The company said they have enough cash equivalents to last till the third quarter. My analysis says end of 2nd quarter. If they plan to survive I think they will have to reorganize and cut costs drastically. Procept will have to concentrate on the gel only. Hopefully, another company will collaborate with them. Grants won't be enough, but it's a start. I think Procept will have to do another private placement of stock. I believe that Procept went to human trials outside the US because of the slow bureaucracy here. The FDA is to slow!
The following is an article in the May 97 edition of Money magazine. In the Money Helps section. Dosn't have anything to do with Procept. I just thought it was interesting.
Question: In 1986, I bought 5,000 shares of a penny stock called Nastech Pharmaceutical for $500. By 1988, it had dropped off the Nasdaq listings, and I then lost track of it. Just recently I spotted it back in the listings trading at around $12. I've still got the shares. Am I sitting on a windfall?
Answer: Not quite. Nastech has gone through two reverse splits, and your 5,000 shares have shrunk to a mere 8.3 shares, now worth a total of about $100. (Companies initiate reverse splits to reduce the number of shares outstanding, thereby raising the value of each share. They usually resort to that strategy when the share price has gotton so low that marketmakers are ignoring the stock.) Nastech ran aground when its founder, a physician who developed formulas for delivering intravenous drugs nasally, died of a heart attack in 1991. His son, a law student, took over the business, and it has been struggling with financial problems ever since. The company could rebound, however, says analyst David Steinberg, a partner at the San Francisco investment bank Volpe Welty. Its nasal spray formula for Stadol, a leading prescription painkiller, has been a hit. The resulting royalty income will help Nastech compete in the estimated $500 million market for nasal drugs. Of course, the company is still a David among pharmaceutical Goliaths. Your investment could turn out to be nothing to sniff at-or not worth a scent.
The last sentence applies to Procept! |
