Lifeline engineers reverse split

Lifeline BioTechnologies Inc.

of Reno will undertake a reverse split of its common stock on May 19.

The company will issue one new share for each 200 existing shares of its common stock.

After the reverse split, Lifeline will have approximately 82 million outstanding shares.

Jim Holmes, chief executive officer, said the reverse split became necessary because of the number of shares the company has issued to finance its operations.

The stock last week was trading at a hundredth of a cent per share.

Holmes said the company believes the depressed stock prices is partly the result of naked short sellers.

The hope of these sellers is that the company will go out of business and that they will never need to cover their short positions.

The company believes that short sales account for the stock's failure to move in recent months even though Lifeline is making progress in its business, Holmes said.

He said the company is "considering alternatives to further deal with the harmful market activities of naked short sellers." After the reverse split, NASDAQ will assign a new trading symbol to the company.

Lifeline is developing products for early detection of breast and ovarian cancer.