"I don’t think Big Pharma will be interested in any deal until...

"I don’t think Big Pharma will be interested in any deal until the results are definitive"

Most deals in the cancer immunology field have been done with very early stage biotechs - early stage than imu are at. Then there are a number that are after phase 2, but these tend to be with more mainstream (or known) technologies. An example of such is Australia's Viralytics (vla). While they haven't got their deal yet, they are building a good case, with a number of phase 2 trials complementing drugs currently on the market.

imu is a little different, as it's very cutting edge, but clinically quite advanced.

Perhaps, imu have seen early data and patients "are doing great" as LC stated. Now one could sell out at this early stage, and maybe make in the $500m to $1b range. That's quite high for early stage drugs, but realistic, as imu is more advanced, has a pipeline and (lets face it) a cancer vaccine is pretty amazing.

However if imu were to continue and get positive phase 2 data, well the value of a deal then becomes pretty mind blowing. If they have a clinically proven cancer vaccine, what would that be worth?

So perhaps in the strategic meeting that is what was decided. "this is going great, lets push it further".

I have used neu as a share price example here before, but neu also took the decision to take their drug through phase 2, because they were confident of success and were aware of the extra value this brings to their product.

All imho,

Cheers