Came across this earlier. Kolbert's views are noteworthy, as he has been a very strong supporter of MSB over a long period of time. The Osiris investigation is also intriguing - no idea what that's about though.
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Possible reasons for Mesoblast's extended trading halt
The shares of Mesoblast (MESO), which develops treatments based on adult stem cells, will remain halted until June 10, the company announced today. In a note to investors, research firm Maxim said that companies tend to delay announcing negative news and usually do not postpone the disclosure of positive news. As a result, the firm said that it "tends" to have "a negative bias" towards the trading halt. WHAT'S NEW: Mesoblast said today that its shares have been halted until June 10 at its request, pending news that it plans to release. ANALYST REACTION: Companies tend to delay the release of negative news, since such developments typically come as a surprise to companies, and they have to decide how to react to them, wrote Maxim analyst Jason Kolbert. Although Kolbert declined to speculate about the reason for the trading halt, he wondered whether Teva (TEVA) may have decided to abandon its collaboration with Mesoblast on cardiovascular, central nervous system and bone marrow transplant products. Kolbert pointed out that, during its last quarterly results, Mesoblast had a slide which stated, "Under our agreement, Teva may review its participation in the program." Analysts have questioned Teva's commitment to the program, which Teva inherited from a company it acquired and which lies outside of its areas of focus, Kolbert added. But the analyst also wondered whether the trading halt could be related to another issue, such as a change of control, accounting, FDA warning or a safety matter. Mesoblast has stated that it has been in talks about partnering with multiple companies, but Kolbert said he's "not sure" whether a partnership deal would explain a multiple day trading halt. WHAT'S NOTABLE: In a tweet, TheStreet's pharmaceutical writer, Adam Feuerstein, speculated about whether Mesoblast's trading halt could "relate to" a criminal probe of Osiris (OSIR). In 2013, Mesoblast bought Osiris' culture-expanded mesenchymal stem cell business.
Read more at:
http://thefly.com/landingPageNews.php?id=2383931
(20min delay)