Cincinnati’s newest public company took a big hit on the Nasdaq capital market Thursday as its shares plummeted more than 80%.
Downtown-headquartered Blue Water Vaccines, a biotech company developing a universal flu vaccine, among other candidates, opened at $59.02 and closed at $10.17, a 82.77% price drop. Trading was paused multiple times during the day for volatility, per reports.
Blue Water Vaccines (Nasdaq: BWV) made no apparent filings or releases. It hasn’t issued any public news since March, when it announced Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, its licensing partner, had published a research paper with data that supports its ongoing development efforts.
Blue Water made a huge splash on the Nasdaq capital market when it debuted in February. Blue Water initially announced a $20 million IPO with plans to sell more than 2.2 million shares at $9 per share.
Its shares opened at $50 — more than 400% above that price.
The stock closed Wednesday at $59 and has traded as high as $90.90.
Blue Water, formed in 2018 by CEO Joseph Hernandez, is developing several vaccine candidates, including one for influenza, a single-dose vaccine that would provide lifelong protection against all flu strains. Its initial technology was licensed from the University of Oxford.
Blue Water also has a vaccine candidates for H1N1 and streptococcus pneumoniae, designed to specifically prevent middle ear infections, known as acute otitis media, or AOM, in children.
Local investor group CincyTech is Blue Water’s largest backer. Downtown-based Great American Insurance Co., the primary subsidiary of publicly traded American Financial (NYSE: AFG), also disclosed its financial ties to Blue Water Vaccines in public filings.
As of March 15, the company had five full-time and six sub-contracted employees.
