Retail Bulls Cheer Imunon’s Pullback From Public Offering, Citing ‘Much Better Funding Options’

Retail buzz around Imunon rose sharply Thursday after the clinical-stage biotech company said it will no longer pursue a previously planned public offering. 

Imunon formally requested to retract its Form S-1 registration with the SEC after initially registering the document on April 4.

The biotech firm's shares rose 4.1% to $0.42 on Thursday and surged another 15.5% in after-hours trading to $0.48.

The news follows a first-quarter (Q1) financial update, which showed that Imunon decreased its net loss from $4.9 million last year to $4.1 million.

Imunon reported a per-share loss of $0.28, below the consensus estimate of $0.36.

R&D cost reductions totaling $1.1 million drove an 18% decrease in operating expenses, bringing the total to $4.1 million. 

The decline was driven by spending reductions on the Ovation 2 study, the PlaCCine DNA vaccine trial, and platform development activities.

Employee-related costs increased, causing general and administrative expenses to rise slowly to $2.0 million from $1.7 million last year, although lower legal fees helped partially offset this increase.

The operating activities required $2.8 million in cash, a reduction of more than half compared to the $5.9 million used in Q1 2024.

As of quarter-end, Imunon maintained $2.9 million in cash reserves and projects that these funds will support operations until late Q2 2025.

CEO Stacy Lindborg highlighted clinical advancements, including the Ovation 3 pivotal study and ongoing results from the Ovation 2 trial, which showed that the DNA-based immunotherapy IMNN-001 increased progression-free and overall survival rates among patients newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment was ‘extremely bullish’ amid a 2,120% surge in 24-hour message volume.

One user suggested the move implies management may have “a much better option for funding,” citing recent earnings call comments from the CEO about active financing and partnership discussions. 

Another user called the update “great news,” pointing to the company’s low float.

The stock has declined 60.4% so far in 2025.

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