Thursday, October 17, 2013

Advaxis (ADXS): Uplisting Should Expand Valuation by 300%

Yesterday Advaxis (ADXS), a next generation immunotherapy biotech company, announced the pricing of its public offering of 5.7m shares at an offering price of $4.00, with estimated proceeds of $23m.  The shares are being uplisted and will start trading today on the NASDAQ.  Aegis Capital was the sole acting book-running manager.  Coincidentally, Aegis also ran the book for Cancer Genetics (CGIX), which uplisted on August 14th and it went on a spectacular run from $9 to nearly $23. The completed uplisting to the NASDAQ is a major catalyst and I expect the stock to respond in a big way over the short term.

Another potential big near term catalyst is that Advaxis will be presenting three abstracts at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer November 8-10th:
  
The abstract titled “Listeria monocytogenes (Lm)-LLO immunotherapies reduce the immunosuppressive activity of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells in the tumor microenvironment” has been selected for oral presentation during the session, “Tumor Microenvironment and Innate Cells Recognition" on November 8, 2013 from 9:40 AM to 12:00 PM. Anu Wallecha, Ph.D., Director of Research and Development at Advaxis, will report on the localized effects of Lm-LLO immunotherapies on the tumor microenvironment in preclinical studies using transplantable mouse models.

The abstract titled “ADXS11-001 immunotherapy targeting HPV-E7: Updated survival and safety data from a Phase 2 study in Indian women with recurrent/refractory cervical cancer” has been selected for poster presentation during the Vaccine session. Robert Petit, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Advaxis, will present final 18-month survival and updated safety data from the ongoing trial.

The abstract titled “Biomarker identification in serum samples from patients with recurrent cervical cancer treated with ADXS11-001 immunotherapy” has been selected for poster presentation during the session “Biomarkers and Immunoscoring”. Poonam Molli, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Advaxis, will report on the correlation of changes in cytokine and chemokine levels pre- and post-dosing with ADXS11-001 from the Phase 2 study in Indian women with recurrent/refractory cervical cancer.
     
“The three presentations of Advaxis data at SITC reflect our growing understanding of the unique attributes of the Advaxis platform technology for immunotherapies. Dr. Wallecha’s presentation will highlight the ability of Lm-LLO immunotherapy to counteract immune suppressor cells that enable persistence of the tumor. We will report final 18-month survival and final tumor response data from our 110 patient Phase 2 study in India in women with recurrent cervical cancer. Dr. Molli’s presentation will illustrate the remarkable immune stimulation that occurs in patients after treatment with ADXS11-001. Together, these data paint a picture of an immunotherapy that has a strong positive impact on the immune system while at the same time counteracting immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment that can lead to apparent prolonged survival and objective tumor responses from a single immunotherapeutic agent,” commented Dr. Petit.

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Advaxis has all the ingredients for a nice short term momentum run: reverse split, uplisting, tiny market cap and float, plenty of cash to fund ADXS-HPV phase 3 trials and key near term clinical data presentations. I anticipate that ADXS has near term appreciation potential back to its recent September highs of near $11.

Disclosure: I am long ADXS. I wrote this article myself,  this is NOT investment advice, it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with Advaxis, Inc. SEE FULL DISCLOSURE BELOW