Diamond Equity Research Initiates Coverage on Imugene Ltd. (ASX: IMU)


NEW YORK, Sept. 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diamond Equity Research, a leading equity research firm with a focus on small capitalization public companies has initiated coverage of Imugene Ltd. (ASX: IMU). The in-depth 31-page initiation report includes detailed information on the Imugene’s business model, services, industry, valuation, management, and risks.

The full research report is available here. Highlights from the report include:

  • Diversified Pipeline with Multiple Candidates in Clinical Trials - In the past few years, the company has licensed multiple technologies, creating a diversified pipeline of five therapeutic products, four of which are in clinical trials. HER-Vaxx and PD-1 Vaxx have demonstrated robust safety and efficacy in the early stages of clinical trials. The ability of these underlying cancer vaccines to elicit active immunization at lower cost and dosage, and potentially deliver improved efficacy creates a more effective treatment modality than certain passive forms of immunotherapies such as monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The company’s oncolytic virus CF33, designed to infect, kill and replicate, has also shown effective cancer-killing phenomenon in a range of cancer cell lines. Both CHECKvacc (CF33-hNIS-antiPD-L1) and VAXINIA (CF33-hNIS) are currently being evaluated in phase 1 clinical trials. Leveraging the transgene delivery potential of OV, the company’s fifth clinical candidate has the potential to supplement CD19-directed CAR-T therapy’s ability to treat solid tumors. Imugene has adopted a basket approach, creating a diversified pipeline of multiple promising drug candidates, each of which has its own compelling medical and market case.
  • Niche Therapeutic Candidates with Long Patent Life - Instead of focusing on the much more crowded space of immunotherapies such as mAbs, Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, and CAR-T cell therapy, Imugene is targeting the niche therapeutics segment of cancer vaccines and oncolytic virus therapy that tend to exert lower side effects in cancer patients than other systemic therapies. Additionally, all of its five pipeline candidates have long patent lives, with expiry for its lead candidate HER-Vaxx in 2036 and for others starting in 2037.
  • Large Total Addressable Market - With its five pipeline candidates, Imugene is targeting multiple solid tumor types with low survival rates and a lack of efficacious and safe treatment options. The targeted solid tumor types (HER2+ gastric cancer, NSCLC, TNBC, among others) represent an addressable market of over half a million patients globally and a multi-billion-dollar market.
  • Valuation - Imugene is well-capitalized with a cash reserve amounting to approximately A$175 million as of June 30th, 2022, inclusive of recent institutional placement. The company’s sound financial position reduces the financing and dilution risk over the short to medium term. We believe the company has strong fundamentals given the soundness of science exhibited through optimistic early-stage clinical results, a large total addressable market, and a management team with extensive experience in cancer therapies. Our valuation methodology is based on risk-adjusted DCF using a discount rate of 10.7%. We have forecasted revenue for four therapies currently in clinical trials and applied a probability of success factor based on their progress through the clinical trial. Our valuation methodology yielded a value of A$2.98 billion or A$0.48 per share, contingent on successful execution by the company.

About Imugene Ltd.

Imugene Limited is an Australian clinical-stage immuno-oncology company developing a range of immunotherapies to activate the immune system of cancer patients to treat and eradicate tumors. The company is developing five unique assets based on three different platform technologies.

For more information, visit https://www.imugene.com/

About Diamond Equity Research

Diamond Equity Research is a leading equity research and corporate access firm focused on small capitalization companies. Diamond Equity Research is an approved sell-side provider on major institutional investor platforms.

For more information, visit https://www.diamondequityresearch.com.

Disclosures:

Diamond Equity Research LLC is being compensated by Imugene Ltd. for producing research materials regarding Imugene Ltd., and its securities, which is meant to subsidize the high cost of creating the report and monitoring the security, however, the views in the report reflect that of Diamond Equity Research. All payments are received upfront and are billed for an annual or semi-annual research engagement. As of 09/29/22, the issuer had paid us $33,000 for our services, which commenced 08/19/22 and is billed annually. Diamond Equity Research LLC may be compensated for non-research related services, including presenting at Diamond Equity Research investment conferences, press releases and other additional services. The non-research related service cost is dependent on the company, but usually do not exceed $5,000. The issuer has not paid us for non-research related services as of 09/29/2022. Issuers are not required to engage us for these additional services. Additional fees may have accrued since then. Although Diamond Equity Research company sponsored reports are based on publicly available information and although no investment recommendations are made within our company sponsored research reports, given the small capitalization nature of the companies we cover we have adopted an internal trading procedure around the public companies by whom we are engaged, with investors able to find such policy on our website public disclosures page. This report and press release do not consider individual circumstances and does not take into consideration individual investor preferences. Statements within this report may constitute forward-looking statements, these statements involve many risk factors and general uncertainties around the business, industry, and macroeconomic environment. Investors need to be aware of the high degree of risk in small capitalization equities including the complete loss of their investment. Investors can find various risk factors in the initiation report and in the respective financial filings for Imugene Ltd.

Contact:

Diamond Equity Research
research@diamondequityresearch.com