Scimitar Equity Blog

The resulting effect of the reverse stock split is that every 8 shares of the issued/outstanding common stock prior to the opening of trading will be combined into 1 issued without any change in the par value of shares with the number of authorized but unissued shares of the common stock proportionally reduced. As a result, ASTM (D) could have approximately (rough calculation) 30 M shares outstanding with a total fully diluted value of 40 M including warrants and options.

Bottom line, this reverse split should satisfy the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on NASDAQ.  Concurrent with the effectiveness of the reverse stock split, the ticker symbol will change from ASTM to ASTMD; but will revert back to ASTM on 3/18/10.  On 1/21/10, ASTM completed the sale of units with warrant attachment (including the exercise of its over-allotment option) at a public offering price of $0.26 per unit.  ASTM received approximately $12.4 M in net proceeds bringing the total cash to $25.5 M.

I believe shares of ASTM offer upside in the short-term and investors should NOT be spooked by these events; ASTM is a much stronger company maybe to the dismay of some stock holders but, viability and sustainability are greatly enhanced by these bold financing and reverse split moves.

• What if the market was down to the future and a financing was needed?
• CEO Mayleben, I believe struck while he could anticipating future interim results.
• No apologist, looking to the future; the new CEO Mayleben, I believe has a new and stronger vision for ASTM with an emphasis on execution.

Remember, ASTM has been conducting a Phase II cardiac regeneration clinical trial (the IMPACT-DCM trial) in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM severe chronic heart failure) and a Phase IIb vascular regeneration clinical trial (the RESTORE-CLI trial) in patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI – the most severe form of peripheral arterial disease).  The US Phase 2 IMPACT-DCM clinical trial (surgical delivery for treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy or DCM) has enrolled 40 patients at 5 sites.  ÂSTM has announced approval by FDA to initiate a 2nd randomized, controlled, prospective, open-label, Phase 2 clinical trial investigating the delivery of Cardiac Repair Cells (CRCs) via catheter injection for the treatment of DCM. The US Phase 2b RESTORE-CLI clinical trial continues to evaluate the use of Vascular Repair Cells (VRCs) in the treatment of patients suffering from critical limb ischemia (CLI), the most severe form of peripheral arterial disease (PAD).  The 1st 30 patients in the RESTORE-CLI trial have completed the 12 month follow-up visits and 46 patients’ 6 month follow-up visits.

• Be aware that top-line interim results from RESTORE-CLI Phase 2b Clinical Trial are due soon and ASTM has completed enrollment in the IMPACT-DCM Phase 2 surgical clinical trial with the presentation of interim results from RESTORE-CLI Phase 2b clinical trial results due in mid 2010 (mid-year could be defined as June/July maybe August).