There was suspected fraud on the part of the C(E?)O that he was soliciting investor money (and sold stock himself) with advance knowledge of the disappointing results of the trial I was mentioning and did not disclose it. Class action suits were filed.
The trials preceding the Phase IIa results were all extremely promising, and even the Phase IIa one showed statistically significant effect on a sound discrimination, which many long time hearing sufferers can tell you is even more frustrating a problem than the inability to perceive sound.
Biomedical research stocks are inherently risky. I could be deluding myself, but my lay reading of the research, and as someone who has suffered from tinnitus for a long time brought on my noise overexposure, I think there is a very promising shot at this drug. Maybe FREQ will not be the ones to realize it and some other company will take the patent into real life clinical medicine, and FREQ is certainly not the ONLY company pursuing this angle. But their successes so far have kept me holding the stock, and I keep buying more.
Interesting approach, I'd love to see it work. But given the mixed results plus the class action lawsuits that still seem unsettled (at least I didn't find any news), this doesn't really seem investable to me. Biotech startups are risky enough even without such problems.