Mailwisseling met IMV
Gisteravond klom ik nog even in de pen stuurde een mail naar Fred, de CEO van IMV. De koersontwikkeling is natuurlijk vervelend. Een dikke min op slechts 20.000 verhandelde aandelen. Maar ja, dat is het risico van dit soort fondsen. Enfin, ik stelde hem de volgende vragen en kreeg de volgende antwoorden:
Hi Fred,
I was hoping for something a bit more positive from ESMO but the frustratlingly low enrollment numbers really make me worry. On september 11, 2018 the Basket trial was announced. So over the course of 1 year only 23 patients were treated. With this pace…it’s going to take… a long time.
– What can IMV do to speed up the enrollment process?
Enrolment is not linear. There is a lead time to open clinical sites (3-6 months). First patients were enrolled in Feb-march 2019. Also since it is a first in human for multiple indications there was a safety lead in where you have to show in 20 patients that there is no safety adverse events before being authorized to fully enrol. Once safety is passed and full enrolment is open at all sites enrolment increases exponentially. Still from February we have open more than 10 sites, passed safety, screened 50 patients with 28 enrolled (it is at the bottom of the press release).
– The slow process also effects the stock valuation. Do you feel this will hinder you in partner discussions?
No. We had a meeting with Merck recently where they commented they were actually impressed by the enrolment in this trial. In any case DLBCL is more advanced and driving the pace of discussions
– Last question, the investment community expected that the Wells Fargo analyst would begin following IMV after the latest offering. Any comment?
We also have the same expectation and have been pushing as much as we are authorized to do.
Resumerend, Merck heeft interesse in DLBCL en ook uit de data blijkt dat deze combi een goede kans heeft om marktaandeel te winnen als het wordt goedgekeurd. We kunnen nu een sneller enrollment proces verwachten en omtrent de Wells Fargo initiatie blijft het afwachten.