TapImmune Inc (OTCMKTS:TPIV) Receives Orphan Drug Designation for TPIV 200
For close to two and a half months the stock of TapImmune Inc (OTCMKTS:TPIV) fluctuated around the 60 cents per share mark. With the start of December, however, the positive momentum behind the ticker has been pushing it higher and higher with only a single red session out of the last seven. After gaining another 6.8% yesterday the company is currently sitting at $0.908.
That price may be soon left behind though thanks to the new PR TPIV published yesterday. In it the company announced that their cancer vaccine TPIV 200 for the treatment of ovarian cancer has received Orphan Drug Designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is a huge development for the company and with the official PR being published just minutes before the end of yesterday ‘s trading the full effect of the announcement should be felt during today’s session.
Currently TPIV is preparing to launch multiple Phase II clinical studies in order to examine the efficacy of the vaccine in ovarian and triple negative breast cancer. In September TPIV‘s collaborators at the Mayo Clinic were awarded a $13.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. The grant will be used to cover the costs of a 280 patient Phase II Clinical Trial of Folate Receptor Alpha Vaccine in patients with Triple Negative Breast Cancer.
TPIV‘s own financials are also not that bad. According to the latest financial report at the end of the third quarter of the year the company had:
• $6 million cash
• $6.2 million total current assets
• $8.8 million total current liabilities
• ZERO revenues
• $2.5 million net income
Through the exercise of warrants TPIV have been able to increase their cash position and now they have over $6 million in reserves. Thanks to a $4.2 million changes in the fair value of derivative liabilities the company was also able to finish the period with a sizable net income.
As is usually the case though before jumping into the stock there are several red flags that must be taken into consideration. While the company has been generating proceeds thanks to the exercise of warrants this also means that millions upon millions of underpriced shares have been issued. During the nine months ended September 30 5 million series C warrants were exercised at $0.50 but far more alarming were the 24.6 million series B warrants that were exercised at $0.20. Between October 1 and November 12 another 1.7 million Series C warrants were exercised. TPIV also sold over 12 million shares at $0.20 during two private placements that took place earlier this year.
With so many fresh shares seeing the light day the outstanding shares of the company increased significantly – from 20.3 million at the end of 2014 to more than 64 million as of November 16. Still, if TPIV continue to steadily move forward with the development of their drug candidates the share price of the company might continue to climb up the chart.
