aibioNasdaq panel delists Aspira Women's Health over $2.5 million equity rule
Tickers AWHL
Nasdaq's hearings panel has decided to delist Aspira Women's Health, which says its shares will trade on OTC markets under the symbol AWH.
Key facts
- Company
- Aspira Women's Health Inc. (OTC: AWHL)
- News type
- Listings
- Primary source
- Aspira Women's Health Inc. 8-K (2025-04-16)
Aspira Women's Health Inc. said on April 16, 2025 that the Nasdaq Hearings Panel has decided to delist its common stock because the company did not meet Nasdaq's continued listing standards. The company received written notice of the decision on April 15, 2025, from the Office of General Counsel of The Nasdaq Stock Market. The release is Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K.
The equity rule
The company says it has not complied with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(b)(1), which requires a minimum of $2.5 million in stockholders' equity for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. The release says the company had disclosed that shortfall before. It does not give the size of the company's stockholders' equity or how far below the minimum it stands.
Trading on Nasdaq was set to be suspended with the open of trading on Thursday, April 17, 2025. The company expects its common stock to begin trading under its existing symbol, AWH, on markets operated by OTC. The release does not say whether the company will appeal the panel's decision.
The financing behind the notice
The annual report filed in March 2025 said the company's current capital resources were not sufficient to fund its operations for the rest of 2025. It said the company had been pursuing strategic alternatives and seeking to raise additional capital.
On March 5, 2025, Aspira sold about $1,365,000 of senior secured convertible promissory notes in a private placement to existing accredited shareholders. The notes convert into units of one common share and 2.25 warrants, and they accrue interest at 3.34%, payable quarterly in kind. They mature on March 6, 2030. The company may convert them into units if the net proceeds from the notes and later sales of stock and warrants reach $4 million. The warrants are exercisable at $0.25 per share for the first 24 months after issuance and at $0.50 per share after that. The holders are entitled to three representatives on the board of directors.
The release does not mention the placement.
The business and its claims
Aspira describes itself as dedicated to noninvasive, AI-powered tests to aid in the diagnosis of gynecologic disease, starting with ovarian cancer. It owns Aspira Labs, a research and commercial CLIA laboratory in Texas. Its commercial tests include OvaWatch, Ova1Plus and the OvaSuite portfolio. The release says OvaWatch has a negative predictive value of 99%, but it gives no study or patient population for that figure.
The annual report says that expanding OvaWatch to periodic monitoring of an adnexal mass in the second quarter of 2024 raised the company's estimate of its addressable market to between 2 and 4 million tests a year. The company compares that with an Ova1Plus addressable market of approximately 200,000 to 400,000 patients identified for surgery. It presents these figures as its own beliefs.
The development pipeline covers ovarian cancer, through the OVAinform multi-marker test, and endometriosis, through ENDOinform. The annual report says an algorithm for a non-invasive endometrioma test was confirmed with three independent cohorts. It cites the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the figure of more than 6.5 million American women with endometriosis. The release calls it the first-ever non-invasive test designed to identify endometriomas and gives no data for that claim.
Read together, the notice, the notes and the company's own market estimates describe a business that is still building its evidence while its listing and cash position are under pressure.