InvestorsHub Logo
icon url

maverick_1

06/02/23 4:04 PM

#597877 RE: beartrap12 #597847

BearTrap's EXECUTIVE Summary

Comprehensive, well written & BALANCED.

In commemorating RIP Joan Lappin, a former associate.

Saturday June 3
3-4PM PST ASCO in Seattle (No Webcasts: FDA) perhaps attending Photonic5 & AlphaPuppy?


The LONG & WINDING Road:
From THRICE near Ashes to The PHOENIX spearheaded by the legacy of The LINDA'S & 2 other Female PHENOMS.

DIFFERENT STROKES for DIFFERENT FOLKS
Bullish
Bullish
icon url

Resus

06/02/23 4:41 PM

#597888 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Beartrap12. - nice recap. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Bullish
Bullish
icon url

skitahoe

06/02/23 6:05 PM

#597906 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Great post Beartrap, I believe that the board moderators should sticky it.

Gary
icon url

eagle8

06/02/23 6:38 PM

#597915 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Thank you so much beartrap.
Fantastic post !

Best to you.
Bullish
Bullish
icon url

newman2021

06/02/23 7:39 PM

#597923 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Beartrap,
Thanks for a good writeup capturing from cradle to buyout level of information.

Please add 17) Do Not Use margin accounts in your brokerage so that your broker won't lend your shares to the shorts.

Also you know that we did get the CI combo patents already approved in various other countries except the US yet. Hope flipper or Henry Muney or there is one another patent follower poster in our board muee I think please step in to add language here.

Other than these two addition, I see your writeup is a great layman language writeup that we can share it with any NWBO investor that it is a great useful brochure.

Thanks for everything you do here.
icon url

OncoJock

06/02/23 10:25 PM

#597949 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Nicely done, beartrap12. Here are some questions.
And a few suggested edits to improve clarity.


Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of personalized cancer vaccines designed to treat a broad range of solid tumor cancers.
NW Bio is developing cancer vaccines designed to treat a broad range of solid tumor cancers more effectively than current treatments, and without the side effects of chemotherapy drugs. NW Bio’s proprietary manufacturing technology enables the Company to produce its personalized vaccine in an efficient, cost-effective manner. The Company has a broad platform technology for DCVax dendritic cell-based vaccines. The Company’s lead product, DCVax-L, recently completed a 331-patient Phase III trial for patients with newly diagnosed/recurring Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive and lethal brain cancer.



Q: Would it help to say a bit about how an autologous vaccine is prepared, using tumor tissue obtained during surgery?

The Company’s second product, DCVax-Direct, is currently in a 60-patient Phase I/II trial for direct injection into all types of inoperable solid tumor cancers. DCVax-Direct trial has survivors who today live normal lives. Direct not only attacked the primary tumor, but also went after distant tumors that had metastasized elsewhere in the body.
The Company has also conducted a Phase I/II trial with DCVax for late stage ovarian cancer together with the University of Pennsylvania, which showed similar positive results as the GBM trial.
The Company previously received clearance from the FDA for a 612-patient Phase III trial with its third product, DCVax-Prostate, for late stage prostate cancer.
DCVax is a vaccine used to prevent/inhibit the return of cancer. It is not given to healthy people.



Q: Would it help to mention that these trials have been on hold for a very long time, with no recent progress due to lack of funds?

Results of DCVax_L trial
* NWBO met its endpoints.



Q: Would it help to mention how the endpoints had to be changed partway through the trial due to a phenomenon called pseudoprogression, which interferes with the investigator's ability to determine whether the tumor inside the person's head has gotten better or worse? Would it help to explain how the original trial endpoint was progression-free survival, but this was changed, with the FDA's OK, to overall survival which actually is a better, more relevant endpoint and usually much harder to demonstrate?

Both median survival and the “long tail” of extended survival were increased in both newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma brain cancer patients treated with DCVax®-L.
* The trial more than doubled the median survival, from 5% to 11% in new GBM cases
* Long term Survival for the first time ever in recurrent GBM: from 0% to 13%.
* The trial results were reported in the highly acclaimed, peer reviewed cancer journal JAMA Oncology, co-authored by more than 70 physicians from leading institutions across the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Germany. The article is titled “Association of Autologous Tumor Lysate-Loaded Dendritic Cell Vaccination with Extension of Survival Among Patients with Newly Diagnosed and Recurrent Glioblastoma”. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2798847. It is one of the most viewed article ever in JAMA, which is a top-tier publication in the US.



Q: Is this a bit of an exaggeration? When I search the top 20 medical journals in the world, JAMA Oncology is not among them. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en&vq=med_medgeneral


* A second Phase I clinical trial with Poly-ICLC shows that DCVax-L with Poly-ICLC extends survival in GBM patients to 50% with many surviving 8 years and counting. Poly-ICLC had no effect on GBM without DCVax.



Q: Should we clarify that this trial is very early and these data have not been published and the number of patients is extremely small?


* A third Phase I clinical trial with DCVax-L, Poly-ICLC, and Merck’s Keytruda shows survival after 2 years at 65% and the median has not been reached. Previously, Keytruda failed in its GBM trial without DCVax.



Q: Should we clarify that this trial is also in a very early stage and these data have not been published and the number of patients is extremely small?


Where is NWBO Now?

* NWBO is currently preparing documents for application for a commercial license to sell DCVax-L in four countries: U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada. We expect them to submit that application any day now.



Q: How do we know these are the four countries? I'm not aware of any authoritative information, other than speculation on iHub, that these are the countries for which applications are being prepared.


* In April,



Q: Wasn't it March?

NWBO’s manufacturing plant in Sawston, U.K, received all of the manufacturing certifications required to manufacture DCVax-L on a commercial level, including the commercial license to make the vaccine. It also has an international license to import/export biological products so they can handle patients from around the world. This manufacturing license was the last requirement for a commercial license application.



Q: Would it help to clarify the difference between a license to make the product, as opposed to a license to market it?

* DCVax-L is applicable to all solid tumors that are operable. It is a “tumor agnostic” treatment, meaning that it doesn’t care where the tumor is in the body. It uses the tumor antigens from the patient’s own tumor to create the vaccine.
* DCVax-Direct, VWBO’s second product, is applicable to all inoperable solid tumors, including tumors too close to organs to safely operate and too many tumors to successfully remove.
* NWBO holds hundreds of patents in many countries across 5 continents for DCVax-L and DCVax-Direct, and is working on a combo trial patent for dendritic cells combined with other immunotherapies. Our CEO is an expert in patent writing and helped Europe create patent laws before working with NWBO.

Will DCVax-L receive approval?

Most experts say ‘Yes’ because of these facts:

* DCVax has little to no side-effects, mainly a slight fever. People can live a normal life while receiving treatment and beyond.
* Treatments for GBM are called orphan drugs, which receive special priority with the FDA and other regulatory bodies. Orphan drugs are drugs that target small populations of patients, and have little treatment options available, which is the case with GBM.

* 400+ clinical trials by other companies have failed in GBM to find a treatment that changes survival beyond 5 [years?] and most of these surviving patients die or see GBM return and die.



Q: Would it help to revise the above sentence to make it a little clearer? I'm confused when you talk about surviving patients who die.


* Currently, if GBM returns, it is a death sentence. Patients live less than a year.

* The 13% survival [color=red][rate][/color] in recurrent GBM [color=red][among patients in the Phase III trial treated with DCVax-L][/color] and [color=red][the] [/color]50% survival [color=red][rate among patients treated with the combination of DCVax-L, Poly-ICLC, and Keytruda][/color] means GBM (and other cancers) could become a manageable disease with DCVax-L.

* The U.K. is already pricing DCVax for payment to providers, and is expected to be the first regulatory body to approve it. They also allow patients to pay for their own DCVax-L treatments, called “compassionate care”.



Q: are you sure this is the correct term? I thought the term used in the UK is "specials."

NWBO is already treating patients at its U.K. facility.



Q: Are you sure this is an accurate statement? It is my understanding that patients are not treated at the Sawston facility, that Sawston is a manufacturing facility only. It is my understanding that patients are treated in regular hospitals all around the UK such as London, Birmingham, Nottingham, etc, but that their doses of DCVax are manufactured in Sawston using tumor tissue removed during surgery, then shipped from Sawston back to the hospitals where the patients are actually being cared for.

In addition, the U.K. recently set up a program to re-pay U.K. patients who use compassionate care and pay for it themselves, if the treatment is approved.



Q: This sounds very interesting, but it is news to me. Sorry if I missed the memo on this. Could you please point me to the source of your info?


* The FDA has recently passed policies that make it easier for drugs like DCVax to be approved using the type of clinical trial design that NWBO used.



Q: Is there a better way to put this? The FDA is not a legislative body, so I'm not sure it's accurate to say it passes anything. Would a more accurate way to say this be to note that a high-level official at the FDA recently co-authored an important journal article that endorses the use of external control arms in clinical trials to demonstrate efficacy, and that an external control arm was used for this purpose in the Phase III trial of DCVax-L?

* The FDA has also very recently created policy for “tumor agnostic” drugs, like DCVax-L, making it more likely that it will allow NWBO to get quick approvals as it applies for drug approval for other cancer types. It is conceivable that DCVax-Direct, NWBO’s second treatment for inoperable tumors, will also fall under this category and could receive quick approvals, since it is basically the same as DCVax-L, with differences only in how it is administered.



Q: Are you sure this was very recent? In my world, it's been several years since the FDA approved the first tumor-agnostic cancer drug. Here's a link: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-information-approved-drugs/fda-grants-accelerated-approval-pembrolizumab-first-tissuesite-agnostic-indication


* DCVax-L is already being used as the “placebo” in current trials underway on combination treatments with Poly-ICLC and Keytruda. This is quite unusual for a treatment that hasn’t been approved yet to be used like a placebo in a U.S. clinical trial.


Q: Are you sure "placebo" is the correct term to use here? In my world, it's more like DCVax-L is being used as the standard of care in what I might call an "active control arm," as opposed to a placebo-controlled arm. But your basic point is still valid: it's definitely a very bullish sign that the specialist physicians at UCLA are using DCVax-L in this manner even though it has not been approved by FDA and therefore remains investigational.


* The success of DCVax has been touted by top neuro-oncologists around the world. Dr. Linda Liau, inventor of DCVax-L and head of the trial for NWBO is an acclaimed neuro-oncologist at UCLA in California who was named top neurologist in the US for several years before becoming head of the neurology department at UCLA. Dr. Askhan at King’s University Hospital in the U.K. has been begging to have DCVax for all his patients. He is the top neuro-oncologist in the U.K. Organizations for brain conditions have also backed DCVax and called for the treatment to be approved. It has a strong backing in the science and medicine world.



Q: Are you sure it's accurate to call Linda Liau the inventor of DCVax? No disrespect, but didn't Alton Boynton have something to do with it?


Negatives for NWBO going forward:

* NWBO is a “disruptive” technology, like the car was to horse-drawn carriages. This makes them a target for short sellers, hedge funds, and companies who stand to lose money when DCVax makes their products obsolete. While [color=red][physicians may continue to use ][/color]DCVax [color=red][in addition] [/color]to chemo and radiation to [color=red][treat] [/color]the tumor, these painful and debilitating methods for treating cancer will likely be used much less, partly because more patients will survive in healthy condition. Temador, [color=red][Temodar][/color] a form of chemo, is already being considered an obstacle to successful DCVax treatments, and I believe has been eliminated in current clinical trials.


Q: Not sure what you mean by being eliminated? Perhaps you mean its patent exclusivity has ended? Temozolomide (Temodar) was first approved by FDA in 2005, which means that a 17-year exclusion period would have ended last year.

Q: Would it pay to mention the NWBO website is woefully out of date when compared to websites of other biotechs and pharma companies?

Q: Would it pay to mention the company's long history of diluting its own shareholders?

Q: Would it pay to mention the company's heavy load of debt?

Q: Would it pay to mention the company's failure to hold quarterly earnings calls like many other publicly held companies, which keeps shareholders guessing about its next moves?


* The only other current treatment for GBM is a helmet device that has to be worn 90% of the time in order to be considered part of their trial. It has little proof of extending survival, partly because most patients took the device off. It was created by Novacure. Several of their doctors have publicly attacked DCVax and many believe this company pays for bashers on public forums.

* Shorts have heavily attacked NWBO stock since 2015 when DCVax-Direct preliminary results showed astounding results in cancers where patients were told by their doctors to prepare for hospice. A number of these patients are still alive and living normal lives.
* Besides the short attacks, Market Makers for NWBO have been charged by the company with “spoofing” the stock for at least 5 years. The civil suit against 7 MMs by NWBO states hundreds of cases where the MMs offered bids or asks of large numbers of shares, but pulled their bids and asks before they could be filled. This is called spoofing and it causes real buyers and sellers to adjust their prices to sell and buy the stocks. It’s a form of stock price manipulation.



Q: Would it pay to use the term "baiting orders" in this description of illegal spoofing, since this term is used to explain the practice in the actual lawsuit? Also, would it pay to mention the David vs Goliath nature of this lawsuit, since one of the several companies that NWBO is suing is one of the largest and richest hedge funds in the country, and its founder has donated hundreds of billions of dollars to Harvard University?


* NWBO stock is listed on the OTC market, which is a market for penny stocks and puts it out of the range for analysts and funds to discuss or buy.


Q: WOuld it also pay to mention how many business reporters at mainstream newspaper are not permitted to write stories about companies whose shares trade OTC?


NWBO’s price is only 60 cents. Because of the manipulation and the being on the OTC it is unlikely the price will move until the company either gets approval for DCVax or declares large earning from its compassionate care program. That program’s income was $880,000 last quarter, which was double the quarter before.
* NWBO could be hit with a major issue that brings down the stock, like running out of money and being forced to sell cheap. This is an unlikely scenario because it has dedicated angel investors.



Q: Can we say a bit more about whose these angel investors are, and why they care so much and are willing to take such big financial risks?


It could also fail to get approval, which I believe is highly unlikely given the facts I listed above.
* NWBO has been a target of shorts who have already crashed the price at least twice, scaring retail share holders. While the price [color=red][will probably] [/color]pop up again, this tactic causes many retailers to sell and take their money elsewhere.


Future catalysts

1. The company expects to complete an application for approval in 4 countries and submit it soon. When this is announced it may or may not move the stock price.
2. Commercial approval by U.K. is expected first and should come within 45 days after the U.K. announces they have received our application.
3. Other countries should follow quickly, including the FDA approval by early next year.



Q: Do we have on-the-record information from 2 or more credible sources who agree on this timetable? Or is this just wishful thinking/speculation?


NWBO may be making application under the Orbis program that allows them to apply to multiple countries at once. We don’t know how they are handling the applications. In addition, seven countries across 4 continents and the European Union have recently agreed to share drug approvals . This means a drug approved in one country can be quickly approved in another.
4. NWBO may already be in talks to sell the company to another Big Pharma. If this happens I believe it is highly likely the price tag will be $20 per share or more. I expect more like $35 per share. That’s based on what Merck was willing to offer for another independent company a few months ago.
5. More likely, NWBO may decide to partner with other BPs (big pharma’s). Remember that DCVax appears to have synergy with Merck’s Keytruda in one on-going trial.



Q: I don't disagree, but would it pay to mention that a growing number of major drug companies also make drugs with the same mechanism of action as Keytruda (pembrolizumab) and therefore their drugs could also be used in combination with DCVax to improve survival in GBM? Would it pay to list these companies by name, along with their anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs, such as Bristol Myers Squibb (nivolumab) and sanofi/Regeneron (cemiplimab)? And that several other companies are also developing PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors that could be used in combination with DCVax, especially Novartis/Beigene (tislelizumab)? Here is a press release: https://hkexir.beigene.com/news/beigene-announces-closing-of-collaboration-with-novartis-to-develop-and-commercialize-anti-pd-1-antibody-tislelizumab-in/ada4ca59-13eb-4c37-82c2-cfe080ce40f3/


I hope this is what happens and there are lots of clues that it will. No big Pharma alone is able to pay us what DCVax technology is worth for the treatment of all cancers. I am hoping NWBO choses to take on multiple partners, each in different cancer areas perhaps, or different geological regions (such as US, Europe, Asia). Partners will bring funds, which will move clinical trials along quicker, which increases our value per share.
6. NWBO is hoping to get approval for a patent for combination of DC cells with other immunotherapies. If they are able to get this patent, Big Parma would be motivated to partner with us since we’ll hold the patent for combination treatments with DCs. (Which is the cell type DCVax is based on).
7. NWBO bought Flaskworks a few years ago. This company is automating the procedure for making individualized vaccines from each patient’s tumor. They are currently running tests with Flaskworks to refine its ability to consistently produce the same product. It is expected that Flaskworks is likely to increase the efficacy of DCVax as it also increases productivity by ten-fold over manual creation of the vaccine.



Q: Could you please say more about how Flaskworks is expected to increase the efficacy of DCVax? This is new to me. I thought it would increase the production rate and potentially reduce the cost and reliance on skilled labor. How exactly would it increase the efficacy?


Advise for how to handle your shares



No more Qs, I'll leave this to your judgment.


8. If NWBO sells, I expect the price to be at least $30 per share. This could happen this year.
9. If NWBO remains independent, I expect the share price to go up to $50 over the next 10 years, and to $100 or more over time.
10. And here’s the wild card: When NWBO makes a significant announcement, we could see a “short squeeze”, where the price runs up to crazy amounts, as we saw recently with GameStop. A short squeeze happens when there are too many players holding the stock “short” - they’ve sold the stock without first buying it or even borrowing it from an actual owner - and now they need to buy it back fast, like in 3 days.
11. Another way to trigger a short squeeze would be for NWBO to announce an unexpected uplifting to a major stock market. When companies uplift, their stock needs to be counted and accounted for, which means hedge funds, etc., need to come clean with any naked shares they’ve “failing to fill”. We know of a few hedge funds that have failed to follow regulations and their naked short positions are on on their books.
12. NWBO could merge with another company and uplift to a major exchange almost overnight.
13. Finally, I recommend you 7NOT selling this stock under $20 per share, preferably not under $35 per share. Best, wait until it is approved as standard of care in multiple major cancers. That will put it in the $100s per share, I believe.
14. When you decide to sell, you will have to pay taxes on your earnings. Since this is a gift, taxes will be paid from the price of when I bought the shares, not the price when we gifted them.
15. When you go to sell, DO use price limits. Place the price you want to buy at or above the “ask” …that’s what shareholders are currently offering for sale. Prices always move up and down.
16. DO NOT use price stop-loss order or trailing stop-loss orders when you sell. Lots of retailer shareholders use stop limits to prevent more loss of value when a stop price is falling, but price manipulators use this tool to take shares away from you. They will manipulate the price down and take out as many stop limits as they can. Then let the price jump up and continue to move up. Currently shorts are trying to accumulate shares to pay off their exposed shorts and are desperate. But they do it in normal trading days as well to get shares cheap as the price is rising.



Again, nice job beartrap12. It's wonderful to see how you try to do what's best for the next generation.

Have a good night.

-- OJ
icon url

TTsr

06/02/23 10:40 PM

#597952 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Wonderful synopsis!!! Will you adopt me??
icon url

Dr Bala

06/02/23 11:35 PM

#597959 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Awesome post. Thanks, beartrap.
icon url

Chiugray

06/03/23 1:53 AM

#597972 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Applause. That is an excellent summary and perspective!
Bullish
Bullish
icon url

Foogie88

07/03/23 1:33 PM

#606468 RE: beartrap12 #597847

you still so bullish on NWBO? It just doesn't add up having all the positive trial data and the stock trading at .55. What is the disconnect?
icon url

Flyrc2

08/24/23 9:24 AM

#623870 RE: beartrap12 #597847

Well done beartrap 12 Thank you!!
Bullish
Bullish