final confirmed results in hand. Releasing information at that point would be "timely", and anything in advance of that point would be "premature".
What they wrote in those press releases was accurate, but if everything mentioned in those releases occurred as described, then what it means is that right now there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to bring this product to market. The best way to ensure that happens successfully and without compromise is to operate in quiet mode. Everything that we have staked our hopes for a better world on, and our hard-earned money on, is now at the end game. That end game involves a very careful, deliberate process of review, analysis, review, analysis, and then more review and analysis until conclusions are drawn and papers are written and published. It takes a lot of time – perhaps many months – and any misstep along the way can jeopardize the whole thing. That's why silence is golden right now. When companies make meaningless statements like "the process is ongoing" just to appease a restless audience, it can do serious damage and end up exacerbating the perceived problem. Do you think anyone on this board would be satisfied with that kind of statement? Ha, not likely. And saying anything more than that could be perceived as manipulation. At this stage of the product trial and review, I can assure you that the SEC will be taking a close look at any public communications this company makes. In my experience, company press releases are often "Exhibit A" of shareholder lawsuits. Sure, they can also do good things – inform shareholders and boost share prices – but even the most innocuous-sounding press release carries an inherent risk of backlash, misinterpretation, and/or just plain dissatisfaction from shareholders. I have seen companies send out seemingly mundane and/or routine press releases and have it come back on them in ways they never imagined. Regardless of intent, PR can be very, very dangerous, and right now dangerous is not what NWBO needs. With so much at stake, it's just not worth the risk to be sending out press releases until there is something final and significant to say. I think they are close, but not quite there yet.
Thank you for the information. I have not followed DCTH closely, only from afar. It seems like an interesting story, and one that NWBO might learn from. Some folks claim that the shorts made the situation a lot worse than it would have been, but who knows? There seems to be near-unanimous agreement that the CEO was playing games. No idea why you would try to spin a successful result.
Thank you for the explainer. I am not very familiar with CAR-T, but I have been passively watching another company, Delcath (DCTH), whose story is a familiar one – massive manipulation, female CEO accused of all kinds of nefarious, self-serving moves, and a recent reverse split that saw the stock drop from legitimacy all the way to the $.05 range (the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry is obviously not company approved: click). I have never owned any DCTH, but I have followed it a bit and one of the major concerns on that board is that CAR-T will render DCTH obsolete. Very glad to hear NWBO is truly a unique application.
The article below is from Sunday, so apologies if it was already posted, but can someone explain to this layman the difference between NWBO's treatment and the bluebird's CAR-T therapy? Do they treat different kinds of cancer? Is this a competing therapy, or is there a place for both?
'Unheard of' responses to bluebird CAR-T therapy seen in myeloma study
(Reuters) - More than half of patients with advanced multiple myeloma who had run out of therapeutic options remained in complete remission after receiving bluebird bio Inc's experimental gene-modifying immunotherapy in a small, early stage study, according to updated data released on Sunday.
Of 18 patients who received a therapeutic dose of bb2121, all but one responded to the treatment, a 94 percent response rate, while 56 percent remained in remission with a median follow-up of 40 weeks after treatment.
Researchers, who reported the data at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Atlanta, said the initial response to the treatment was very quick and that many of the patients continued to improve over time.
Patients in the Phase I dose-escalation study had received seven prior treatment regimens, including regimens with the newest multiple myeloma drugs, such as Johnson & Johnson's Darzalex, and had undergone at least one stem cell transplant before receiving bb2121, which is being co-developed with Celgene Corp.
"Some of these patients were going to hospice until they got this," said Dr. Jesus Berdeja, the study's lead investigator.
"This is unheard of, something that we haven't seen with any drugs approved for myeloma in this type of population. The excitement among all the myeloma providers is crazy," said Berdeja, director of myeloma research at the Sarah Cannon Center for Blood Cancer in Nashville.
bb2121 belongs to a potentially revolutionary new type of one-time treatment called CAR-T therapy that involves genetic manipulation of a patient's immune system. A patient's own disease-fighting T-cells are harvested and genetically reengineered to target specific proteins on cancer cells before being replaced so they can circulate seeking out and attacking the cancer, possibly for years.
The first two CAR-T therapies from Novartis and Gilead Sciences, through its acquisition of Kite Pharma, were approved earlier this year for other blood cancers.
Three patients who received what proved to be sub-optimal doses of cells early in the bb2121 study died. Of the 18 who received higher doses, four patients have now experienced disease progression, while 14 continue to respond, researchers reported.
The treatment was very well tolerated for a CAR-T product, Berdeja said.
Only two patients experienced serious cytokine release syndrome with no reports of serious brain toxicity, both common side effects of CAR-T treatment. The most serious side effect was neutropenia, or very low white blood cell count, researchers said.
While this was a small Phase I study, the results were considered so impressive that Celgene plans to begin enrolling patients this month for a larger, potentially pivotal trial that could position bb2121 to become the third approved CAR-T.
"They're hitting it so far out of the park that they're not wasting any time," Berdeja said.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
Understood. Thank you for the clarification.
Found it. Thank you.
What is his Twitter handle? There are lots of Michael Biggers on Twitter and most appear to be high school students who seem to be experts in nothing more than skateboarding.
I figured it must be an issue with my broker. I will get that straightened out. Thanks.
Serious question: I know the annual meeting is not even scheduled, but I doubt that I will be able to attend regardless. How can I be sure I will be able to vote by proxy? I have been an NWBO shareholder for a long time and I don't recall ever receiving notice of an opportunity to vote on any issue by proxy, either by snail mail or email. Thanks.
It depends on how patient you are as an investor, and, after learning all there is to learn about this company, whether you are willing to wait to see what happens. Something is going to happen, I can assure you. When that will be only a handful of people know, but a lot of signs are signaling that big news is not too far into the future. Some people here will try to discourage you by suggesting the company is somehow negligent or malicious in withholding information when, in fact, there is nothing for them to say at this time. As someone who has spent a career in corporate communications and investor relations, I can assure you that the fastest way for a company to get into trouble is to send out press releases when there is nothing to say. There are others here who think the company is obligated to tell them everything that they personally want to know. There is no such obligation. When there is something to say, the company will tell us – of that much I am confident. There is another group on this board that is fond of accusing the CEO of only being in this venture to enrich herself at the expense of the shareholders, and that she is utilizing a wide range of illegal tactics to do so. In addition to being defamatory, these types of accusations just don't make any logical or rational sense when you think about it and consider the facts – and all of the facts are available if you care to research them. People who make such statements may be using this board because they have an ulterior agenda, so keep that in mind. I first bought a few hundred shares of this stock back in early 2014 when it was trading at almost $8 per share and I watched it passively as it tumbled and was manipulated all the way down. As far as I could tell, none of the fundamental reasons why I was persuaded to purchase this stock in 2014 had changed, but the company was now deeply in debt, delisted and barely hanging on. Depending on how much you have put up, this remains an extremely risky investment. But in regard to the product in waiting, the success of this venture looks more promising than ever. That's the risk and reward tradeoff. The fact that someone just bet $12 million to keep the concern going because they, too, believe it will succeed is an extremely positive sign, in my mind. And even as this further dilutes our shares, the expected negative effect on the share price has not occurred – yet another positive sign. Things do feel much differently than at any other stage since I have owned the stock, no question about it. In the last few weeks I have added tens of thousands of shares to my original position because I believe that good news is coming. It may not be tomorrow, but I believe it will be soon. There is no guarantee it will be good news, but I believe the odds are very much in our favor. Sit back and relax, and take all of the hyperbolic speculation on this board for what it is worth. There are a lot of smart people here who do know a great deal about the company and the product. What they share is some remarkably interesting and informative information, so soak it all in while at the same time keeping all of the speculation in context. Best of luck!
You are welcome to your opinion, and while it is not an entirely unreasonable one, it seems to me that it is an overactive effort to find fault. Instead of trying to ascribe malicious intent, some of us see it as just smart business.
exwannabe:
"Cognate did not give $17M to NWBO.
Cognate charged NWBO for services. This included $10's of millions for empty hotel rooms (flipper's analogy) over the course of several years when they never had a use for them."
OK, I'll accept your description of the debt, but it doesn't change my point. They did not "give themselves 75 million shares" as the OP stated. They were owed that amount and decided to accept payment in shares and warrants, which is pretty much the only way NWBO could service the debt and remain even as much a barely viable concern as it is now. Works out well for NWBO, and it has the potential to work out very well for the parent.
Oh, really? Hmm, ok, then who gave the $17 million to NWBO in the first place?
NWBO investors are going to pay back Toucan/Cognate one way or another. This is a MUCH better deal for the company that those NWBO investors have invested in, and increases the likelihood that their investment eventually will pay off. Why are you wanting to ascribe malicious intent?