What happened
Shares of ThermoGenesis Holdings (THMO -1.90%) were up 81% as of early Wednesday afternoon after the company announced it was rolling out 12 ReadyStart current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) suites in Rancho Cordova, California, to early-stage cell and gene therapy companies. The stock has a 52-week low of $2.11 and a 52-week high of $40.50 and is down more than 86% over the past year.
So what
This is the next step in ThermoGenesis' transformation from a medical-device company to a contract development and manufacturing organization in the gene-editing field. The company's 35,500-square-foot facility, if fully occupied, is expected to generate $10 million to $16 million in annual revenue, the company said. The suites are expected to be ready for customers in the second or third quarter of this year.
The idea, according to ThermoGenesis CEO Chris Xu, is the company will help other gene-therapy companies with its product commercialization and regulatory expertise while renting out suites that are quality compliant toward running a cGMP facility. In effect, ThermoGenesis will become a helpful landlord to small biotech companies, saving them the costs and space concerns of owning their own properties.
Now what
ThermoGenesis markets a range of automated technologies for CAR-T and other cell therapies. The latest announcement is a bold move for a struggling company. ThermoGenesis was nearly delisted last year from the Nasdaq, and it also underwent a 1-for-45 reverse share split in December to boost the stock's price.
Wednesday's announcement shows the company reorganization plan is moving forward. As of Sept. 30, the company had $3.9 million in cash, its revenues were dropping, and its net losses were rising. In the third quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.1 million, down 34.3%, year over year, and the company said it had a net loss of $3.2 million, or $0.10 in earnings per share (EPS) loss, compared to a loss of $1.8 million, or an EPS loss of $0.15 in the same period in 2021.