aibioMoleculin Biotech gets Nasdaq bid price notice, has until December 24, 2025
Tickers MBRX
The stock closed below $1.00 for 30 straight business days. The company may consider a reverse stock split to regain compliance.
Key facts
- Company
- Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (NASDAQ: MBRX)
- News type
- Listings
- Primary source
- Moleculin Biotech, Inc. 8-K (2025-06-27)
Moleculin Biotech, Inc. (MBRX) received a deficiency letter from Nasdaq on June 27, 2025, stating that its common stock had closed below the $1.00 minimum bid price for the last 30 consecutive business days, according to an 8-K dated the same day. The letter does not result in immediate delisting. The company has an initial period of 180 calendar days, until December 24, 2025, to regain compliance.
What compliance requires
Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2), the bid price must close at $1.00 or more. Moleculin regains compliance if its stock closes at $1.00 or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days before December 24, 2025. Nasdaq staff can extend that 10-day period under Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(H). The 8-K does not give the stock's closing bid price after the notice.
If the company is not compliant by December 24, 2025, it may get a second 180-calendar day period. To qualify, it must meet the market value of publicly held shares requirement and the other initial listing standards for the Nasdaq Capital Market, apart from the bid price. It must also notify Nasdaq of its intent to cure the deficiency, which may include a reverse stock split if necessary.
If the company is not eligible for more time at that point, Nasdaq staff will notify it that its stock may be delisted. Moleculin could then appeal to a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel, and the 8-K says there can be no assurance that such an appeal would succeed. The company says it intends to monitor its closing bid price and may consider options, including a reverse stock split, but that "there can be no assurance" it will regain compliance with the Bid Price Rule.
A Phase 3 trial on a fixed clock
Moleculin describes itself, in the business section of its annual report filed by the story date, as a late-stage pharmaceutical development company. It is running a pivotal Phase 3 trial of Annamycin, a non-cardiotoxic anthracycline, combined with cytarabine for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The company says the trial should have an interim unblinding of data by the end of 2025 and an additional unblinding in the first half of 2026. The 8-K does not connect that timetable to the December 24, 2025 compliance date.
What the company's own data rest on
The company reports a complete response rate of 50%, a composite complete response rate of 60%, durability of composite complete responses of approximately 9 months, and overall survival of approximately 11 months. These figures come from Annamycin in combination with cytarabine as second-line therapy for relapsed or refractory AML, in N=10 patients. The company also says Annamycin was non-cardiotoxic in N=84 patients, and it says it has shown no cardiotoxicity in subjects treated in its five Annamycin clinical trials. Those claims are the company's own, and the business section frames several of them as beliefs.
Pipeline, funding and patents
Moleculin says each of its three core technologies is based substantially on discoveries made at and licensed from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Beyond Annamycin, the core programs include the WP1066 portfolio, which the company says is designed to inhibit p-STAT3 and to stimulate a natural immune response to tumors, and the WP1122 portfolio, which contains compounds designed to exploit inhibitors of glycolysis. The company says its limited resources lead it to focus mainly on Annamycin, and that it advances its other candidates through externally funded trials and investigator-led studies.
The company describes composition of matter patent protection through 2040, orphan drug and fast track status for Annamycin, and no vesicant activity. It also says three of its six drug candidates have shown human activity in clinical trials.
Filing details
The 8-K lists the common stock under the symbol MBRX on The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC. It was signed on June 27, 2025 by Jonathan P. Foster, Chief Financial Officer.