FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE · October 30, 2026

For scientists: what happens to the research when the financing is built for the financiers?

Nejmeh v. Theriva is stirring the pot. A stockholder asks a federal court to look before a pancreatic cancer company hands its board 500 million shares.

The case: Nejmeh v. Theriva Biologics, Inc., Case No. 3:26-cv-00705-ART-CSD, United States District Court for the District of Nevada (Reno). Every filing is public on this site.

Every scientist knows the math of a grant: the money buys time at the bench. For a small public biotech, the stock is the grant. When the share price falls, each new financing buys fewer months of research and gives away more of the company - until the people who funded the science own almost none of it.

Theriva Biologics (NYSE American: TOVX) has two programs that each completed a Phase 2b trial:

• SYN-004 (ribaxamase), built to protect the gut microbiome from antibiotics and prevent C. difficile infection. Its 412-patient Phase 2b met its primary endpoint: 7 cases of C. diff on placebo vs 2 on ribaxamase (January 2017).
• VCN-01, a virus engineered to attack pancreatic tumors. Its Phase 2b VIRAGE trial in metastatic pancreatic cancer completed enrollment in September 2024; the follow-on trial, VIRAGE2, is now running.

And yet, the company's own filings show:

• "Cash runway into Q1 2027" - months, for programs that need years (Q2 2026 results, August 11, 2026).
• On September 30, 2025, Theriva laid off about 7 employees - 32% of its workforce. The scientists go first.
• In February 2026, it licensed its SYN-020 program to Rasayana Therapeutics for $300,000 up front - with milestones of up to $38 million and low single-digit royalties only if they are ever earned.
• Three reverse stock splits since 2018 (1-for-35, 1-for-10, 1-for-25), each by the board without a stockholder vote. A split resets the share price; it does not move the science forward.
• October 2025: warrant holders were let in at a reduced price of $0.54, raising about $4.4 million, and received 16,184,560 new warrants - two for every one they exercised.
• November 18, 2026, at a meeting in Spain: stockholders are asked to raise authorized shares to 500 million and to re-approve those warrants. Theriva's proxy lists "reverse mergers" among the possible uses of the new shares.
• The stock closed at $0.19 on October 29, 2026.

When a program runs out of runway, the science rarely dies on the bench. More often it is merged, renamed or sold for parts - and the researchers, the patients waiting on the trial, and the stockholders who paid for it are the last to know.

That is the pot Nejmeh v. Theriva is stirring. Mark Nejmeh, a Theriva stockholder for more than four years, filed the case himself, without a lawyer, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada (Case No. 3:26-cv-00705-ART-CSD), and has asked the court to postpone the November 18 vote. Theriva's response is due November 5, 2026.

"Scientists spend their careers on work like this. When the financing is built so the financiers get paid first, the science pays the price - and so do the patients waiting for it," said Mr. Nejmeh.

Scientists, clinicians and patients who have seen this happen to a program they worked on are invited to write: [email protected].

Mark Nejmeh · [email protected] · 732-995-3914 · nejmehvstheriva.com

Nothing here is investment advice. Mr. Nejmeh owns Theriva shares and has not traded them since filing the case.