Immunomedics (IMMU) Q1 Earnings Beat, Trodelvy in Focus

Immunomedics, Inc. IMMU incurred a loss of 44 cents per share in first-quarter 2020, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 47 cents and 46 cents in the year-ago quarter.

The company did not earn any revenues in the quarter.

Total costs and expenses were $82 million in the reported quarter compared with $79.6 million a year ago, mainly due to an increase in research & development and sales & marketing expenses.

In late April, Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) obtained accelerated approval from the FDA for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC), who have received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease. Trodelvy is the first antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) approved by the FDA specifically for previously-treated mTNBC and also the first FDA-approved anti-Trop-2 ADC.

The commercial launch of the drug is underway, with the first patient treated within days of FDA approval and a National Drug Rebate Agreement with The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services fully executed.

As of Mar 31, Immunomedics had $540.6 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. It recently closed its previously-announced underwritten public offering of common stock with net proceeds of approximately $464.6 million.  Per the company, it has the financial ability to launch Trodelvy in the United States for mTNBC.

Shares of Immunomedics have surged 52.2% in the year so far compared with the industry’s 3.7% growth.

Pipeline Update

Based on the unanimous recommendation by the independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee during its recent routine review of the study, the phase III confirmatory ASCENT study of Trodelvy in third-line mTNBC was halted early due to compelling evidence of efficacy across multiple endpoints. Top-line data are expected around mid-2020.

Immunomedics has collaborated with the  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to conduct two phase II studies to evaluate the safety and efficacy of combining Trodelvy with Merck’s MRK anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) antibody, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), in patients with mTNBC and hormone receptor positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2–) metastatic breast cancer (mBC).

Meanwhile, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Immunomedics proactively suspended activation of new study sites and slowed the enrollment of new patients for certain clinical studies.

Our Take

The approval of Trodelvy should provide a significant boost to the company as it had no approved products in its portfolio. The successful commercialization of the drug will be the key to growth.

However, the pandemic might affect the initial uptake of the drug. Moreover, competition remains stiff in the breast cancer space from bigwigs like Roche RHHBY and Novartis NVS.

Immunomedics currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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