CoronaCrap

Quick Take Deja Vu: Guess Who Is Funding Cytodyn Yet Again, Again? (CYDY)

Early this morning, the 11th of November, everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY), issued a press release (here) eerily reminiscent of one from the end of July (here) and the end of March (here).

Here is the one from this morning:

Sounds AMAZING, right? Especially with the shares trading right around $2.00. But this is Cytodyn, so naturally nothing is as it seems. Instead this press release, like the July and March press releases before it, appears to be quite misleading as to the true amount raised, the effective interest rate, the true dilutive nature of the financing, and the true effective conversion price. We won’t know for sure, of course, until the company issues an 8k with the actual details.

Talk about deja vu. For the March deal we didn’t get any real details until the 8k was filed on the 6th of April (here). For the July deal we only had to wait 2 days, as the 8k was filed on the 31st of July (available here).

Both of those 8ks revealed important information that the press release conveniently omitted. The “institutional investor” in both turned out to be Iliad Research and Trading, LP.  This is one of many John M. Fife entities (Iliad, St. George, Chicago Venture Partners, among others). Who is he? A one-time variable annuity trader (see here) who moved into toxic financing of shady penny stocks.

And while the headline screams a top-line number of $28.5mm, the actual amount of money raised by the company was only $25mm.

The next red flag is that although the press release claimed it was a $28.5mm note convertible at $10, bearing interest at 10%, but these are misleading. As the company only received $25mm, a discount of 12.25%. This means that Fife invested $25mm but will receive at maturity the face value ($28.5mm) in addition to annual 10% interest on the face value. The effective interest rate is actually 11.4%.

And the $10 conversion price?

The note is convertible into 2.85mm shares at $10.50 per share. But as Iliad only paid $25mm for the note, the effective conversion price is actually $25/2.85 = $8.77 per share.

Finally, for all the claims about this being a non-dilutive financing, the 8ks from April and July are clear that in addition to “standard anti-dilution” the note also features a “full-ratchet.” A full-ratchet means that if the company raises money in the future at a lower price than given to Iliad, the conversion price is reset to the new, lower, amount. We suppose one could argue that Cytodyn isn’t lying, that the deal is certainly non-dilutive, but only to Iliad!

Not being big on coincidences here at BuyersStrike! HQ, we took a look at the unusual volume in Cytodyn shares on the 9th and 10th of November, 6.3mm and 11.1mm shares versus around 2mm shares a day on average the previous week:

Which may not be that unusual by itself, but what about the odd increase in shares outstanding as seen on Otcmarkets.com?

583.5mm shares as of November 9th, compared with 579.4mm as reported as of November 6th. Where did those 4.1mm shares come from? And to whom did they go?

As for what we don’t know, and likely will not know about this November deal, until the 8k is finally filed, here are our BuyersStrike! HQ predictions for the truth about this new CYDY deal:

The investor will be Iliad, or another Fife entity.

The “non-dilutive” deal will, in fact, be highly dilutive, just like the March and July deals.

And, those 4.1mm mystery shares that were issued sometime between November 6th and November 9th? Our prediction: Inducement to someone, most likely Iliad, and most likely the big seller on the 9th and 10th.

THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG REPRESENTS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR MAY HOLD EITHER LONG OR SHORT POSITIONS IN SECURITIES OF VARIOUS COMPANIES DISCUSSED IN THE BLOG. THIS COMMENTARY IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND SHOULD NEVER BE RELIED ON IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, EVER. THIS BLOG IS NOT A SOLICITATION OF BUSINESS: ALL INQUIRIES WILL BE IGNORED. THE CONTENT HEREIN IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE READER, AND THE AUTHOR.

Update: Guess Who is (yet again) still not participating in the Loserlimab Trial? (CYDY)

While we all anxiously await today’s no-live-q&a CONference call by everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY), let’s take a look at the status of their much-hyped “CD12” trial of loserlimab in severe-to-critical Covid patients.

For many months now, Cytodyn’s CEO, affectionately known in these parts as The NaDDir* and his Klown Krew have been talking up potential business in the UK. As early as April 27th, they made claims about starting the process for “Compassionate Use” of loserlimab, and starting trials, in the UK:

Then without much more from the company, this bizarre press release was issued on August 7th. No mention of the trials, and no mention of Compassionate Use, instead Cytodyn claimed they would submit their BLA for HIV and request Emergency Approval in the UK during August:

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Quick Take: What Craziness is Cytodyn Pivoting to Today? (CYDY)

That was fast. Just last Friday we predicted everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY) would need to spin a new yarn for its legions of rabid retail fans. With the likelihood of the delusional fantasy of an EUA for treating severe-to-critical Covid patients dropping to virtually 0% (read why here), the company has wasted no time in pivoting to the next nonsense. They have just issued a press release that could be the dictionary definition of the “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy:

And the first patient, from prior CONference calls we know she is none other than The NaDDir’s* Mother-in-Law:

Notice what is missing from both patient anecdotes?

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Quick Take: What Cytodelusion Actually Died Last Night? (CYDY)

Although few of them might have realized it when they woke up this morning, but for the rabid retail fanbase of everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY), today is the day their delusions about being granted an EUA for treating Severe-to-Critical patients with Covid-19 died.

Why? The answer is in section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as explained here:

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Who’s STILL Not Participating in CYTODYN’S Ridiculous Loserlimab Trial? (CYDY)

While we wait for everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY), to finally release the much hyped, and delayed-yet-again (see last night’s press release from the Cytocrew here and an absolute howler of stock promoting stupidity here), interim results from their latest trial (sometimes called CD12) of loserlimab (sometimes called PRO140 or leronlimab) in Severe-To-Critical Covid-19, let’s catch up on what the company has been up to the last few weeks.

Since announcing that the interim enrollment milestone was reached on August 25th the company has had several arduous tasks in front of it:

First, The NaDDer* and his trusty clinical trial wizard, Kooosh Doody had to remember that August has 31 days, so they needed to check on whether the last patient was dead or alive on September 22nd. Then they needed to tally up all the mortality events. It took these geniuses eight days, but they did it, and on September 30th they announced to the world that there were, supposedly, 45 deaths in the trial.

Supposedly? Because it seems they weren’t exactly sure, that’s why that little tilde is hanging out there before the ’45’. Those complicated ordinal numbers. The rigors of higher math. After the deaths are counted, the Data Safety Monitoring Committee (DSMC) is usually the team tasked with seeing if the deaths occurred in Group A or Group B, putting those numbers into a spreadsheet (one so simple any 1st semester or AP Stats student could do it in under 5 minutes), determining if there is a statistically significant difference between the groups, making a recommendation, and finally reporting the results.

What should have taken 15 extra minutes on the 30th of September, takes an additional 20 days in Cytoworld.

While all this has been going on, of course, Cytodyn and the CD12 trial have not been standing still, or have they?

Recall that in late August two sites, Eisenhower Health in California and Yale-New Haven in Connecticut, dropped out of the CD12 trial (read more about that here). One might also recall that on August 20th Cytodyn claimed they would start enrolling patients in the UK “immediately”

On September 2nd they backtracked on that claim, but insisted that UK study could now be “officially initiated”:

Guess that wasn’t true either, because on the 30th of September the company provided this update on clinical trial enrollment in the UK:

Fast forward to today, the 16th of October, and a peek at the list of trial locations on both Clinicaltrials.gov and Cytodyn’s own website, show that the September 30th “update” was just another empty promise (polite term for bullshit) from the Cytodyn Klown Krew. There are still no UK sites for the CD12 trial. Both sources show 14 sites, and not a single one in the UK.

Even if progress in the UK has been stalled, the company surely must be chugging along in the USA, right? After all, as The NaDDer* constantly tells his loyal shareholder base “we are in pandemic!”.

How is trial enrollment going? We know from the press release cited above that on August 25th there were 195 patients enrolled. From a depressing (for Cytodyn believers) presentation given by Dr. Harish “Sad Sack” Seethamraju (available here) it was revealed that on September 4th enrollment was up to 220 patients.

Which makes the trial update from the 30th of September from above all the more curious. Why? Look again:

Why would there be no additional patients enrolled in almost a month? Want our guess?

Simple: “Pausing” a trial by stopping enrollment means never having to say it failed….the company can just pivot to the next pipe dream.

All is not lost, however, the Klown Krew has actually been hard at work. They did manage to get the shareholders to approve a huge, partially retroactive, options package for them on the 30th of September. They even filed an S-8 to register those shares later that same day (see here)! And the next day filed a flurry of Form 4s with the SEC to show where the goodies were distributed. Enrollment might be paused, the study might have failed, but The NaDDer* never stops cashing in while double-dosing the retail shareholder base with his sweet sweet stock pimping.

THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG REPRESENTS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR MAY HOLD EITHER LONG OR SHORT POSITIONS IN SECURITIES OF VARIOUS COMPANIES DISCUSSED IN THE BLOG. THIS COMMENTARY IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND SHOULD NEVER BE RELIED ON IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, EVER. THIS BLOG IS NOT A SOLICITATION OF BUSINESS: ALL INQUIRIES WILL BE IGNORED. THE CONTENT HEREIN IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE READER, AND THE AUTHOR.

*The NaDDer

Update: What Exchange Won’t Cytodyn Be Listed On This Month/Quarter/Year? (CYDY)

Remember when, in late July, everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY) told investors that they expected to be listed on the NASDAQ within 5 to 6 weeks?

Perhaps you recall back in August when this post explained why a Nasdaq listing was a virtual impossibility.

This morning the company issued its latest 10Q, with updated (albeit unaudited) financials, detailing the results of the quarter ending August 2020. No matter the spin that The NaDDir* or CFO Mike Mulholland tries to deliver, the dream of a Nasdaq listing remains a ludicrous fantasy. Just another carrot to dangle in front of the deluded cultists.

And with updated financials from the company, it is time to update our BuyersStrike! prediction. Are you ready? Once again:

Cytodyn (CYDY) will not get “uplisted” to the NASDAQ. Not to the Nasdaq Capital Market, not to the Nasdaq Global Market, and certainly not to the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Why not?

Simple math. Here are the listing standards for the Nasdaq Capital Market, the least stringent of the Nasdaq tiers:

A company seeking to list must meet all of the criteria under one of the three standards. Unfortunately for Cytodyn, it still fails to meet the requirements for all three standards. Remember that the listing criteria are based on the most recent audited financials, filed by the company in August.

The current financials, filed by the company on October 9, 2020 (available here), are unaudited. But even if we pretend that these figures are audited, Cytodyn still fails the Stockholder’s Equity test. That information is on the Balance Sheet which can be found on page 3 of the recent 10Q (Don’t know what a Balance Sheet is? Don’t know what Stockholder’s Equity is? Well then, you are PERFECT for Cytodyn, and the bucket shop brokers at Paulson probably have many more shitstocks for you). Here is the relevant section:

While Cytodyn has finally flipped over from Stockholder’s Deficit to having positive Stockholder’s Equity, unfortunately for Cytodyn longs dreaming of a listing on Nasdaq, 2.8mm < the required $4mm or $5mm.

There is no way, under these listing standards, for Cytodyn to get a listing.

“But wait,” the Cytodummies may say, “what IF we somehow met the Shareholder’s Equity requirements? After all The NaDDir keeps promising us he can fix it quickly.”

Even then the company would not qualify. Why?

And it is easy to see that if the company applied for a listing today it fails the minimum bid price requirement of $4. One need only look at the price of the stock the last two weeks, let alone 90 days.

“But but but”, cry the Cytodummies, “what about the Closing Price Alternative?” Great question. Let’s examine it,

Under this alternative test, the company needs to meet the lower closing price bar of $2 (which it does) and the Net Tangible Assets test. What’s that? Here’s a definition.

To simplify: Net Tangible Assets = Total Assets – Intangible Assets – Total Liabilities – Par Value of Pfd Stock

Where to find this information? Remember that pesky Balance Sheet? Let’s take another look:

OK, we have our Total Assets of $93,362,000 and our Intangible Assets of 12.959,000.

Our Total Liabilities of 90,594,000.

Plugging those numbers into the complex NTA formula gives us the following:

93,362,000 – 12,959,000 – 90,594,000 = -10,191,000

Ooops! Cytodyn’s Net Tangible Assets are still negative. Last time we checked here at BuyersStrike HQ! -10mm < +2mm. Which means the company cannot use the Closing Price Alternative.

Of course, the company knows all of this (and now you do too). Any spin they dish out about a potential listing is misleading hype designed to keep their shareholder base dreaming.

THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG REPRESENTS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR MAY HOLD EITHER LONG OR SHORT POSITIONS IN SECURITIES OF VARIOUS COMPANIES DISCUSSED IN THE BLOG. THIS COMMENTARY IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND SHOULD NEVER BE RELIED ON IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, EVER. THIS BLOG IS NOT A SOLICITATION OF BUSINESS: ALL INQUIRIES WILL BE IGNORED. THE CONTENT HEREIN IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE READER, AND THE AUTHOR.

* Spelled Thusly For A Double Dose of That Sweet Sweet Stock Pimping

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Reader Mailbag – Breakthrough Therapy Edition (CYDY)

Commenter Tom recently asked a very good question. To paraphrase, “everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY) had bad news from the FDA but I can not find it on the FDA site. Can you help?” Certainly.

The answer to Tom’s question should be quite illuminating to readers unfamiliar with the FDA, clinical trials, and the drug approval process. Before we begin, it would be helpful to review the Maxims, especially Maxims 19 and 20.

Cytodyn often talks about “Breakthrough Therapy Designation” for loserlimab. Like in this press release from the 13th of January 2020:

So just what is Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD)? You can read all about it here. To briefly summarize, it is a stack of forms that a company fills out and sends to the FDA along with preliminary clinical evidence. The evidence must back up the company’s belief that the treatment may show a substantial improvement, on at least one clinically significant endpoint, over available therapies.

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Who Else Is Suing Cytodyn Now? (CYDY)

[Catch up on Cytodyn’s seemingly doomed quest for a NASDAQ listing here, and click here to learn more about who is participating in the much hyped CD12 trial of loserlimab.]

Back in late April, we looked at two rather interesting lawsuits filed against everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY). Both of those suits were filed by former insiders against the company and current management.

Just last week another suit was filed against Cytodyn. In this one, Florida Circuit Court of Miami Dade County Case 2020-020074-CA-01 (available here) Shift Media Lab is suing Cytodyn for failure to pay its bills.

So who is Shift Media Lab, and what were they doing for Cytodyn? There isn’t much about Shift on the interwebs. According to the complaint they were engaged to provide “services” to Cytodyn for three months at $25,000 per month.

And just what might those “services” have been? If one looks carefully at Cytodyn’s disclosure statement to OTC Markets, Shift appears in the rogues’ gallery of what can kindly be described as stock promoters.

Is there a term for disgruntled not-paid promoters?

THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG REPRESENTS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR MAY HOLD EITHER LONG OR SHORT POSITIONS IN SECURITIES OF VARIOUS COMPANIES DISCUSSED IN THE BLOG. THIS COMMENTARY IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND SHOULD NEVER BE RELIED ON IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, EVER. THIS BLOG IS NOT A SOLICITATION OF BUSINESS: ALL INQUIRIES WILL BE IGNORED. THE CONTENT HEREIN IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE READER, AND THE AUTHOR.

The Death Tape (CYDY)

One message that bears repeating is that all cults, and all cult stocks, share the same basic characteristics. However some cults are crazier than others, more self-destructive, some cult members more obedient to their masters, more deluded, more willing to hold on to tightly held beliefs, more determined to bring down the supposed enemies of the only true saviors of the world. Learn more about cults and the amazing resilience of false belief in their members here.

Everyone’s favorite reverse-merger, pink sheet, Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY) is one such cult. Beyond the tacit admission that the company had been lying about enrolling patients in the UK, and obfuscations around their attempts to secure an EUA for loserlimab in the USA, yesterday afternoon’s Cytodyn conference call (replay here) reminded the curmudgeonly staff at BuyersStrike! HQ of one only thing: The Jonestown Death Tape. The NaDDir* was playing the part of Jim Jones, clueless retail shareholders, desperate trial patients and their families playing the part of the members of the People’s Temple.

We can envision the Netflix mini-series now:

The NaDDir*: The vat, with the green leronlimab please. Bring it here so the long-haulers can begin … beg you, don’t, don’t, fail to follow my advice, you’ll be sorry … you’ll be sorry … (unintelligible word) … that we’ll do it than that they do it.

Paid Promoters in the Background: That’s right, that’s right.

The NaDDir*: … Must trust, you have to step across … We used to sing: “this world, this world’s not our home.” Well, it sure isn’t. … We were saying, it sure wasn’t … Really doesn’t want, you’re telling me. All he’s doing is what we’ll tell him. Assure these … Can some people assure these patients of the relaxation of stepping over to the next plane? That’d set an example for others. You set 1,000 people who say, “We don’t like the way the world is ….

Shareholders: That’s right, that’s right.

The NaDDir*: … (unintelligible words) … take our life from us, we laid it down, we got tired. We didn’t commit suicide. We committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.. …

THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN THIS BLOG REPRESENTS ONLY THE OPINIONS OF THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR MAY HOLD EITHER LONG OR SHORT POSITIONS IN SECURITIES OF VARIOUS COMPANIES DISCUSSED IN THE BLOG. THIS COMMENTARY IN NO WAY CONSTITUTES INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND SHOULD NEVER BE RELIED ON IN MAKING AN INVESTMENT DECISION, EVER. THIS BLOG IS NOT A SOLICITATION OF BUSINESS: ALL INQUIRIES WILL BE IGNORED. THE CONTENT HEREIN IS INTENDED SOLELY FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT OF THE READER, AND THE AUTHOR.

Just Who IS Participating in Cytodyn’s Loserlimab Coronavirus Trial? (CYDY)

Our last post (catch up on it here) discussed the August 31, 2020 updates to the ongoing Covid trial run by everyone’s favorite reverse-merger pink sheet Coronacrapper, Cytodyn (CYDY). Together we looked at the strange disappearance of Yale and the complete absence of any trial sites in the UK. Some people complained that the curmudgeonly crew at BuyersStrike! HQ only looks at the negatives swirling around Cytodyn, and not the positives. “Why look at the sites that aren’t there, instead look at the sites that are there.” Spoiler Alert: Be careful what you wish for.

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