New York, May 20, 2026, 14:05 EDT
Immutep Ltd’s Nasdaq ADRs dropped around 5% Wednesday afternoon, missing out on gains in the biotech sector. New investor-law firm notices added to investor focus on lawsuits over the failed lung-cancer trial. The ADRs last changed hands at $0.4778, off a low of $0.4606. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF climbed about 3.5%.
Immutep is under pressure as it deals with a stock price below $1 on Nasdaq, shareholder litigation notices and efforts to recover trust following the halt of its TACTI-004 Phase III trial in first-line non-small cell lung cancer in March. Nasdaq’s regular U.S. market hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, according to .
Nasdaq has told Immutep it isn’t meeting the exchange’s $1 minimum bid price, the company said April 30. Immutep has until Oct. 26, 2026 to get back in line. Its ADRs keep trading for now and the notice doesn’t have an immediate effect, the company said.
Immutep (IMMP) is facing a securities class-action suit, Rosen Law Firm said late Tuesday. The case covers buyers of Immutep ADRs from March 24, 2025, through March 12, 2026. Investors who want to be lead plaintiff have until July 6. A lead plaintiff represents other shareholders in the litigation.
In the last two days, law-firm notices have repeated complaints that Immutep misled investors about TACTI-004, the trial for its eftilagimod alfa drug, or efti. These remain allegations by plaintiffs’ firms and no liability has been found in the notices.
Immutep said March 13 an independent data monitoring committee told it to stop TACTI-004 after a futility analysis. The review is meant to check if a trial is likely to work. “Very disappointed and surprised,” Chief Executive Marc Voigt said about the result. Immutep
Immutep’s April quarterly shed more light on its outlook. The company said patients given efti along with Merck’s Keytruda and chemo did worse against the control. A root-cause analysis on the result could run into Q3 2026. Cash, cash equivalents and term deposits stood at A$110.6 million as of March 31, with the cash runway expected to last into the first half of 2028. That figure does not account for wind-down spending and a US$10 million payment owed to Dr. Reddy’s. Dr. Reddy’s M.V. Ramana said both companies are looking for the “appropriate path forward.” Immutep
Immutep is still pushing the efti story after the failed lung cancer trial. The company said April 15 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave efti orphan drug designation in soft tissue sarcoma. That status can mean regulatory help and incentives but doesn’t equal an approval. Voigt called the move a “direct step forward” for moving into a late-stage study. Immutep
Immutep said its next clinical update is set for the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. The company plans to present an efti poster on May 30. Immutep said the abstract will feature cumulative results from previous studies, both clinical and immune-response data, but won’t include TACTI-004. Immune data from TACTI-004 wasn’t finished in time, the company said.
The field is tight but matters. Bristol Myers Squibb got FDA approval in 2022 for Opdualag, a nivolumab and relatlimab combo, making it the first LAG-3-blocking antibody combination for unresectable or metastatic melanoma. That put a spotlight on the LAG-3 pathway for drugmakers. Immutep’s efti goes another way: it’s built to activate antigen-presenting immune cells via MHC Class II, not block LAG-3.
Merck gets pulled in here too—Keytruda, the company’s anti-PD-1 cancer drug, was used as the main therapy in TACTI-004. While anti-PD-1 drugs are meant to let immune cells target tumors, combinations using them are still high risk. A negative futility check can change how investors see a biotech company developing a drug fast.
The risks for Immutep are direct. If the review turns up an issue that’s not just trial design, operations, or patient mix, then efti’s chances in other cancers could take a new hit. Immutep still faces the Nasdaq bid-price deadline and legal uncertainty while it waits for data that might not clear up the toughest TACTI-004 questions any time soon.
