I’d take a position in both IBRX and GERN. Both are biotechs and both have had cancer drugs recently approved by the FDA.
IBRX’s Anktiva was approved on April 22 for the treatment of bladder cancer and IBRX began shipping Anktiva two weeks after approval. These sales should be reflected in IBRX’s Q2 earnings. As more and more healthcare plans allow for Anktiva reimbursement, earnings should continue to grow in each successive quarter for the foreseeable future as Anktiva becomes the standard of care for the treatment of bladder cancer. But, that’s just the start of the story. IBRX, per their website, met with the FDA in June to get the green light to use Anktiva for the treatment of 2nd line and 3rd line lung cancer. As Anktiva is already an approved drug for bladder cancer, label expansion is not usually as difficult as a new set of trials. IBRX also has ongoing trials using Anktiva in conjunction with other drugs/vaccines to treat colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma, and leukemia and all these are in phase 2 trials. There’s also phase 1 trials for HPV, advanced solid tumors, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and HIV also marrying Anktiva with other drugs/vaccines as treatment. Go to ImmunityBio’s website Immunitybio.com and read about what this company is doing.
GERN’s drug, Rytelo (formerly Imetelstat), was approved on June 6 and is used for treating transfusion-dependent anemia in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a group of blood cancers. I think GERN is a big time takeover target and (if there’s a buyout) goes at 4x the current sp. Maybe more. If Big Pharma won’t pony up the big $$ to buy GERN, I still expect the sp to go much higher as Rytelo sales start to come in and the drug is approved in additional indications (mainly MF and AML). Buyout or no buyout, you should make money…unless something comes out of left field that is completely unforeseen.