REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION Plaintiff Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company trading under the symbol “NWBO,” filed this federal securities action against Defendants Canaccord Genuity, LLC, Citadel Securities LLC, G1 Execution Services LLC, GTS Securities LLC, Instinet LLC, Lime Trading Corporation, and Virtu Americas LLC. Plaintiff alleges that Defendants engaged in illegal market manipulation by repeatedly “spoofing” the market for NWBO’s stock. Pending before the Court is Defendants’ motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint in its entirety. For the reasons set forth herein, the Court respectfully recommends that Defendants’ motion be GRANTED due to Plaintiff’s failure to adequately plead loss causation, and that Plaintiff be given leave to replead. BACKGROUND A. The Complaint’s Allegations The allegations below are taken from Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), filed on April 10, 2023 (Dkt. No. 95), and are accepted as true for purposes of the motion to dismiss. See R.M. Bacon LLC v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., 959 F.3d 509, 512 (2d Cir. 2002). 1. DCVax®-L Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc. (“NWBO” or “Plaintiff”) “is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of personalized cancer vaccines designed to treat a broad range of solid tumor cancers more effectively than current cancer treatments, and without the side effects of chemotherapy.” (FAC
2, 15). NWBO is a publicly traded company whose shares trade “over-the-counter” on OTC Link LLC (“OTC Link”) and the NYSE ARCA Global OTC (“Global OTC”). (Id. 15). NWBO’s “lead product” is the DCVax®-L, a cancer vaccine studied on patients suffering from Glioblastoma Multiforme (“GBM”), a lethal form of brain cancer. (Id.
