In a May 3 research note, Douglas Loe, an analyst with Echelon Wealth Partners, reported that IMV Inc. (IMV:TSX; IMMVF:OTCQX), formerly Immunovaccine Inc., is pursuing a listing on the NASDAQ exchange and to meet the minimum share price it requires, is "revising its capital structure next week through a 3.2:1 share consolidation that will bring basic shares outstanding from 137.4 million to 42.9 million."
Loe pointed out that following the reverse stock split, the share price would be about $5.09, which meets the $4 threshold for trading on the NASDAQ but not by a lot. "This gives us confidence that the company itself sees value-creating opportunities on the horizon or at least through the timeframe that this minimum price threshold will be directly relevant to listing activities," Loe noted.
Indeed, potentially concurrent to the NASDAQ listing are some clinical events. Most significant is the reporting at the June American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting of new interim data from the partnered Phase 1/2 trial of DPX-Survivac and Incyte's epacadostat in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer. "We believe that IMV is expressing its own optimism on that outcome through the proposed time frame for its U.S. listing," purported Loe.
Whereas IMV and Incyte's decision to expand the Phase 2 ovarian cancer clinical is encouraging, "the jury is still out on how epacadostat specifically could function in combination with mechanistically distinct T-cell response-enhancing DPX-Survivac," Loe indicated. Although IMV has not yet announced an enrollment start date for the expansion study, Loe suggested it could begin in Q2/18. If so, interim response data could be available in as early as H1/19.
Also expected in the next quarter or two are updates from IMV's partners in various DepoVax programs: Zoetis in animal heath, Leidos in antimalaria and the University of Connecticut (UCONN) in neoantigens. "We reiterate our highly-positive view on how the UCONN collaboration could impact IMV's valuation in coming quarters, a parameter we expect to revisit once formal clinical activities for DepoVax-formulated neoantigens commence."
Echelon maintained its Speculative Buy rating on IMV but raised its price target on the company to CA$10 from CA$3.25 per share merely to reflect the share consolidation.
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