• 4/9/2008
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • Angela Gonzales
  • Phoenix Business Journals (www.bizjournals.com/phoenix)

Zila Inc. is in danger of being delisted from The Nasdaq Stock Market.

Zila announced Wednesday it received a letter from Nasdaq warning it has failed to comply with the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on the exchange. For the last 30 consecutive business days, the bid price of its common stock closed below $1 a share. Zila has 180 days, or until Sept. 16, to regain compliance.

The company’s stock is trading around 23 cents a share, barely hovering over its 52-week low of 21 cents a share, and far from the 52-week high of $2.19 a share.

Zila reported a net loss of $9.6 million for the six months ended Jan. 31, on revenue of $21.9 million. That compares with a net loss of $6.4 million on revenue of $7.5 million during the same period a year earlier.

The company’s only main product is ViziLite, being marketed to dentists as an oral cancer detection tool. Earlier this year, Zila pulled its clinical trials of another oral cancer tool called OraTest. In October 2006, the company sold its nutraceuticals business unit for $37.5 million to NBTY Inc., and in May 2007 sold its Peridex brand of prescription periodontal rinse for $9.5 million.

Focusing on its ViziLite suite of products, Zila recently was authorized to sell in Canada and plans to expand into the United Kingdom in May, according to its 10-Q filed March 11 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As of Jan. 31, Zila had $5.9 million in cash and cash equivalents, as well as $8.3 million of working capital.

Company officials warned in the 10-Q they may be “required to seek additional funds and/or restructure our senior convertible debt.” If they can’t raise more funds, Zila officials said they may have to lay off employees or scale back marketing efforts.