Good morning,
Welcome to today’s edition of The Armchair Analyst, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.
Worst fears confirmed.
(And on Friday the 13th no less…)
Immutep (ASX: IMM) has decided to discontinue the TACTI-004 Phase 3 study in non-small cell lung cancer following a recommendation from the Independent Data Monitoring Committee.
The announcement was incredibly short on details…
I expect that over the coming weeks, the company will review all the data to see if it can salvage anything from the trial and will plan to review its assets and cash position.
90%+ drop in the market today.
A brutal reminder of the high-risk nature of drug development.
Interestingly, I had quite a few phone calls from mates who like to day trade the market and are positioning in the stock with well-under-cash backing.
So, what’s my estimated cash backing?
(This one's for the traders out there)
The company has a pro forma cash balance of ~A$129 million at December 31st, with $45 million in payables (and I estimate roughly $15 mil to close out the trial)
So, with a ‘true’ cash balance of ~$70 million, I estimate cash backing is around $0.04 - $0.05.
Ahh, well, this is the game we play.
Let’s dive in…
The Pulse Check
Immutep (ASX: IMM) has decided to discontinue the TACTI-004 Phase 3 study in non-small cell lung cancer following a recommendation from the Independent Data Monitoring Committee. (IMM)
🪑 Sigh…
BlinkLab (ASX: BB1) announces a partnership with the US-based SHANK2 Autism Foundation. (BB1)
🪑 Securing partnerships like this early (even before a product is approved) is important for the business's future commercial aspirations.
Osteopore (ASX: OSX) had to clarify its announcement from yesterday about minimum order quantities and payments to the distributor. (OSX)
🪑 If you read through the announcement, it is still incredibly vague… c’mon OSX.
There has been significant selling in Genetic Signatures (ASX: GSS) over the last four days, despite trading well under cash backing.
EVE Health Group (ASX: EVE) raises $0.9M at $0.02 per share. (EVE)
Two “Change in substantial holders notices” reveal that top shareholder Asia Union Investments is selling on the market, and that Perennial Value Management distributed ~3 million GSS shares to the fund's LPs. (GSS, GSS)
🪑 One I’m watching with interest.
If anyone reading this has a line to GSS management, I’d love to line up a call to find out what the plan/strategy is with the big cash box.
See you all next week,
The Armchair Analyst.
PS. I’ve got a couple of guest posts for next week that I hope you enjoy.
