Israel's Pluristem trading on NASDAQ stock exchange

The prominent listing could be a good sign for Pluristem, who has had its ups and downs throughout the year.

By ZACHARY KEYSER
Biologists work in a laboratory at Pluristem Theraputics in Haifa (photo credit: REUTERS)
Biologists work in a laboratory at Pluristem Theraputics in Haifa
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Haifa-based Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., a biomedical company focusing on regenerative medicine, will now be traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The stock was approved for listing on the Nasdaq Global Market® list and opened on January 29, to be traded under the company's current symbol (PSTI).
Nasdaq-100 ranks the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Composite index - rankings are compiled through a weighted index based on market capitalization. In lieu of a trading floor, Nasdaq uniquely completes electronic trading transactions.
Sectors that usually dominate the Nasdaq listings include information technology, biotechnology, technology retail, social media as well as traditional media and entertainment. As of now, the top five traded companies on the Nasdaq index are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google.
The company's CEO and president Yaky Yanay noted that Pluristem's listing on the Nasdaq Global Market list will be key to company growth, explaining that it has the possibility to bring more visibility to the biomedical group and expand its shareholder base to maximize returns in the long run.
The prominent listing could be a good sign for Pluristem, which has had its ups and downs throughout the year.
In December, Pluristem received recommendation to terminate its Phase III study monitoring the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI) from the independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) overseeing it.
Pluristem specializes in regenerative medicine therapies, notably cell therapies, that treat inflammation, ischemia, ulcers, muscle trauma, blood disorders and radiation poisoning.
Ischemia is a condition where sufficient blood is prevented from reaching a part of the body, be it a limb or an organ. The committee said that the Phase III study is unlikely to meet its primary endpoints.
However, in April 2020, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Pluristem began developing treatments for complications associated with COVID-19.
Pluristem says its placenta-based PLX cell therapy products are believed to release a range of therapeutic proteins in response to inflammation, ischemia, muscle trauma, hematological disorders and radiation damages.
Cells are grown using three-dimensional expansion technology and can then be administered to patients without tissue matching.
On April 12, the company reported that six critically ill coronavirus patients at three different medical centers in Israel who were considered high-risk for mortality had been treated with Pluristem’s placenta-based cell-therapy product and survived.
It's received over $54 million in funding from the EU to advance its pioneering regenerative cell therapy platform, with a focus on the clinical development of the placenta-based treatment for the deadly disease.
The FDA had also approved the use of Pluristem’s PLX-PAD cells in patients who are suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome brought on by COVID-19, but who do not qualify for the company’s clinical trial.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman and Eytan Halon contributed to this report.


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