The share price of NeOnc Technologies Holdings Inc. has dropped in the weeks since the company went public last month.
The Westlake Village clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, which focuses on treatments for brain cancer, had its direct listing open at $25 on March 26. That day the stock closed at $12.11 – more than a 50% decrease.
It then spiked by more than 36% to close at $16.55 on March 28 and then fell to reach a low closing price of $7 a few days later on April 2.
The stock closed at $9.60 on April 10.
Thomas Chen, the chief executive of the company, had more than 3 million shares as of the day before the company went public which was worth $38 million when it closed on March 26.
Still, that amount doesn’t quite compare to the payday of Amir Heshmatpour, the executive chairman.
With nearly 5.2 million shares in NeOnc, his stock was worth just shy of $63 million when the direct listing closed on March 26.
A direct listing, unlike an initial public offering, means that the resale of shares is not underwritten by any investment bank, nor will the company see any of the proceeds from the sale of any shares of common stock.
Strategic partnership announced
As part of the direct listing prospectus, NeOnc included a summary of financial data.
For all of last year, the company reported a net loss of $11.9 million compared to a net loss of $15 million in the previous year. Revenue increased by almost 18% from the prior year to $83,000.
And on March 27 the company announced a strategic partnership with CBCC Global Research, a Bakersfield-based clinical research organization.
The collaboration will expand NeOnc’s clinical trial capabilities in India and facilitate the advancement of its development-stage neuro-oncology treatment.
Through this partnership, NeOnc will initiate clinical trials across 30 FDA-compliant clinical research sites in India, increasing patient enrollment and accelerating development efforts for a novel therapy designed to target aggressive brain tumors, it said in a release.
The FDA-aligned trials in India will be conducted under Good Clinical Practices and Good Laboratory Practices standards, ensuring high-quality data generation and regulatory adherence. CBCC will oversee trial execution in coordination with NeOnc’s U.S.-based clinical research organization, Anova Enterprises in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a technology company on a mission to accelerate clinical development, reduce cost and increase access to new drugs.
A critical step forward
Heshmatpour, the executive chairman, said that the collaboration with CBCC represents an important milestone and step forward in NeOnc’s clinical development strategy.
“Conducting our trials in India allows us to accelerate patient recruitment, maintain regulatory compliance and expedite the potential approval of these promising therapies for patients in need,” he said in a statement. “We are focused on completing our Phase 2 NEO100-01 enrollment this year, with a readout expected six to eight months after that.”
NEO100-01 is the intranasal drug that targets brain cancer being developed by NeOnc.
“We are dedicated to advancing breakthrough therapies for brain cancer, and launching trials in India represents a critical step in that mission,” Chen, the chief executive of NeOnc, said in a statement. “By broadening our clinical reach, we are accelerating the path to market for our transformative treatments, while ensuring we reach a more diverse patient population.”
Manoj Vyas, chief executive of CBCC, said that India is emerging as a key hub for clinical research and that his company was “honored” to support NeOnc in its mission to advance neuro-oncology treatments.
“With our deep expertise in clinical trial management and regulatory pathways, we are confident that this partnership will drive critical advancements in cancer therapeutics,” Vyas said in a statement.
