Calandra... tweeting againLong winded as usual... but here it is.
Nova Scotia ‘Up’ Stuns Investors
By Thom Calandra Leave a Comment
Fund’s Torrent: IMV* | Kneat ** | DHX Media | Also: Ivanhoe’s Run ***
We have indicators that Nova Scotia cancer lab IMV Inc. will up stun medical professionals later this week and in June.
Note: this article posted first on Friday May 3 and revised three times for TCR subscribers.
One INDICATOR is the company’s uncharacteristic flag-waving of the mid-June date when new human results are to be published for DPX-Survivac and a flagship Merck drug. The lymphoma trial is Phase II, one of a handful for IMV across several tumorous cancer indications: ovarian, DLBCL lymphoma, non-small cell lung cancer and others.
TCR Takeaway: As more robust human results from at least three trials are published in the next 6 weeks (including in mid-May), IMV’s stacked pipeline will realize its human and market value potency.
Another INDICATOR is upcoming — Friday’s financial update call for IMV’s first quarter: https://ir.imv-inc.com/news-releases/news-release-details/imv-inc-announce-first-quarter-2019-results-and-host-conferenceThere is a small possibility that Frederic Ors, CEO, and his administrative team will comment on possible licensing pacts for IMV’s flagship immuno-therapy, DPX-Survivac.
IMV shares in less than 90 minutes this past week overtook the March 1financing price of $4.06 USD. I have been purchasing shares from $2.98 back to $3.60 the past three weeks. [Shares owned since May 2015] *
IMV’s top executives met (last week April 29-May 1 approx.) with between 15 and 20 asset managers in Toronto and received commitments for sizable share purchases. “If you take into account the shares traded this morning (May 6, 2019), since Monday of last week we have traded more than a million shares in Canada and the U.S.,” noted Pierre Labb, chief financial officer and also a spokesman for IMV.
The company’s annual general meeting takes place this coming Thursday May 9, which is a day prior to the quarterly update for financial professionals.
Until now, DPX-Survivac’s tumor regressions, “durability,” biomarker hits (or misses), life expectancy, safety and other clinical evidence have come in small patient populations — part of U.S. Food & Drug Administration and other regulators’ bio-pharma timetables. Regarding drivers on the lymphoma trial at University of Toronto, this one is in combination with Merck’s pembrolizumab, or Keytruda.
If our TCR research is proven correct, Merck will become the first drugmaker to license an IMV treatment for upfront cash, as much as $200 million USD, and biopharma milestone clinical trial payments — likely for the Keytruda/DPX-Survivac combination treating lymphoma.
Purdy’s Wharf, Halifax Other drivers for IMV rest on already too-notch tumor regressions and durability for DPX-Survivac as a so-called “monotherapy” — specifically IMV’s headline ovarian cancer human trials.
This week’s (Friday and Thursday May 2 and 3) stock boost for NASDAQ and Toronto-traded IMV comes on the heels of comments from Wade Dawe, a Halifax asset manager and seed-capital specialist who helped to engineer the 2009 IPO of IMV. Mr. Dawe has been adding personally and on behalf of Torrent, a closed-end fund.
His inaugural ‘blog’ about seed capital and Canada investing is just out this morning. In it, Wade provides more indications that IMV could be one of modern history’s cancer solvers. See: https://torrentcapital.ca/no-1-series-draft/ * Take a read.
[Aside: Torrent’s SEDAR filing with management discussion and holdings is out as of a week ago. The filing shows December 31 2018 holdings, which you will want to scan (Kneat, DHX Media, Sona Nantotech, several others]. The 4-month filing lag means the publicly traded Torrent will not be disclosing its additions (IMV, for one) for at least one full quarter.
Mr. Dawe’s report from Torrent Capital’s Purdy’s Wharf offices (pictured here) in Halifax also serves as a history of IMV and as a guide to the benefits, and risks, of seed capital — especially for pioneers such as IMV and other Torrent Capital holdings (Kneat Inc.) that are winning the label “disruptor” for their breakthrough technologies.
Mr. Dawe I believe after speaking with him has added about $1 million of IMV shares for himself and for the Torrent Capital fund in IMV’s post-financing decline these past several weeks. [I own shares of Torrent Capital, of bio-pharma software validator and Halifax-based Kneat **, of IMV * (largest securities position here at home), and of another large Torrent stake, Halifax-based DHX Media.]
Calculating net asset value for Torrent Capital is not real time because of the shifting nature of its focused investment portfolio, some of the holdings private via Mr. Dawe’s Numus Capital seed-unit and some such as IMV recently added or, as is the case with Kneat and DHX Media, supplemented.
In addition, Wade Dawe personally is one of the three largest individual owners of IMV. He is considered a co-founder and is a former board member of the immuno-therapies developer. Another share owner, Albert Scardino of London, U.K., is also in the top three, is also considered an IMV co-founder and is currently on IMV’s board of directors.
Both of them, along with Mr. Ors, Mr. Labb, business development head Joseph Sullivan and chairman Andrew Sheldon have made the shares one of the top most-active for INSIDER PURCHASES among North American biotechnology companies since May 2018. [Please see previous TCR reports for amounts, which collectively in the open market and in the March 1 $26 million CAD financing surpass $4 million worth of shares.]
Investors are anticipating that Wells-Fargo Securities, a lead underwriter for the March 1 IMV financing, will publish its first research report about the company and its “pipeline” in coming days.
As for Torrent Capital, I believe — I am ballparking this figure so please see the new Torrent Capital web site at torrentcapital.ca — that TORR/TRRPF shares in the public market are selling for between 6 percent and 9 percent beneath their actual NAV, or real-time net asset value.