The ides of March come for Immutep as lung cancer trial cancellation triggers plummet

Immutep Ltd (ASX:IMM) has seen its share price slaughtered on Friday after it’s effectively ditched its lead candidate for the treatment of lung cancer, a move that spells doom for any biotech – the speculative trader’s speculative investment class of choice.

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Cue Immutep sinking -88% in one intraday session – in fact, out the gate – down to 4.6cps. The stock closed at 40cps on Thursday – bringing Immutep’s YTD performance down negative -88%; its market cap to $68M, and its average liquidity to a more respectable level.

A shame that it’s all flowing out in the wrong direction. Immutep has been a fairly quiet stock of late, but on Friday, as at 1.20PM SYD, 332.4M shares had traded hands for a total of $11.5M versus a 4Wavg of a mere 1.8M shares.

if $11M feels low, note the company has 1.5B shares on issue. Still, for biotechs, that isn’t necessarily unusual – it’s a long hard road out of hell and to TGA (or FDA) approval.

“Based on its review of the available safety and efficacy data, the [reviewing committee[ recommended that the trial be discontinued for futility,” Immutep wrote pre-market on Friday of its ongoing trial using flagship candidate TACTI-004.

The big kicker is that this was a Phase III trial – the be-all-or-end-all of developmental drug ambitions – and so investors have withdrawn cash instead of waiting to see if the company can eke a recovery out of stone.

Because that will take at least half a decade – around the same time those suffering from lung cancer may have to live.

IMM last traded at 4.6cps.

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