Yahoo Finance ImmunoGen Waits to Leap "Forward"
Until ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: IMGN) gets its lead drug, mirvetuximab soravtansine, on the market, quarterly earnings reports will be relatively uneventful. Nevertheless, they offer a good chance to catch up with the biotech's progress and check in on its cash runway needed to get past the finish line.
ImmunoGen results: The only number that really matters
Metric | Q3 2018 | Q2 2018 | Cash Used in Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
Cash and equivalents | $303 million | $345 million | $42 million |
Data source: ImmunoGen.
What happened with ImmunoGen this quarter?
Management thinks its cash will last a year beyond the readout for Forward I, the phase 3 study testing mirvetuximab, a monotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer, that's scheduled to read out in the first half of next year.
At the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in October, ImmunoGen presented updated data from the Forward II study testing mirvetuximab in combination with Merck's (NYSE: MRK) Keytruda in patients with ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, the overall response rate of 30% wasn't as good as what had been previously reported for the first 14 patients.
Forward II also has a cohort of patients being treated with a triplet of mirvetuximab plus carboplatin and Roche's Avastin, which is currently enrolling and should produce data in the middle of next year.
Image source: Getty Images.
What management had to say
The company has started initial planning for a launch of mirvetuximab assuming Forward I is positive and has a blueprint for a plan going forward, according to president and CEO Mark Enyedy:
Right now, it's looking at go-to-market models, it's looking at physician targets and segmentation and matching that back against our go-to-market model, all with a view that with the benefit of a positive readout in the first half of 2019 we would hire in a chief commercial officer and then begin recruiting our sales management and then that would be followed by the sales force in some period of time pre-launch. So that, we're ready to go when we've got an approval.
ImmunoGen's chief medical officer, Anna Berkenblit, talked about plans for the earlier-stage pipeline drugs IMGN 779 and IMGN 632 to treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML): "Our primary goal in the near term is to identify the dose and schedule for each of these compounds in terms of monotherapy and then consider combination strategies. AML has a high unmet need both in the initial setting and then in the relapse and refractory setting."
Looking forward
The Forward I data readout next year is clearly the most important event for ImmunoGen. But investors antsy for some data -- any data -- will get treated to some very-early-stage results for IMGN 779 and IMGN 632 at the American Society of Hematology meeting next month.
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Brian Orelli has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends ImmunoGen. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
