Northfield Labs: Bleeding to Death on Fake Blood

Northfield Labs (NFLD) just imploded after-hours.  The company fell 20% at the end of the day on disappointing information chatter ahead of the review due today, but after the close it dropped them bomb.  Shares are down another 50% at $5.60, and there are going to be some diappointed and really upset betters on this company.

PolyHeme(R) is the company’s one-hit wonder product: a human hemoglobinbased oxygen-carrying red blood cell substitute in the treatment ofseverely injured and bleeding patients when blood is needed but notimmediately available. 

Because of discrepancies in theinitial data, the database will be unlocked and corrected prior tofinalizing the statistical analyses…..ouch.  Northfield still provided the full results even though it is going to retool the data.  The real problem isn’t that the data needs to be retooled.  It is that the data doesn’t look good,and in fact it look atrocious.  You can read the article here to see if you disagree, but this really looks like the end result is that PolyHeme(R) was all hype.  The company has gone though untold millions of dollars and years of work look down the drain.

So much for that product.  Too bad for the company because this has blockbuster potential if anyone can come up with a legitimate blood substitute.  You have to consider how many blood banks in developing nations where medical screening isn’t available, and also battlefield settings where blood substitutes could make all the difference in the world.