Imugene Ltd (ASX: IMU) shares were on form on Thursday.
The small-cap ASX healthcare stock charged higher following the release of an update on a key trial.
Let's now see what Bell Potter is saying about the drug developer following the announcement.
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What is the broker saying?
Bell Potter highlights that the first patient has been enrolled for cohort 3 for its Phase 1b trial.
That trial is investigating the concurrent dosing of azer-cel in combination with a BTKi for the treatment of rare forms of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL).
The broker notes that patients must be refractory to at least one previous line of therapy, being either of the BTK inhibitors (BTKi) including Eli Lilly's Pirtobrutinib.
Bell Potter has high hopes for the trial, speaking very positively about the rationale behind cohort three. It said:
The rationale for cohort 3 is relatively straight forward. BTKi and CAR-T are the SOC across multiple haematological cancers. The recent proof of concept TARMAC study (n=20, being a concurrent combo of a BTKi with auto CAR-T) demonstrated an 80% complete response rate in R/R MCL patients, however, toxicity was not insignificant with 20% CRS ≥ G3. The investigators concluded that the addition of a BTKi greatly enhanced the performance of CD19 directed CAR-T result in long DoRs.
The potential advantage of azer-cel is its off the shelf availability and favourable safety profile. Patients in TARMAC were required to [be] eligible for auto CAR-T, i.e. able to survive the 4 week manufacturing period. Access to auto CAR-T is severely limited for this patient group who typically have no remaining treatment options and very poor survival outlook. Patients with uncontrolled disease also have heightened risk of more severe adverse events.
Bell Potter believes it won't take long for full enrolment of the trial, with data potentially starting to be known within weeks. The broker adds:
The off-shelf availability of both azer-cel and BTKi therapies will expand eligibility, hence we expect rapid enrolment of ~20 patients in this cohort. Patients will be monitored for ongoing duration of response (DoR), however, short term tumour responses will be known within weeks. Separately, ASCO takes place this weekend. IMU has an oral presentation of data from an earlier cohort involving treatment of 19 patients with various forms of NHL naïve to CAR-T therapies but excluding MCL. This group achieved an ORR of 81% with DoR still maturing.
Should you invest?
If you have a high tolerance for risk, then Bell Potter thinks this could be an ASX healthcare stock to buy.
This morning, the broker has reaffirmed its speculative buy rating and 25 cents price target on Imugene's shares. This is more than double its current share price.
The broker concludes:
Treatment of R/R NHL remains a clear unmet need both from safety and efficacy standpoint. We eagerly await data from this latest cohort in 2H CY26.
