Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMNP) Just Split: What's Next?

Immune Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IMNP) announced a reverse split on Wednesday, and effected the split Thursday morning. If you're looking to avoid the dip that customarily follows a split announcement (the dip that a company we also discussed today, Protalix Biotherapeutics Inc (NYSEMKT:PLX), is suffering from), that's the way to do it. Of course, the fallout isn’t yet confirmed. The Easter break brought a quick reprieve from any post split selling pressure, and we may see some further decline when the markets reopen next week.Regular readers will know this is one we've come back to on a number of occasions over the past six months or so. Since New Year, we've highlighted it as a stock to keep an eye on – i.e. one that could potentially run if it gets some favorable rolls of the dice going forward – but we've also highlighted the potential for a reverse split as a key risk factor. We also highlighted, of course, the potential for a delisting as a similar input.So how do things change now the company has split?Let's take a look.First, it's worth noting that this split was pretty much unavoidable. Immune had been hoping (as had its shareholders) that the company could organically push its share price above minimum bid threshold for some time, but realistically, this wasn’t going to happen. So the split is in place, the company is trading above minimum bid, and shareholders are going t have to shoulder an as yet undetermined amount of dilution, with the determinant being how far price dips from the post split price near term. Right now, it's not too bad.It's now all about two things.First, maintaining above bid to hold NASDAQ listing. If between now and May 1, Immune doesn’t drop below a dollar, it's in the clear.Second, now that the risk of a reverse split (and by May 1, hopefully, a delisting) has lifted, getting some data out to markets to support some organic price per share growth and give something back to the shareholders that have had to sit through the mess.For those not familiar with this company, it's a young biotech that's working on a lead asset called bertilimumab, and specifically, it's trying to get said asset to market in the treatment of two initial conditions – ulcerative colitis (UC) and bullous pemphigoid (BP).The BP indication is under investigation as part of a ten patient study we looked at in a little bit of detail last time we looked at this company. The second indication, the UC indication, is what we're interested in near term. It's a phase II trial comparing the drug to placebo, in both moderate and severe forms of the condition, and if the data comes out as positive, it could be a real game changer (from both a sentiment, and a PPS perspective) for the company. Management has been a bit flaky when it comes to confirming data release time, but a look at the trial protocol over at clinicaltrials.gov, here, tells us that the trial should wrap up this month.If management can get itself together, it should be able to get the data unblinded, analyzed and in our hands before the end of May. That means we've got around six weeks at the outside before this very important data hits press.It's not going to be a smooth ride to get there. There's probably going to be a near term dip as the fallout from the reverse split tips to balance, and markets are going to be watching the May 1 threshold carefully. If these things mature without hitch, however, chances are we'll see some loading ahead of data drop, and this could be a nice catalyst to finally get the stock moving in the right direction.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on IMNP, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in IMNP and have not been compensated for this article.