Opthea Limited (OPT)

Opthea Limited is an Australian clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Melbourne. It developed sozinibercept, a protein designed to trap the growth factors VEGF-C and VEGF-D, which are thought to contribute to abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye. The company intended the drug to be given alongside standard anti-VEGF-A injections such as aflibercept and ranibizumab to treat wet age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision loss in older adults. Opthea's ordinary shares are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the code OPT.

Opthea entered the U.S. market in October 2020 with an initial public offering of American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, also under the symbol OPT. The ADSs were priced at US$13.50 each and the offering raised about US$128 million in gross proceeds. Each ADS later represented eight ordinary shares. The money supported two large Phase 3 programs, named COAST and ShORe, which together enrolled roughly two thousand patients with wet macular degeneration.

To pay for the late-stage trials, Opthea signed a development funding agreement in 2022 with a group of investors, receiving about US$170 million in non-equity capital. The arrangement gave the investors security over the company's assets and included terms under which certain events could require repayment of a multiple of the money provided. That structure became a major risk for the company because it tied Opthea's solvency to the progress of a single product.

On March 24, 2025, Opthea reported that the COAST trial had missed its primary endpoint, with the combination producing no better vision gains than aflibercept alone. Days later, ShORe also failed against ranibizumab, and on March 31, 2025 the company and its funding investors agreed to stop both trials. Trading in Opthea's securities was suspended on the ASX and Nasdaq while it negotiated with the investors over its obligations and reviewed its remaining programs and assets.

In late 2025 Opthea said it no longer had an audit committee that met Nasdaq's composition rules and that it would voluntarily delist its ADSs, citing the cost and burden of a dual listing. It filed a Form 25 around November 10, 2025, and the delisting became effective about ten days later, with the company confirming it on November 20, 2025. The ADSs may trade over the counter, the company planned to file Form 15F to end SEC reporting, and its ordinary shares remain listed but suspended on the ASX.