Shares of Delcath (NSDQ:DCTH) dropped more than 18% by the early afternoon today after the company proceeded with a 1-to-16 reverse stock split.
The slide unraveled the stock’s gradual rise over the course of 2014, leaving shares down nearly 6% for the year. Shares had briefly traded as high as $6.72 apiece in March.
Delcath announced yesterday that it proceeded with a stock split, effective at the start of April 9, 2014, combining 16 shares of common stock into a single share. The move reduced DCTH shares from 150.9 million units to about 9.4 million, according to an SEC filing.
Delcath has had a run of bad luck, resorting to severe layoffs and announcing restructuring efforts after failed attempts to win FDA approval for its targeted liver cancer therapy device.
The company saw another Wall Street exodus in October 2013, when shares dropped 24.5% after the company announced efforts to raise about $7.5 million through sales of common stock.
The company has been under pressure since an FDA advisory panel last spring recommended against approval for the Melblez device. The FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 16-0 that the risks associated with Delcath’s Melblez Kit are higher than its potential benefits for patients with unresectable ocular melanoma metastatic to the liver.
