Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc (ADXS)

[Gantor50]

We are all trying to make informed speculation on what happened here in the past 6 months.

Personally, I agree and totally believe Adage at the very least took the opportunity to take the tax loss on the highest priced shares, and I have said that since they sold them. Those appear to be the shares they purchased at $7.50 and $19 respectively.

If they also used those shares to deliver and close a short against the box position, it was even more logical and beneficial for them. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak.

And without making absolute claims about who was behind the major short in ADXS since 2015, there is no question in my mind now (unfortunately for me with the benefit of hindsight) that ADXS was pumped to $25-$30 in 2015 intentionally to build a major short position.

Since then they drove it to $8 and pinned it there for almost 18 months (outside of them having to regain control after the Amgen deal). I think this was to keep the PPS within range for their plan to eventually cover, which required them to crash it under $5 to do so. They succeeded and have kept the PPS pinned at $3 for most of the last 2+ months. They have used this level to begin covering (at least so far).

I am also guessing that the reason Adage has maintained a 10% ownership position was because of the priority access it afforded them to ADXS management. I am hoping it also is because they believe in the long term success of the ADXS LM platform.