Until ImmunoGen (IMGN) gets its lead drug, mirvetuximab soravtansine, on the market, quarterly earnings reports will be relatively uneventful. Nevertheless, they offer a good chance to catch up with the biotech's progress and check in on its cash runway needed to get past the finish line.
ImmunoGen results: The only number that really matters
|
Metric |
Q3 2018 |
Q2 2018 |
Cash Used in Quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Cash and equivalents |
$303 million |
$345 million |
$42 million |
Data source: ImmunoGen.
What happened with ImmunoGen this quarter?
- Management thinks its cash will last a year beyond the readout for Forward I, the phase 3 study testing mirvetuximab, a monotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer, that's scheduled to read out in the first half of next year.
- At the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in October, ImmunoGen presented updated data from the Forward II study testing mirvetuximab in combination with Merck's (MRK 0.10%) Keytruda in patients with ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, the overall response rate of 30% wasn't as good as what had been previously reported for the first 14 patients.
- Forward II also has a cohort of patients being treated with a triplet of mirvetuximab plus carboplatin and Roche's Avastin, which is currently enrolling and should produce data in the middle of next year.
Image source: Getty Images.
What management had to say
The company has started initial planning for a launch of mirvetuximab assuming Forward I is positive and has a blueprint for a plan going forward, according to president and CEO Mark Enyedy:
Right now, it's looking at go-to-market models, it's looking at physician targets and segmentation and matching that back against our go-to-market model, all with a view that with the benefit of a positive readout in the first half of 2019 we would hire in a chief commercial officer and then begin recruiting our sales management and then that would be followed by the sales force in some period of time pre-launch. So that, we're ready to go when we've got an approval.
ImmunoGen's chief medical officer, Anna Berkenblit, talked about plans for the earlier-stage pipeline drugs IMGN 779 and IMGN 632 to treat acute myeloid leukemia (AML): "Our primary goal in the near term is to identify the dose and schedule for each of these compounds in terms of monotherapy and then consider combination strategies. AML has a high unmet need both in the initial setting and then in the relapse and refractory setting."
Looking forward
The Forward I data readout next year is clearly the most important event for ImmunoGen. But investors antsy for some data -- any data -- will get treated to some very-early-stage results for IMGN 779 and IMGN 632 at the American Society of Hematology meeting next month.
