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ImmunoGen Inc (NASDAQ:IMGN) Has A Wave Of Catalysts About To Hit Press

ImmunoGen Inc (NASDAQ:IMGN) Has A Wave Of Catalysts About To Hit Press
Written by
Chris Sandburg
Published on
March 1, 2017
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ImmunoGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGN) put out its latest earnings last week, and markets were pretty much flat on the news. That's a correct response in our opinion – these numbers mean very little for a company at the stage in which Immunogen finds itself right now – but it didn’t last. Within twenty-four hours of the numbers hitting press, the company started to run, and currently sits at or around 30% up on its pre-numbers market cap.We think this is a sign that markets are loading up ahead of what could be a very strong year for the company.Management held a conference call back on February 17, and in it, outlined the development pathway for its lead asset – a drug called mirvetuximab soravtansine, which the company is currently investigating as part of a phase III in platinum resistant ovarian cancer. The trial is set to read out at some point during 2020, so it's a real slow burner. However, between then and now, and strongly weighted towards the remainder of 2017, there are a host of potential upside catalysts slated to hit press, both relating to the just mentioned phase III (well, sort of, more on this soon) and to the company's deeper pipeline assets.With this in mind, we think there could be room to run on the company's current capitalization ahead of the catalysts being released as the loading continues, and if the news comes out as positive, some strong returns to be had looking slightly longer term.Here's what we are watching.By way of a quick introduction, the company is developing the above mentioned ovarian cancer asset as a lead, but also has a couple of partnerships in place that account for its lower pipeline. Most notably, a deal with Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) sees the two working on a phase I asset called HKT288 in patients with ovarian cancer or renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), and a partnership with Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY) just saw a drug called isatuximab move into a phase 3 trial in patients with multiple myeloma. There's also a drug called IMGN779, which ImmunoGen is developing in an acute myeloid leukemia indication.This pool of development assets brings us the catalysts to watch near term.First, we're looking to a readout from an ongoing phase Ib/II study investigating the lead asset, mirvetuximab, as part of a bunch of combination regimens that include Avastin, Carboplatin, Doxil, and Keytruda. Data from this will hit press during the second quarter, and will be used to reinforce the NDA submission for the drug once the phase III topline hits in 2020. The importance of this data is that it should offer insight into the chances of success come the 2020 readout.There's also a pooled data readout (circa 100 patients) that will look at a combination of phase I studies, in which patients with ovarian cancer were treated with mirvetuximab. This should hit press at pretty much the same time, and again, its importance lies in the insight it offers for the longer term efficacy readout.Beyond that, we've got a phase I readout relating to the above mentioned leukemia asset, IMGN779, set to hit press around mid-year, and an IND that could pick up approval (and in turn, indicate the start of clinical evaluation) for a drug called IMGN632.The key thing to note here is that right now, we've not got an awful lot of data to go on as to what the company's chances of phase III success come 2020 will be. By the third quarter, however, we will have. Loads of it. That's why markets are loading up now, and it's why the coming few quarters could be big for ImmunoGen.The risk lies in the potential for negative results. If the drug doesn’t perform well in the coming data, it doesn’t bode well for the 2020 release, and markets will sell off on the stock reflective of these implications.As a risk balanced position, however, we're leaning towards efficacy right now.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on IMGN, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in IMGN and have not been compensated for this article.

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