It’s difficult I know. You start to doubt your own better judgement. Close friends and family members begin to cast dispersions over your choice of investment decision. IMU once the rain giver in your family’s eyes is now the villain, responsible for financial loss, heartache and potential failure, in the eyes of those you love the most.
“Is it all a pipe dream?” They question behind your back.
“When’s it going to happen Dad?” he asks, sitting in the back seat of your car awaiting your every response.
However a considerably more measured voice from within counsels you to suggest,
“But if it’s as good as everyone including you are saying Dad, why isn’t this public knowledge? Isn’t it time to save as many patients as we can? Isn’t it time to let the world know of this remarkable discovery. To let them know there is light at the end of the tunnel for those with late stage cancer?” He questions, as if another's life depends on it.
He has a point. New cancer cases are expected to rise by 47% from 2020 to 2040, across the globe. Isn’t it time Imugene and Big Pharma alongside them hopped on their bikes?
Enter Professor Fong and his wonder drugs, CF33 and Vaxinia
This week Imugene did hop on their bike to travel “Down Under”. In doing they took one step closer to assisting cancer patients in the future, as news from their oncolytic virus founder Professor Yuman Fong broke a new dawn. This week on a roadshow tour to Australia Professor Fong proceeded to excite IMU shareholders country wide when noting CF33 and its potent parental virus Vaxinia were potentially capable of curing any cancer, if dosed at their optimal biological dose rate. Having cured mice of all cancers against the NCI 60 pre-clinically, Professor Fong stated everything he saw in trials with animals, he was now seeing within humans. As for his current oncolytic trials Fong noted “we are already seeing unequivocal evidence that we are killing cancer in humans.”
The good news is the renowned Professor Fong is overseeing clinical trials that are increasing at an increasing rate, both here in Australia and throughout the US. As more and more cancer patients and oncologists hear of the Vaxinia clinical trial they are lining up in queues to participate. Now 9 sites have registered to join this ground breaking trial. As a result Professor Fong expressed elation this week at the speed the trial was progressing. For at the same time some patients are being dosed both intramurally and intravenously with Vaxinia, others are being dosed in a combination of Merck’s Keytruda and Vaxinia, all at higher dosage rates than Cohorts 1 and 2 in the ongoing Vaxinia trial. Given the higher dosage of the virus being metered out now to solid tumour patients, Professor Fong anticipates seeing even stronger efficacy than has been visualised thus far. This is indeed great news for those yet to receive Vaxinia, given the virus has already exhibited signs of efficacy in Cohorts 1 and 2 of the trial, despite the minuscule dosage rates imposed by the FDA to date.
And what’s all the talk surrounding Her Vaxx?
Aside from the fever surrounding the aforementioned CF33 and Vaxinia Imugene does appear poised to obtain a slice of the cancer market pie. The global oncology market was recently valued at US$ 286.04 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach over US$ 581.25 billion by 2030, forecast to grow at a noteworthy CAGR of 8.2% from 2022 to 2030.
Chart courtesy of Precence Research
Imugene’s leading B cell candidate Her Vaxx is in Phase two trials with Merck’s Keytruda, a monoclonal antibody that earns the Big Pharma around $17BN USD per annum. Keytruda’s patent life is running out in a few years, and Her Vaxx could provide a good combination for Keytruda, not just as an extension to the blockbusters runway, but as a safety enhancer to Keytruda. It is well known that unlike Her Vaxx, Keytruda produces extensive side effects in cancer patients. Whilst another advantage of a Her Vaxx Keytruda combination is that apart from Her Vaxx’s excellent safety parameters, the drug was found to extend the life of Her 2 expressing patients with late stage gastric cancer by up to 6 months over and above the standard of care, chemotherapy, in a recent Phase 2 clinical trial conducted by Imugene. Of note is the fact that in the current combination trial patients are being dosed with twice the dose rate of Her Vaxx than previously, a factor researchers suggest could produce even longer life expectancy. Researchers believe this time around the anticipated increased antibody production resultant from higher dosage levels of Her Vaxx may stimulate the cancer patients immune system even more in the fight against cancer, than it did in Her Vaxx’s much heralded initial Phase 2 trial.
Is Her Vaxx about to be licensed out?
This probably isn’t such a bad question for IMU shareholders. Imugene Chairman Paul Hopper last week stressed in a series of company held “March Roadshows” his commercial strategy was to create compelling scientific evidence for Imugene’s drugs, and in doing so sell them in the Phase 2 stage of their clinical development. Hopper at the time went on to say Imugene was not in the business of marketing or selling their drugs and therefore in taking them to the Phase 3 stage of clinical development. In analysing a potential value for the B Cell vaccine known as Her Vaxx many point to another Her 2 expressing vaccine known as Herceptin, owned and marketed by the big Pharma Roche. Herceptin, a market leader in the breast cancer space reached peak sales of $7BN USD in 2019 and is still netting billions each year in annual revenue. If Herceptin is any guide Her Vaxx must be valued at billions of USD, as not only is Her Vaxx a safer drug than Herceptin, it promises to be just as effective in extending patient lives, once they are administered with the optimal biological dose of the drug.
How many billions of dollars is dependent largely on the business acumen of Imugene’s Chief of Business Monil Shah, who along with Hopper and the company’s Chief Financial Officer Mike Tonroe, have been assigned the task of cutting a deal with Big Pharma in the drugs now phase 2 development stage. Obviously much is sure to depend on the current Her Vaxx/Keytruda combination trial results, but keep in mind sound cancer drugs sell for between 3 to 4 times annualised peak sales. Her Vaxx’s extensive trademark coverage in addition to its potential to act in breast, gastric and other lucrative cancer markets, are all factors assisting Shah and his team to secure a pultis for IMU shareholders, when all is said and done. Fingers crossed….
Imugene’s B cell value is enhanced by the company’s second B cell candidate PD1 Vaxx , a drug that recently exhibited strong results in a Phase 1 clinical trial for late stage lung cancer patients in Melbourne. The drugs administration resulted in a complete response for one patient, who is now cancer free, as well as many partial responses and disease stabilisation outcomes for these very sick patients. The PD1 Vaxx results have led to a supply agreement being solidified with the Big Pharma Roche, who is soon to supply their successful Tercentriq drug with Imugene’s PD1 Vaxx in a trial for lung cancer patients. Lung cancer is a prevalent form of cancer, particularly in Asia and throughout the US, where patients up til now have poor life expectancy when presenting in the late stages of their disease. PD1 Vaxx’s advancement to this combination trial with Roche is not only proof of concept for Imugene’s B cell platform, it is another string to Monil Shah’s bow, when it comes to securing a potential deal with a Big Pharma suitor.
What about Vaxinia, is the world soon to awaken to Professor Fong’s revelations?
Talking with and listening to Professor Yuman Fong this week my mind drifted back to countless Economics and History lectures pertaining to the Industrial Revolution. Wikipedia notes the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in history. Comparable only to humanity's adoption of agriculture with respect to material advancement, the Industrial Revolution influenced in some way almost every aspect of daily life. Given cancers grip on our current life expectancy, health outcomes and everyday life, could Professor Fong’s medical breakthroughs bring with them a similar transformation in the way both cancer sufferers and patients are treated in general? Is medicine today to benefit in much the same way as our economy did a few hundred years ago?
This week only a handful of IMU shareholders would have listened to Professor Fong’s revelations. Given Imugene’s opposition to self promotion and lack of media, marketing and communications personnel, rest assured not many in the general public would have heard of Fong’s declarations either. Likewise although Professor Fong went on late night US TV in 2022 to say he is convinced one day his wonder drugs are destined to become human therapy, (i.e., in combination with a myriad of cancer treatment arms), there was no mention of Imugene, and no mention of when. Is this such a bad thing? Maybe, maybe not. Imugene at present remain focused on dosing as many patients with Vaxinia as they can in rapid time. From the outside looking in they appear to be of the mind that in due course public awareness and share price rises shall follow accordingly. Either way if you are a critic of this approach, as I often have been, or a supporter, as many of you are, Professor Fong’s presentation to shareholders was of itself transformational. His notification to IMU shareholders that his clinical trial results have been sent to the lab for biopsies and independent analysis, is sure to set the cat amongst the pigeons in weeks and months to come. If as he suggests CF33 and/or Vaxinia have been found to reduce the size of solid tumours within cancer patients at low doses, then the world opens up, for not only him, but for Imugene as well. Never before have solid tumours in cancer patients been effectively treated by an oncolytic virus when administered intravenously, as are the patients in Imugene’s current Vaxinia trial. If these results are promising at low doses, how effective is CF33 and/or Vaxinia going to be at even higher dosage rates? Highly effective, is the answer I gleaned from speaking personally with Professor Fong in late 2022 and on Tuesday last. He is of the opinion the current Cohort 3 in Imugene’s Vaxinia Trial is being dosed at a rate sure to produce efficacy, given the results he has seen thus far.
Do you, IMU shareholders or cancer patients need to know more? If so why? Do you not believe the Professor and Imugene? Are their protestations perceived by the public to be a case of the boy who cried wolf? Or are these sentiments from retail investors symptomatic of a dwindling IMU share price? In short who cares. I for one have been wrong, wrong, and yes wrong when it comes to the IMU share price in recent months. Having forecast the rise to 62 cents AUD, I for one did not forecast a crash down to 12 cents. I envisaged fund managers and institutional investors realising IMU’s true potential, and following Blackrock, Norges Bank, State Street and Vanguard onto the the IMU share register in droves. Perhaps I was ensconced in the company’s fundamentals, and as a consequence disconnected from the local ASX 200 market, which has subsequently pummelled the stock. That said I do continue to buy the stock. I do agree with the price targets set by leading healthcare analysts. I do continue to trust in Professor Yuman Fong. And most importantly I do continue to believe that sooner rather than later cancer patients both here and in the US are to present to their oncologists with signs of improvement. Some are set to see their disease stabilise, and in my opinion some are even soon to be cured of cancer, as has been the case in Imugene’s Her Vaxx and PD1 Vaxx trials. And isn’t that a beautiful thing….
DYOR … Seek investment advice as and when required..Opinions only
VIDEO 
(20min delay)