SELLAS Director Buys $101K in Stock Amid Share Price Weakness
The open-market purchase by board member Katherine Bach Kalin signals insider confidence as the biotech advances its late-stage cancer therapies.
A director at SELLAS Life Sciences (NASDAQ: SLS) has made a significant open-market stock purchase, signaling a notable vote of confidence in the biopharmaceutical company following a period of share price decline.
Katherine Bach Kalin, a member of the company's board, acquired 63,400 shares at an average price of $1.59 per share, for a total investment of approximately $101,000. The transaction, disclosed in a regulatory filing, comes after SELLAS shares have fallen from levels above $2.00 over the past month, a move that has drawn the attention of investors looking for signs of internal conviction.
Insider purchases, particularly after a stock pullback, are closely monitored as they can indicate leadership's belief that the company's stock is undervalued. For a clinical-stage biotech firm like SELLAS, such a move suggests a strong conviction in its scientific platform and upcoming clinical milestones.
The purchase aligns with a series of positive developments for the company's oncology-focused pipeline. SELLAS recently announced that its Phase 2 trial of SLS009 in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) had met all its primary endpoints. The treatment demonstrated a 44% response rate in a key patient subgroup, with data from the study accepted for presentation at the upcoming American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.
Further bolstering its prospects, SELLAS reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended advancing SLS009 into a trial for first-line AML treatment, which is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2026. This expands the potential market for the therapy, which the company is also developing for other hematologic malignancies.
Beyond SLS009, the company's lead asset, galinpepimut-S (GPS), is currently in a pivotal Phase 3 REGAL trial for treating AML patients. An Independent Data Monitoring Committee recently recommended the trial continue without modification, with final, event-driven analysis expected by the end of 2025, according to a company update.
From a financial standpoint, SELLAS has shown progress in managing its resources. The company reported a net loss of $5.8 million in the first quarter of 2025, a significant improvement from the $9.6 million loss reported in the same period a year prior. It ended the quarter with $28.4 million in cash and equivalents, providing a runway to fund its ongoing clinical activities.
Shares of SELLAS were trading around $1.46 in Friday morning's session, below the director's purchase price. The stock has a 52-week range of $0.77 to $2.48. Despite the recent volatility, Wall Street analysts remain optimistic. The consensus price target from three analysts covering the stock is $6.83, implying significant upside from its current valuation of approximately $215 million.
The purchase by Director Kalin serves as a potent internal validation of the company's trajectory. As SELLAS approaches key clinical readouts and presentations, investors will be watching to see if this insider confidence foreshadows a potential re-rating of the small-cap biotech's value.