Immunovaccine has 67 per cent upside, Echelon Wealth says

The stock has already come a long way over the past six months, but analyst Doug Loe of Echelon Wealth Partners see more upside to biotech company Immunovaccine (Immunovaccine Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:IMV). In a client note on Tuesday, the analyst maintained his “Speculative Buy” rating and $3.25 price target, saying that there are plenty of pipeline milestones still on the horizon for IMV.

Last week, Halifax-based Immunovaccine announced the first patient treated in its Phase 2 study of the company’s T-cell targeting therapy, DPX-Survivac, for the treatment of persistent or recurrent/refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

“We are very pleased to have this triple combination clinical trial underway for these patients. These types of advanced lymphomas remain difficult-to-treat, and have not benefitted from recent advances in breakthrough monotherapies in the same way other forms of the disease have,” said Frederic Ors, Immunovaccine’s Chief Executive Officer, in a press release. “We designed DPX-Survivac in large part to boost the rates of other novel immuno-modulating agents, and continue to see clinical data that support this goal in other cancer types. We look forward to working with our partners at Sunnybrook Research Institute and Merck Canada to further this endeavour.”

Loe gives “Top Pick” status to Immunovaccine, saying that the company has several formulations of its DPX vaccine in development aside from DPX-Survivac, along with attractive secondary partnered programs which have yet to formally impact his valuation and forecasts.

“Our investment thesis on IMV is unchanged, and we expect new data from ongoing programs and initiation of new programs (specifically on DPX-NEO) to drive value this year, but specifically on DPX-Survivac in FQ218, which is the relevant period for our FQ218 Top Pick designation,” says the analyst.

“The stock is cumulatively up 68 per cent since end-of-Sept/17 when we originally ascribed Top Pick status to the stock, with most of that return admittedly generated in FQ417 vs FQ118 (up 114 per cent in FQ417, down [17 per cent] in FQ118) and in our view, mostly driven by comparative paucity of clinical milestones in the more recent period and not on any softness in market regard for the firm’s lipid-based water-free antigen delivery platform DepoVax,” he says.

The analyst says he expects interim data from two of the company’s collaborations with pharma company Merck within the next quarter, followed by final data on the two trials by the first half of 2019.

Loe’s $3.25 price target represents a 67 per cent projected return at the time of publication.