Summary
- ImmunoGen is a turnaround stock that has tremendous potential. After temporary regulatory and clinical setbacks, the company is on a vigorous campaign for a change.
- Using precision medicine, ImmunoGen focuses its development of mirvetuximab exclusively in patients responsive to the drug.
- Mirvetuximab is currently being studied in two enrolled Phase 3 trials for patients with high folate alpha expression.
- I do much more than just articles at Integrated BioSci Investing: Members get access to model portfolios, regular updates, a chat room, and more. Get started today »
The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. - Phillip Fisher
In the cancer research world, the space of antibody-drug conjugates has performed an interesting resurrection in recent years. Yes, they’ve been approved since the year 2000, but the furor really kicked into gear with the first approval of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1, branded Kadcyla), which delivers a lethal payload straight to a specific target on certain breast cancer cells.
That was 2013, and it feels like ages ago at this point. At that time, we recall there was a big boom in interest around these antibody-drug conjugates since they could be tailored to fit any target on the surface of cells. The initial optimism didn’t pan out, as Kadcyla had some high-profile failures.
At that point, we stopped hearing about these antibody-drug conjugates altogether, except for a small smattering of approvals in blood cancers. The Kadcyla approvals in solid tumors felt like an anomaly, until a few years ago when we started hearing about a new outcropping of these drugs, one of the most notable being trastuzumab deruxtecan. However, that’s a story for another day.
ImmunoGen (IMGN) has been there all along, developing their own antibody-drug conjugates in lockstep with the times. Today, we want to take a look at their prospects from a scientific and investment perspective as they seek to be within about a year from accelerated approval for their first drug. Is that achievable? Let’s take a better look.
Figure 1: ImmunoGen chart (Source: StockCharts)
