Good day, and welcome to the Navidea Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig Dais. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good afternoon, fellow stockholders. The special meeting of stockholders is now called to order. My name is Craig Dais. I am the Chief Financial Officer of Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, and I will be acting as the chairman for this meeting. Welcome to this special meeting of stockholders. This meeting is being held virtually via webcast. The agenda for this meeting is set forth on your screen and in the notice of special meeting.
The matters in which stockholders at the meeting are voting are: 1, to approve an amendment of our Certificate of Incorporation to allow stockholders to act by Written Consent, and 2, to approve an amendment to the Certificate of Incorporation to effect on or prior to the 1-year anniversary date of the special meeting, a Reverse Stock Split of our common stock at a ratio of up to 1-for-50,000, with such ratio and the implementation and timing of such Reverse Stock Split to be determined in the discretion of the Board of Directors. I will now report to you on the steps taken in connection with our meeting today.
I have a copy of the notice of special meeting dated June twentieth, two thousand and twenty-four, and an affidavit of distribution stating that the notice of special meeting was sent to each stockholder of record as of the close of business on June seventh, two thousand and twenty-four, the record date for this meeting. The certified list of stockholders will be available for inspection throughout this meeting for any purpose germane to the meeting. A link to the registered shareholder list is located at the bottom of your screen. These documents will be annexed to the minutes of the meeting. Gregory Malizia, reporting or representing Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc., has been appointed to act as Inspector of Elections during the meeting and has taken the oath of office. The inspector has advised me that a quorum is present, and so we will proceed with the meeting.
The rules of conduct have been posted on the website. We will not be holding live Q&A session with stockholders. However, we will conduct a brief Q&A session to address questions submitted by shareholders. Now, I hereby declare the polls open at 1:03 P.M. on July eighth, 2024, for the two proposals to be voted on at the meeting. Stockholders who wish to vote during the meeting may do so at this time by clicking on the blue Vote Here button on your screen. If you have already submitted a proxy, you do not need to vote today unless you would like to change the vote reflected on your previously submitted proxy.
Please be aware that as noted in the proxy materials you received, that if your Navidea stock is held in street name in a brokerage account, you must have a legal proxy obtained from your broker or tabulation agent, Broadridge, in order to vote during the meeting today. The first item of business is to approve an amendment to our certificate of incorporation to allow stockholders to act by written consent. Proposal one is also referred to as the written consent proposal.
The second item of business is to approve an amendment to our certificate of incorporation to effect on or before the 1-year anniversary date of the special meeting, a reverse stock split of our common stock at a ratio of up to 1-for-50,000, with such ratio and the implementation and timing of such a reverse stock split to be determined at the discretion of our board of directors. Proposal two is also referred to as the reverse stock split proposal. As stated in the proxy, the board recommends that stockholders vote for proposals one and two. If you have not already done so, please vote now. While shareholders and proxy representatives are completing their votes, we will proceed with a brief Q&A session of previously submitted questions. Question one: Navidea voted for a reverse stock split that was never enacted. Why do we need another?
Well, thank you for that question. The previously voted on proposal regarding a reverse stock split allowed the reverse stock split to take place within one year of that meeting date, which would expire later this month on July 27, 2024. This new proposal will extend that ability through July 8, 2025, one year from the date of this meeting, and also expands the range of the ratio of stock split that can be acted on. Question 2: One of the reasons stated for the reverse stock split is to prevent the requirements of SEC reporting. Hasn't Navidea already been released from that requirement based on a previous filing? Thank you for that insightful question. It is true that Navidea is currently not subject to SEC reporting requirements due to the filing of Form 15....
However, unless the number of shareholders of record, which is different than total shareholders, remains under the reporting threshold, the company could become subject to reporting requirements again. Historically, the costs related to maintaining the company as an SEC reporting entity have exceeded $2 million annually. Currently, Navidea has more than 11,000 total shareholders. As a result of shares held in street name, meaning held in the name of a brokerage or in the name of Cede & Co., the number of shareholders of record is substantially less. However, certain actions by brokerages as a result of Navidea's low share price could result in a large number of shareholders becoming shareholders of record, and therefore subject the company once again to SEC reporting threshold. Question three: Does the company still have a stockholder rights plan in place? Great question.
I believe you're referring to Navidea's Section 382 Rights Agreement that was created in April 2022 and does effectively protect stockholder rights. This agreement was included in our December 31, 2022, 10-K filing and remains available for viewing on the SEC's EDGAR system. As a reminder, this plan prohibits any one party from acquiring over 5% of the company's common stock, and we feel it is important to continue maintaining this agreement to protect the company's sizable NOLs, that is, net operating losses. Question 4: What is the status of the company's clinical trial related to rheumatoid arthritis? Well, thank you for asking that question. The results of our exploratory analysis on the RA trial became known to us on July 2, just last week.
The results of the exploratory analysis were not favorable, as it does not support the predictive accuracy necessary for our drug to be a commercially viable product. We did not anticipate this outcome. Given these results, we have suspended the trial. We are now pivoting all of our efforts to focus on opportunities related to the company's therapeutic asset. That concludes the Q&A portion of our meeting. I now hereby declare the polls closed at 1:09 P.M. on July eighth, 2024, for the two proposals brought before the meeting. The votes have been counted, and the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections has been delivered to the company. Based on the preliminary voting report, a holder of a majority of the outstanding shares of our common stock entitled to vote on the proposals, have voted to approve the Written Consent proposal.
A holder of a majority of the outstanding shares of our common stock entitled to vote on the proposal have voted to approve the Reverse Stock Split proposal. Based on the Inspector of Elections' preliminary report, I declare that the Written Consent proposal has been approved and the written... Oh, I'm sorry, the Reverse Stock Split proposal has been approved. Since there is no other business to be conducted at the meeting, I hereby declare this meeting is adjourned. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your attendance and your interest.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.