Northwest Biotherapeutics: Seeking Alpha Publishes Latest in a String of Attack Articles Authored by Short Sellers (NWBO, $4.92)
Seeking Alpha has published an extremely negative article by anonymous short sellers that alleges criminal misconduct on the part of management and predicts bankruptcy for NWBO. I wrote a comment on the article which I include below. The editors of Seeking Alpha have taken down my comments in the past and I think that they could delete this one. They have told me that I am not objective and have a positive bias Here is my comment.
There is one inherent contradiction that runs through all the short attacks on NWBO in the approximate eleven such articles published on Seeking Alpha over the last two years or so. Except for one, all were written by anonymous short sellers. They make two essential points. The first is that the science behind DCVax-L and DCVax Direct is flawed and there is no chance that the products will be effective. I would remind people that this technology is based on the role of the dendritic cell in activating the active and innate immune system. This won their discoverers the Nobel Prize in 2011. Secondly, there has already been one product approved that uses dendritic cell vaccine technology. That was Provenge which was approved on the basis of a 4.5 month improvement in median overall survival in metastatic colon cancer (4.5 months is considered by key opinion leaders to be a significant advance). To me, this suggests that dendritic cell cancer vaccines like DCVax-L and DCVax Direct are based on solid science. I for one feel that cancer vaccines could be a major advance in the treatment of cancer and dendritic cell cancer vaccines are an extremely logical approach.
The next point that the short selling articles make is that Linda Powers has a major stake in Cognate and Northwest; Cognate is the manufacturer of DCVax-L and DCVax Direct. Northwest in large part because of constant short selling and coordinated attack articles like this has been cash starved. If Cognate had demanded cash for manufacturing these products, NWBO would have been unable to continue the trials. Cognate instead has accepted over 20 million shares of NWBO for its services. The shorts on the one hand tell us that this stock is worthless and then say that this is transferring wealth away from NWBO shareholders. There is no question that the DCVax-L phase 3 trial would have been suspended and the DCVax Direct trial would never have taken place without Cognate accepting stock in lieu of cash. I think that all NWBO shareholders should thank Cognate for its role in keeping the trials going. If the shorts are correct, Cognate has accepted worthless stock of NWBO in lieu of $80 million or more of cash. Hmmmm.
This is an article like almost all the other negative Seeking Alpha articles is written by anonymous authors who are short the stock. This article alleges criminal misconduct on the part of NWBO management. This is an extremely serious charge and I believe that we entitled to know who the authors are. It is also troubling that they are short before the article was published. This is consistent with stock manipulation. I think that Seeking Alpha should demand that all authors publish under their real names. The information in this article has large components taken from previous Seeking Alpha articles. At its heart there is nothing new.
For those of you who are perplexed by this unrelenting attack on Northwest Biotherapeutics, I suggest that you look at three links. The first is my article on illegal naked short selling. The second is an article published on the website Deep Capture that describes in extensive research how Dendreon's stock was manipulated by short sellers in a manner that duplicates the attack on Northwest. This is a must read. The third is Jim Cramer's video describing stock manipulation techniques. This is a must watch if you have not seen it before.
A subscriber sent me the following comment on the authors of this Seeking Alpha article.
Phase V doesn't want to reveal their identity
If you look up their website registration you see...
Domain Name: PHASEFIVERESEARCH.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1874592735_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Update Date: 2015-09-08T18:21:23Z Creation Date: 2014-09-07T08:37:54Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-09-07T08:37:54Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505 Domain Status: ok http://www.icann.org/epp#ok Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Registration Private
Registrant Organization: Domains By Proxy, LLC Registrant Street: DomainsByProxy.com Registrant Street: 14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309 Registrant City: Scottsdale Registrant State/Province: Arizona Registrant Postal Code: 85260 Registrant Country: United States
They have gone to great lengths to hide who they are in fear that they would get sued for spreading misinformation.
Tagged as Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc., NWBO, stock manipulation scheme against Northwest Biotherapeutics + Categorized as Company Reports
Thank you Larry for your timely and well thought out response to the SA article and its allegations…
I will now go over to SA and try and determine if they have deleted your comments, which, IMHO, would raise with me the issue of unbiased reporting. Thank you for following NWBio and trying to help people like me to gain a better understanding of the science, the constant short attacks and a calm, level headed analysis of this entire companies history from start to this moment in time…please keep up this fine effort and I hope that someday we will all see the tests results of the phase III trial of “L” and then really have something to talk about….cheers..longNWBio
I think NWBO is at the forefront of cancer vaccines, which is at the forefront of cancer therapy. I have bought and sold NWBO stock over the past 4 years and have actually made money. Unfortunately, these constant negative articles with threatening and filed legal actions constantly depresses the stock and makes owning this highly volatile stock a very highly risky deal. It is very unfortunate that these short sellers are manipulating this stock. There should definitely be a Federal investigation. In the meantime, I’m keeping an eye on this overall situation but now sitting on the sidelines. I sincerely hope NW succeeds and the shorts get their shorts handed to them. If I were going to get back in I would buy after a negative article comes out and sell when it runs up again which is something I’ve done 3 or 4 times, but right now I feel the market is due for a major bear market. So I’m mostly in cash as of mid-July which looks to have been the top of this aging bull market. Many of these high flying biotechs went down 90% during the last bear market. For the record, I don’t think I am a sophisticated investor. So don’t anyone take my advice on these issues.
Hi Larry…just a follow on to the above post…..So far, your reply on SA has not been removed, so I am glad that the readers of that web site could hear your considered opinion….Also, if you may, please respond to Steve G. who has changed his opinion on NWBio to negative based on what he now thinks is flawed science and test results of “D” that are not as robust as NWBio makes them out to be…I would really appreciate your thoughtful response to his points as I don’t have a clue and I did invest because of his earlier stance on the efficacy of “L” and the science….As an aside….You may remember I asked you to look at the science and the company APDN….today a hit piece came out from some where and the stock price is down over 45%….wow, what a hit….Now I am worried about any company getting killed by articles that purport to say they are terrible and have no truth in them, but are perceived or brought down by the manipulators that are getting to good at this and are doing more and more….Something really smells bad….thank you if you take the time to read this and can respond to Steve G…..
WSJ article today on a letter to the BoD from Woodford asking for a new board member to be appointed and an investigation into the allegations about the Toucan/NWBO relationship. The para below is from the article. I’m concerned because it seems to make clear that Neil Woodford’s due diligence wasn’t very thorough.
Of that total, he agreed to his most-recent investment, of $30 million, just days before Phase Five Research made its allegations. Mr. Woodford said in the letter that he “only became aware of these allegations after the completion of our recent investment” in the company. Mr. Woodford is one of only a small number of life-science specialists investors in the U.K., and his backing is highly sought by biotech companies.
Larry– As a new subscriber and very long (NWBO), I wonder why you have not commented on NWBO in about 2 1/2 months when I believe you must have thoughts on all the Woodford intrigue and the stock falling off the cliff. Thank you, Joel