Stock in InVivo Therapeutics Holdings Corp. (OTC: NVIV) plunged as much as 22 percent after the company announced the resignation of its acting CFO and cancelled a planned presentation on its potential treatment for spinal cord injuries.
On Tuesday, the Cambridge, Mass. biotech said that acting CFO Sean F. Moran has resigned effectively immediately, and that interim CEO Michael J. Astrue will fill the position until a replacement can be found. The news comes less than a month after the announcement that former CEO, CFO and Chairman Frank Reynolds stepped down from his role, citing unspecified health concerns, and the announcement a few days later that approval of its biopolymer scaffolding to treat acute spinal cord injuries will likely take years longer than originally anticipated.
Board member John A. McCarthy Jr. has been appointed as non-executive chairman to fill Reynolds’ shoes, and board member Kenneth DiPietro has been appointed as a member of the Board’s Audit Committee.
Also on Tuesday, InVivo said that a presentation at the 15th Annual Rodman and Renshaw Healthcare Conference in New York City – announced just last week – has been cancelled.
Co-founded in 2005 by MIT professor Bob Langer based on technology for a scaffolding that goes around the spine, and would be inserted by a surgeon through an incision as rods and screws are being put in to help better stabilize the bone structure. This spring, the device was designated as a Humanitarian Use Device, reserved for devices used to treat diseases or conditions that affect fewer than 4,000 people in the U.S. per year. The designation would allows the product to reach market years earlier than it would otherwise.
As recently as this summer, the company had intended to begin a trial of the device, but last month announced that the study would be put off until next year, and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would likely be required to undergo a pivotal trial of the device against a control group.
