Addex Therapeutics enters the week after its full-year 2025 results with an unusual combination: a stock trading below five Swiss centimes, a borrow market that remains extraordinarily expensive, and a pipeline that just delivered a positive preclinical readout.
The most striking feature of the ADXN setup right now is the cost to borrow. At 197% APR, it has held above 170% for the entire past six weeks — a level that makes this one of the most expensive Swiss small-cap names to short in the market. That cost peaked at 222% in late April before easing slightly, and even at the current level lenders are extracting a heavy premium from anyone maintaining a short position. The stock itself has risen 25% over the past month to CHF 0.0498, adding a further squeeze dynamic for any short seller sitting through that carry cost.
Short interest, however, does not tell a dramatic crowding story. At 0.62% of the free float, the actual short position is modest — though it has grown rapidly, more than doubling from around 0.07% in mid-March to the current level. The pace of accumulation is notable even if the absolute level is not. What makes the borrow cost so elevated despite relatively low short interest is likely a thin lending pool on a CHF 7.3 million market-cap stock with concentrated ownership: the top two disclosed shareholders alone control more than 16% of shares.
The catalyst backdrop gave the stock fresh momentum this week. On April 29, Addex announced that its GABA-B positive allosteric modulator candidate demonstrated meaningful anti-tussive activity in a bleomycin-induced idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis cough model — a readout that supported the stock's 7% one-day gain. On April 30, the company released its full-year 2025 results: a CHF 6.7 million net loss and CHF 1.6 million cash on hand, alongside a strategically significant move — the reacquisition of rights to ADX71149, its mGluR7 programme, and a new investment in spin-out Neurosterix. Neurosterix is itself on track to complete a Phase 1 study of NTX-253 for schizophrenia in Q2 2026, a data point that keeps near-term catalysts live.
Ownership is heavily concentrated in individuals rather than institutions. Timothy Dyer holds 14.5% and has not changed his position since the last reporting date. Roger Mills added 393,000 shares recently, and two newer names — Mikhail Kalinichev and Isaac Manke — both appeared as fresh holders at the last March update. Institutional presence is thin: UBS Asset Management holds 1.6% and BlackRock a token 0.07%. The share register dynamics reinforce why the borrow market behaves as it does — liquid supply is scarce.
Analyst coverage is absent in any current form; the last recorded price target data is from mid-2022 and cannot be treated as relevant to today's price or pipeline.
The next earnings event is flagged for May 25, 2026. Between now and then, the Q2 Phase 1 completion timeline for NTX-253 at Neurosterix — and any further preclinical data on the GABA-B programme — are the data points worth monitoring alongside whether the borrow cost continues its recent drift lower or re-accelerates as short interest builds.
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