Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
Source: Juno Therapeutics,
What: Shares in Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) are jumping by more than 15% today after the company reported fourth quarter financial results that did little to dissuade investor enthusiasm for the company's drug pipeline opportunity.
So what: Juno Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotech company that is working on therapies that reengineer a patient's immune system to better find and destroy cancer cells.
Exiting December, Juno Therapeutics reports having $474.1 million in cash on the books, and given that the company is guiding investors to expect that its cash burn will be between $125 million and $150 million this year, it would seem that -- for now -- it has plenty of money available to continue its research without diluting investors with a secondary share offering.
The most promising drug in its research pipeline is JCAR015 for the treatment of leukemia. Previously, the company reported that 89% of the 27 patients with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with JCAR015 saw a complete remission.
Now what: The potential for therapies that can stop cancer cells' ability to escape detection by the immune system is massive, but research is still in its early stages. Juno Therapeutics is launching a mid stage study for JCAR015 that should give us additional insight into its opportunity; however, investors will have to wait a while for any data from that trial and that means that this company is likely to remain more of a story about promise than profit for a while longer. For that reason, despite the intriguing pipeline, I'm content to sit on the sidelines on this one to see how its phase 2 trial progresses.
