Immunovaccine has 88% upside: Echelon Wealth Partners

Ahead of preclinical data it will present at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Chicago this week, Echelon Wealth Partners analyst Doug Loe has a good feeling about Immunovaccine (Immunovaccine Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSX:IMV).

In a research update to clients today, Loe maintained his “Speculative Buy” rating and one-year price target of $3.25 on IMV, implying a return of 88 per cent at the time of publication.

Yesterday, Immunovaccine announced it would present new research on its T cell activating platform at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting this week.

“This is important data for our company as it further indicates the potential of our collaborative work, including our continuing program with Incyte, to provide heightened T cell infiltration and overall anti-cancer immune responses,” CEO Frederic Ors said. “Our data at AACR continues to demonstrate that our novel mechanism of action may hold the key to bridging the gap between in vivo therapies that can elicit T cell activation, and immune responses that can trigger disease regression. We look forward to the continued work on these important programs.”

Loe says this is the continuation of positive news for the company.

“NS-based immune therapy developer Immunovaccine is presenting preclinical data at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting in Chicago this week, specifically featuring its DepoVax-neoepitope (DPX-NEO) program, its Incyte-partnered DepoVax-survivin (DPX-Survivac) program, and its Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI)-partnered DepoVax-HPV16 E7 (DPX-E7) program,” the analyst says. “Two of these DPX formulations are already advancing well in Phase II clinical studies (DPX-Survivac, DPX-E7) and we assume that the other (DPX-NEO) is about to be, but we are still positive about new preclinical underpinnings that support our investment thesis on these and other DPX formulations in Immunovaccine’s pipeline.”

Loe thinks IMV will generate EBITDA of negative $7.39-million on revenue of $5.0-million in fiscal 2018. He expects those numbers will improve to an EBITDA loss of $4.64-million on a topline of $10.0-million the following year.