Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMNP) Takes Another Hit – What's Next?

It is been less than three weeks since we last covered Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMNP) and already the company is making headlines again. This week, Immune announced that it received a letter from the NASDAQ exchange outlining that it full short of the stockholders' equity threshold (which is $2.5 million) and, additionally, that it doesn’t meet the alternative compliance standards relating to the market value of listed securities ($35 million or net income from continuing operations of $500,000 in the most recently completed fiscal year or in two of the last three most recently completed fiscal years). IMNP Daily ChartImmune lost 15% of its market capitalization on the news, compounding both issues, and currently trades at a little over $1.02 a share – dangerously close to falling foul of the minimum bid threshold at one dollar apiece.This is one that we have come back to many times here at Insider Financial and it's a stock that just can't seem to get out of its year-long rut. A reverse split back in April served to weaken shareholder sentiment and during the subsequent four months, said sentiment has put pressure on share price (along with a heavy short weight) to bring it to current levels.There are many ways for a company to rejig its financials in order to meet stockholders' equity requirements, so we won't speculate on how Immune intends to do that. It has 45 days to submit a plan, after which it will likely have (assuming the plan is accepted) a further 180 days to put it into effect.Bottom line on the latest issue is that these sorts of requirements are pretty much always meet-able, one way or another, assuming shareholders on board with the plan that is put in place.The question really is for this stock right now – can it lift itself above current levels to try and pick up a bit of positive shareholder sentiment and, in turn, some speculative volume heading into the close of 2017 and, beyond, into early 2018?It's a biotech stock and biotech stocks need catalysts to get moving. We can alter the above question, then, to this – does Immune have any catalysts set to hit press near term?The answer is yes.A phase 2 open label study of bertilimumab Bullous Pemphigoid, an orphan autoimmune dermatological condition affecting approximately 30,000 patients in the United States, is set to wrap up and read out during the second quarter of next year.There's also an orphan drug designation filing with the FDA right now, which markets should hear back on before the end of 2017.There's a phase 2 study of the same drug in and ulcerative colitis indication, which again should read out during the second quarter of next year.Finally, there's a pivotal initiation for Ceplene, which should soon be under the sole management of the company's spinoff Cytovia, in the US.These are four major catalysts that, if they hit press as positive, could turn the stock around practically overnight and force the above mentioned heavy short base to run for cover. Positive catalysts, a short squeeze and the capital structure pressure that both of these things will bring with them mean that Immune could really start to run during the early part of 2018 and beyond.Of course, the risk here is that these catalysts show that the drugs in question aren't as effective as Immune and its shareholders (and the target populations) hope they are. There is also a dilution risk, given that cash was only $2.8 million at the end of June and that management is going to have to bring some capital in, one way or another, in order to meet NASDAQ requirements.If things prove favorable from a development perspective, however, this latter risk is likely negated. Bottom line: Immune is very much beaten down right now but that doesn’t mean it's out and there could be value in a cheap exposure at current prices.Check out our previous coverage of this one here. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on IMNP, sign up below!Image courtesy of Kevin Neubauer via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in IMNP and have not been compensated for this article.