Hi Cat
Thanks - and yes I agree - they are constantly looking ahead.
Imugene is extremely well connected - just look at the membership of the Board of Management and the Scientific Advisory Board. Each strategic partnership brings new high quality partners and more connections - just look at the Ohio deal which Brought in Prof Kaumaya, Ohio University and the Mayo Clinic, then CF33 which brought in City of Hope and now Celularity.
They are still research phase outfit with no revenue stream, but they have built a remarkable portfolio of IP across three distinct categories of cancer therapy and they have secured enough cash to run for years. The Celularity partnership is also research phase, but it is their first partnership with another commercial entity. I think it tells us that Imugene has reached a new stage in their development - flagged in advance in early June when they created the Business Development position and recruited Dr Monil Shah to that role.
Imugene is really several separate international research teams brought together by the company, which provides the strategic direction (and the $) required for the research to continue. Their portfolio creates multiple opportunities for future combination therapies and OnCARlytics is itself an inherently partnership based project - it requires the City of Hope/Imugene CD19 version of CF33 to be used in combination with a CAR-T, and the CAR-T can only come from potential partners.
Celularity is the first of those partners but it won't be the last. Celularity sees it's CAR-T as a step change on existing CAR-T's, and they are hoping to steal a march on the big CAR-T players by partnering with Imugene and making their CAR-T effective against solid tumours. This will place heat on the competition - and at some point one of the big Pharma CAR-T players will want to partner with Imugene too. The Celularity CAR-T targets the CD19 biomarker. There are CAR-Ts which target other biomarkers and may want to partner with Imugene to develop an OnCARlytics version targeting their preferred biomarker.
Having said that, I've just finished watching the joint webinar with LC and Dr Robert Hariri of Celularity and "enthusiastic" is not an adequate description. Dr Bob has seriously impressive credentials and Celularity spun out of his work with Celgene. When Bob describes Imugene as having "a blockbuster" combination of oncologic IP - and then sounds almost maniacally excited about the prospects for combination therapy with Her-Vaxx and Celularity's genetically modified natural killer cells (which also target Her-2) - on a scale of 1 to 10 the energy levels cranked up to 11.
Dr Bob also states that he expects that preclinical results for a combo of OnCARlytics and his CyCART-19 will be "headline news." Sure there is a bit of good old American entrepreneurial hype in all that, but Dr Bob also has a record of success.
It's clear from the webinar that one huge advantage of the partnership is that this is a marriage of equals. Celularity needs Imugene at least as (or More than) Imugene needs Celularity. LC and Dr Bob seem to have a vibrant working relationship and Dr Bob mentions his own close association with Monil Shah - so the Monil appointment has helped this partnership happen.
We can expect further partnerships with Celularity. eg their huge interest in Her-vaxx, and the fact that they have highly developed drug manufacture facilities and expertise - expertise which Bob has offered to share. The development costs for the current partnership look like being 50/50, but as both CEOs pointed out - the development costs for each product are already factored in and funded. ie. Imugene is developing OnCARlytics regardless, and Celularity likewise with CyCART-19. The additional costs for a combo trial will not be large. Both feel it is too early to talk about revenue sharing - but Bob is very clear that he expects enormous interest from big Pharma even at Phase 1 trial results.
There is too much from the webinar to summarise here, but my general impression is that this particular chess move could end up generating something huge. Downrampers and short termers will say it's all a mirage and all too far away, but anyone with longer term vision will see the potential for huge returns.
Cheers
Dave
(20min delay)