World Heart Corp. (NSDQ:WHRT) has six months to get its stock price above $1 per share for 10 days in a row or face a possible delisting from the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Oakland, Calif.-based heart pump maker said in a regulatory filing that the stock market warned it August 15 that it’s at risk of a delisting. World Heart has until Feb 13, 2012, to get its share price above a dollar for a minimum of 10 consecutive days; it could gain another 180-day reprieve if it meets all of the exchange’s other requirements.
"However, if it appears to the NASDAQ staff that the company will not be able to cure the deficiency, or if the company is otherwise not eligible, the NASDAQ staff would notify the company that its securities would be subject to delisting," according to the filing. "In the event of such a notification, the company may appeal the staff’s determination to a listing qualifications panel."
It’s the latest bit of bad news for the struggling company, which makes small, implantable pumps designed to support the heart in patients with heart disease. Late last month, World Heart CFO Morgan Brown told MassDevice that the company is abandoning its Levacor ventricualr assist device; the company will lay off 21 of its 50 employees, Morgan said at the time, as it looks to reorganize its efforts behind a new device called the MiFlow – an adult-sized version of the company’s PediaFlow, a small, magnetically levitated, rotary pediatric ventricular assist device that is intended for use in newborns and infants.
Another major player in the VAD market, Thoratec Corp. (NSDQ:THOR), agreed this month to pay up to $150 million for Levitronix LLC’s medical business, which makes the magnetically-levitated, bearing-free motors that drive the pumps.