ImmunoGen (IMGN): John McCamant’s top stock for 2010
"Out top stock pick for 2010 is ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: IMGN)," says biotech specialist John McCamant.
In his The Medical Technology Stock Letter, he explains, "The company’s potent cancer-cell killing antibodies were developed for targeted delivery to tumor cells."
"Specifically, IMGN’s TAP technology uses antibodies to deliver one of the company’s proprietary cancer-cell killing agents specifically to tumors.
"These agents are 1,000 – 10,000-fold more potent than standard chemotherapeutics and are designed to be attached to antibodies using one of the Company’s engineered linkers
"IMGN’s lead drug candidate is T-DM1 which is Genentech’s Herceptin with the addition of IMGN’s powerful TAP technology.
"The company recently delivered positive Phase 2b data for TDM-1 in breast cancer patients that have failed all previous treatments. This positive data should allow the drug candidate to be filed for FDA approval in the first half of 2010.
"Adding to our enthusiasm is that Roche is also starting a single agent T-DM1 trial in adjuvant mBC, the biggest and most lucrative breast cancer market.
"This exceeds the expectations for most of Wall Street as they only expect sales for late-stage breast cancer, a much smaller market. We believe that Roche's ultimate goal is to gain approval of T-DM1 for all lines of HER2+ mBC, similar to Herceptin.
"In addition to T-DM1, five other compounds that make use of ImmunoGen’s TAP technology are in clinical testing.
"In addition to the company’s product pipeline, compounds utilizing the TAP technology are in clinical testing through IMGN’s collaborations with Genentech (a wholly owned member of the Roche Group), sanofi-aventis, Biogen Idec and Biotest.
"IMGN’s powerful platform technology is in itself a significant asset. In the past few years, there have been numerous premium buy-outs of companies that also have monoclonal antibody platforms.
"These buyouts have been sparked by the huge growth of anticancer antibodies such as Avastin, Rituxan, and Herceptin, all multi-billion dollar drugs.
"We believe there is a strong chance that someone steps up and buys IMGN at a premium in 2010 as they have what we believe to be the most attractive antibody platform available.
" T-DM1 is the cornerstone of IMGN’s value and is likely be approved by the end of next year.Additionally, the market for T-DM1 appears larger than expected and the most recent data represents a major transformative and de-risking event for IMGN.
"IMGN is poised to create significant shareholder value in 2010 which will either drive the stock price higher or result in a premium buyout."
Comments
Leave a Reply