There was a Snickers commercial a few years back where there's an old guy painting the end zone for the Kansas City Chiefs, and when he sees that he put down "Chefs," he mutters, "Great googly moogly." What a great line, and it pretty much sums up ImClone Systems'
ImClone's Erbitux is approved as third-line therapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer that expresses the epidermal growth factor receptor. Taking into account this population size and assuming 30% market penetration and a drug cost of $10,000 per month, I arrive at a peak U.S. sales figure near $600 million. With a 39% royalty on those sales due to ImClone from partner Bristol-Myers Squibb
I recently wrote an article about MedImmune
In my opinion, an investment in ImClone right now requires a lot of finger-crossing: Hope that sales materialize in the present indication, hope that the label will be expanded to first-line therapy in colorectal cancer, hope that other indications will be approved, or even hope that "greater fool" investing will work out and that there will always be others willing to pay a higher price.
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Fool contributor Charly Travers does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned in this article.