Thanks to all the Melb folks who added commentary on the Melb Roadshow. I've had a busy time in Melb since arriving and so wanted to post my update sooner, but life wins over HC ....and Melb is my old stomping ground, so there was lots to do and see whilst here.
Onto the summary.
So this was my first Imugene Investor session and so on the whole, I found it to be a worthwhile experience. On arrival, it was clear Leslie and Nick were in good spirits. Yuman and Monil are a little more reserved but both were amicable as guests filed in.
I'm not sure if Nick has led these events before, but he did a pretty good job, was affable and provided a good overview of Imugene for any newbies in the room. He was glowing in his praise of Yuman and it's quite clear that the Imugene team and shareholders hold Yuman in high regard. Positive all round.
Over to Yuman. Again, we see a polished and credible overview on how he came to create the virus, meeting and working with Leslie and Paul and his reasons for moving to City of Hope (COH). There's a lot of credibility with COH, having developed antibodies and insulin, coupled with a GMP facility onsite. Yuman tells us that is a key reason for moving to COH, having the onsite ability to make the drugs their designing and testing. Very cool.
So what were the highlights? Key for me were:
On cancer and its affects, the virus has been shown to restore function where function has been lost due to the spread of cancer into nerves, which is where patients get the "pain".
He went on to talk about how here are plenty of viruses that have been shown to kill cancer, but all have been attenuated in order to limit the harm they might cause humans. No OV has ever reached maximum tolerable dose. And the only approved OV treats skin cancer.
They are moving through cohorts at lightning speed and were able to petition the FDA to move faster, by increasing dose levels as they go. Here I learned Vaxinia - their parental virus - is the virus "naked" in that it does not include PDL1.
There is a high degree of confidence here and Yuman said several times that, based on the human data they now have, and in relation to what they saw in mice they are also now seeing in humans: it is starting to look like we were right.
Talking about onCARlytics, Yuman outlined the positive progress that has been made by CAR Ts (and Nick also mentioned this in his pening address) particularly over the last 5 years.
They are confident they can develop a universal approach to cancer treatments leveraging CF33 and CAR Ts, where they will not require protein specific combinations. This was quite telling and suggests again that their confidence is high, driven by the data OV data they are already getting. Note that we we havent started the onCARlytics trials but they believe first patient dosed by "fall" (late this CY).
On to the Q&A. For me, this was really where the mood changed. The first question was delivered opended with high praise for Yuman but then delivered the SLAP the share price decline was unacceptable. Understandable? Sure. But this absolutely killed the positive vibe. Leslie provided a reasonable answer - but it wasn't as strong as it could have been. Nick had to weigh in, even as Leslie continued to counter on the broader macro issues.
I'm not sure the shareholder got the answer he was looking for, nor would any answer have sufficed.
Next question was Her-Vaxx related. No it's not dead. There are active conversations and a lot of interest. Monil stepped in here and reiterated the importance of strong data and continuing to build on the data they already have. Got the genuine impression that Monil is active and working to get the best outcome for holders here - but any future value for Her-Vaxx is going to based on even better data. I was buoyed by that and dont for a minute think this is a lame duck. The combo trials will add value for us here.
Another question on the share price slide and the need for the board/company to turn it all around. Yuman provided more input here and added that, as Leslie had outlined, the broader market is tough for Bios, some Bios are running out of money despite their promising platforms. He added that the last capital raise seemed to him to be unusual at the time, but now in hindsight, it has proven to be a clever play. He noted that there haven't been many big deals for small bios in the last 2/3 years .
A question on the status of the biopsies: Yuman mentioned it has only been 3 or so months since his last visit where this was mentioned and that patience and time is key here. But he then happily volunteered that yes they do have some data now and that this had allow him to write a paper that - he was informed only today the day of the event - that it will be published/presented at ESMO in October this yea
All in all, really good info shared by the team and i personally think Monil was a bit of dark horse here for us. Watch that space. Just a shame there was a lot of noise - although totally understandable - about the unhealthy state of the share price.
Will definitely attend the next one and hope that there is a little more time for Q&A, as i'm pretty sure the host wrapped up Q&A a little early.
Thanks also to the small number of holders that asked positive questions and commended the team for their work.
Above is all from my notes/recollection. Feel free to ask any questions or challenge as required.
GLTAH from Sunny Melbourne.
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