Wall Street Chips Away at MoonLake After a 90% Plunge

Here’s the thing about markets: they don’t care if you have a thesis. On November 14, the folks at MPM BioImpact quietly disclosed that they had cut their losses in MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, pulling out of a bet that once seemed promising but turned out to be just another pile of rusting scraps. They sold off $14.8 million worth of shares in the third quarter. So it goes.

What happened

The SEC filing told us that the fund dumped its entire slice of MoonLake. All 313,571 shares, gone without a trace. That position had made up about 2.6% of their total assets-a decent chunk, yes, but a drop in the cosmic ocean of investment risk. They weren’t just throwing away money; they were preserving what little remained. The average quarterly prices turned that stake into a lamentable $14.8 million-a tidy sum for a company that seemed to be holding onto faint hopes and fragile promises.

What Else to Know

After the dust settled, the fund’s lineup looked like a well-curated cemetery of biotech ambitions:

  • NASDAQ:MDGL: $46.1 million (7.5% of AUM)
  • NASDAQ:CGEM: $45.4 million (7.4% of AUM)
  • NASDAQ:RNA: $33.1 million (5.4% of AUM)
  • NASDAQ:TRVI: $31.2 million (5.1% of AUM)
  • NASDAQ:EWTX: $27.9 million (4.6% of AUM)

Shares of MoonLake currently trade at $13.80-a tidy little tumble of 74% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, the S&P 500, that old stand-in for American resilience, has inched upward by 13%. The market’s cruel little joke-what’s up is never what you expect, and what goes down doesn’t care. So it goes.

Company Overview

Metric Value
Price (Wednesday’s close) $13.80
Market Cap $977.7 million
Net Income (TTM) ($210.5 million)

Company Snapshot

MoonLake Immunotherapeutics is a cozy little Swiss startup that dreams big. They’re developing Sonelokimab, a nanobody-a tiny antibody from camels, no less-aimed at inflammatory diseases. Think hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriatic arthritis, the usual suspects. The company is all about that pipeline, investing heavily in research, hoping that someday their drug will grace clinics and pay off. But the road is bumpy, and the future remains a roulette wheel spun by regulators, scientists, and market whimsy.

Foolish Take

The timing of these moves is suspiciously theatrical. In late September, MoonLake’s stock did a somersault-almost 90% down in one day-after their Phase 3 results sewed doubt into the fabric of investor confidence. The nanobody’s mixed signals sparked lawsuits, wiped out billions, and left everyone clutching at what little hope remained. Did the fund bail before or after this chaos? That detail is lost in the shuffle. What matters is they pulled out entirely-risk management or cowardice? Take your pick.

By the end of Q3, they had flipped the table-exiting MoonLake, MBX Biosciences, and Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, all high-volatility names that feel like financial roulette wheels with less liability but more noise. Meanwhile, MoonLake presses on, holding $380.5 million in cash-enough for a few more misadventures or perhaps a miracle. A meeting with the FDA, scheduled for December 15, might decide if their gamble pays off or if the universe simply ignores their pleas. The question isn’t whether the stock will recover but whether anyone can trust that these companies really have a shot. In a universe of chaos, that’s the real question.

Long-term investors might see a warning sign blinking in Morse code. For those still holding, the current story is less about September’s shock and more about whether MoonLake can turn faint data into something resembling salvation. Or perhaps it’s just cosmic dust, swirling in the void. So it goes. 🪐

Glossary

To keep your head above water, here’s a quick translation of the jargon:

  • 13F reportable assets: The stuff a fund must tell the SEC about every quarter-like a financial diary.
  • Assets under management (AUM): The total value of all the garbage, gems, and dreams a fund claims to control.
  • Full exit: Selling everything and walking away, leaving behind only questions.
  • Exposure: How much of your portfolio is invested in a given asset-you can call it ‘bravery’ or ‘stupidity,’ depending on the day.
  • Stake: The chunk of the company you own-your claim to the chaos.
  • Clinical-stage: The part where biotechs pretend they are saving humanity while really just trying not to run out of money.
  • Nanobody: Tiny antibodies that come from camels and other desert creatures, designed to fight diseases at a microscopic level.
  • Pipeline: All the drugs a company is desperately trying to turn into a paycheck.
  • Commercialization: Making a drug real, legal, and profitable-if luck’s on your side.
  • Regulatory approval: The government’s way of saying, “Sure, go ahead, hurt people-just don’t do it too fast.”
  • Unmet medical needs: Conditions nobody has fixed, but everyone talks about like they’re next in line for a miracle.
  • TTM: The last twelve months of financial and clinical chaos-your baseline for knowing if things are getting better or worse.

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2025-11-28 01:48