Alaunos Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TCRT) stock is up 50% this morning. No, we know of nothing which would drive TCRT stock up like this. Except for the obvious observation that it is up and it must be up because people have been buying it in volume. And it is volume trade too, 14 million shares already today by one measure.
So, what’s going on here?
Our read on this is that Alaunos doesn’t really exist any more as a useful economic unit: “Alaunos Therapeutics is cutting loose its sole clinical-stage asset and letting 60% of staff go less than two years after rebranding and refocusing on TCR-T cell therapies. The Houston-area biotech said Tuesday that it's seen enough from an ongoing phase 1/2 trial testing the TCR-T Library cell therapy in a number of solid tumors. The company attributed the decision in part to a “review of the funding needs” and “the current financial markets.” An interim peek at the data showed an 83% disease control rate in six evaluable patients. That evidently wasn’t good enough to draw in fresh investor interest and so Alaunos is moving on, cutting 60% of staff in the process. The company's already low stock price fell further, from 39 cents to 17 cents per share.”
Most of the staff gone and nothing in clinical testing? Well, they might re-emerge as with a butterfly from a chrysalis but those are pretty long odds.
Alaunos Therapeutics stock price from Google Finance
The results which led to this are described here: “The Company also announced a strategic reprioritization to focus on its hunTR® TCR discovery platform, wind down its TCR-T Phase 1/2 Library trial and explore broad strategic alternatives for the Company. Alaunos is implementing a cost-savings plan that includes a reduction in workforce by approximately 60%.”
Well, OK. so, today’s 50% rise? It is, of course, possible that one of those strategic alternatives is just coming through. But we tend to think it’s much more likely that there’s a story doing the rounds about one of those strategic alternatives coming through. That is, a momentum trade set off by the rumour mills. We’d not guarantee we are right here but that is the way we currently read it.
