After watching its stock fall for weeks on worries of disappointing results, Iovance Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: IOVA) has vindicated itself. Shares of the young biopharma company are up 24.2% as of 11:20 a.m. ET today in response to an impressive second-quarter report. This bullish jolt could also mark the beginning of a more prolonged move higher.
Iovance's Amtagvi is off to a solid start
In simplest terms, caregivers are embracing Iovance's new cancer drug Amtagvi (also known as lifileucel).
Amtagvi is the first therapy using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes to be approved by the FDA as a means of fighting cancer. Although February's approval is only for certain melanoma patients who haven't had success with other types of treatment, the drug itself holds promise as a therapy for a range of cancers. It's currently being tested in over a dozen other trials.
During the three-month stretch ending in June, however, Iovance Biotherapeutics did pretty well with Amtagvi just on the melanoma front. Revenue of $31.1 million easily topped estimates of $24.6 million, and better still, top-line guidance of between $53 million and $55 million for the quarter now underway compares favorably to the consensus estimate of $53 million.
The company's still deep in the red, for the record. Iovance lost $97 million during its second fiscal quarter of the year, continuing to spend a great deal of money on ongoing research and development as well as simply managing a complex biopharma business. That's nothing particularly unusual, however, for a biotech company that's only recently launched its first revenue-bearing drug.
For certain investors, the reward will be worth the risk
There's the rub for interested investors. The potential for Amtagvi is enormous; researchers with Global Data suggest it could be producing annual sales of more than $800 million by 2029. But the underlying science of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes is different than other more common cancer treatments. It could take some time for the medical community to use it to the fullest extent possible. As such it's unclear how long it might take Iovance Biotherapeutics to push its way out of the red and into the black.
Nevertheless, to veteran biopharma investors none of this is new, nor deal-breaking. This above-average risk and uncertainty is paired with above-average potential upside. If you can stomach that risk, today's big gain -- following yesterday's post-close Q2 report affirming that Amtagvi is marketable -- is likely to start a recovery of at least some of the stock's value lost earlier in the year.
James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Iovance Biotherapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
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