ImMAGE Biotherapeutics Corp (OTCMKTS:IMMG), the early-stage biotechnology company, which researches to find better treatment for Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), became the target of many investors after the market got to know on March 27, 2017 that its immunotherapy successfully passed early toxicology and efficacy studies. Investors celebrated this news by buying shares and the stock went from $0.23 to the level of $0.975 in just a few days.
Take a look:
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The company explained its most recent development with the following words:
"The company is harnessing the power of the immune system to target a specific protein, MAGE A, in an effort to find a better treatment for triple negative breast cancer. After 4 weeks of treatment in transgenic mice, the lead candidate was able to show very little toxicity in a full toxicology report of various organs. Cytotoxic T-cells were removed from the mice to test the efficacy ex vivo to check for targeted response against MAGE-A positive cancer cells. There was a significant increase in cell death of MAGE-A positive tumor cells compared to MAGE-A negative tumor cells." Source
ImMAGE will conduct preclinical developments and is planning to file an IND to commence phase clinical trials. In addition, the company noted that it may try the candidate into human trials in Q4 of 2018 or 2019. Mahesh Narayanan, COO of ImMAGE Biotherapeutics, commented about the results in following words:
"We are very satisfied with the early in vivo validation of our in vitro results. Both the efficacy and the low toxicity were what we were expecting, but it is good to the see the results reflect that, If all goes well, we hope to be able to move the candidates to the next level of research in the next month." Source
In addition to what the COO noted, Dr. Anton Dormer, the CSO of ImMAGE, added that the results obtained will help the company keep the conversations with the FDA and prepare for the next clinical trials in 2018.
We found a video produced by the company not long time ago, wherein the investigations are explained further. Here it is:
History and Financial perspective
The company was incorporated in the State of Nevada on June 21, 2012. It was initially created to sell charcoal made from hard wood for BBQs and restaurants. But, the company did not implement this initial business model. On May 21, 2015, this business entity was merged with Immage Biotherapeutics Corp. and acquired the name of this second company as well as its assets.
The company states in its annual report that
"it is a biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapy through the rapid and efficient development of cutting edge immunotherapy candidates using bioinformatics and outsourced laboratory resources" Source
The two founders that we actually cited previously are:
- Dr. Anton Dormer: a leading expert in peptide design and protein development through computational biology, having developed bioinformatics tools for cancer drug development.
- Mr. Mahesh Narayanan: is an experienced entrepreneur in the field of biotechnology, leading the business development strategies for Immage Biotherapeutics. Source
We could find a video about Mr. Mahesh Narayanan. Please take a look:
How does the balance sheet look? What we look for is mainly cash since we know that the company may expend a large amount of resources until it perceives it is profitable. According to the last 10-k, the company holds $196,715 in pure cash, and a total amount of assets of $243,104. The total liabilities are $55,816.
In the fiscal year ended on August 31, 2016, the company had $216,476 in overall operating expenses. So, like the other biotechnological companies created recently, ImMAGE will need to raise more capital in order to survive. We believe that so far the company has demonstrated that it can raise capital successfully and the news that the market got to know this week will help the ImMAGE do it even better.
Total outstanding shares
The amount of total outstanding shares, basic and diluted, is 145,305,874 as of August 31, 2016. The company issued new shares last year since it disclosed a total amount of 101,994,394 shares in the previous fiscal period. We appreciate that the company is not issuing warrants or other convertible securities, so that shareholders can have a clear idea of the total dilution that they suffered in every new fiscal period. In any case, it is always important for the investors to check the number of shares that the company is issuing every quarter. You can do that yourself by going to the website of the company or subscribe to our newsletter to have the last inside about this or other companies.
Conclusion
To sum up, ImMAGE delivered to the market news about its research and investors have been buying shares because of it. The company is not in extremely desperate state, but it will need to raise capital in the near future. This is absolutely normal in this kind of biotechnological entities, so we do not have to be afraid. We encourage readers to obtain more information from our newsletter or from other sources in order to make a more informed investment decision. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on IMMG, sign up below!
Disclosure: We have no position in IMMG and have not been compensated for this article.
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