Kei,
Their is no doubt, the company cannot take IMGN853 to approval, probably in 2020 without some additional funding, however, I believe they currently have something in excess of $100 million, and they can operate well into next year if they so choose without a problem.
That said, I believe they have several possibilities, outside of the obvious one of a share offering of up to the 150 million shares investors have already authorized many years ago. IMGN has actually been very conservative with dilutive actions over the years, and I don't know it will be required, but the option is there to raise hundreds of millions without needing investor approval to do so.
I believe before this is necessary one or more partnerships will eliminate the need for financing in the immediate future. I believe they just announced 8 presentations at AACR, that involves several drugs which are wholly owned by IMGN. IMGN has been clear that they want to maintain North American ownership, but I believe they're open to a partnership on any, or all of these drugs that would bring in substantial funding. Perhaps even more important, if it were IMGN853 which were partnered, the partner would probably carry much, if not all, trial costs which would dramatically reduce IMGN's burn rate.
Of course their are other partnership possibilities, in some cases with existing partners as well. I say this because I believe most, if not all, existing partners only have access to their DMx effector molecules. Knowing IMGN, they're probably permitting potential partners to also experiment with their newer IGN effector molecules, as well as newer linkers, but after some experimentation, should they wish to use them, new partnerships will need to be created, and the price tag on the more proven technology will be dramatically higher than partnerships of the past. Don't get me wrong, the DMx based drugs are working, but the thinking is that at least in certain cancers the IGN drugs just entering the clinic will work better. I believe that any brand new partner will want access to all technologies, and some of the existing partners with limited options available may have used all options, though I'm not sure that's the case.
In addition to all the above, Bayer's drug which is in a registrational Phase II Trial scheduled to end this year ought to have at least a couple major milestone payments as they file the NDA and ultimately gain approval. All that Bayer has revealed appears to indicate the drug should be on the market sometime next year, and then IMGN will start to earn some royalty money as well.
My point is, their are many possibilities, and lots of time before funding becomes critical. I believe the share price will resume trading in double figures, so if dilution is used, it won't take that many shares to gain hundreds of millions if needed.
Gary
