Date: Jun 19, 2018 Author: Terry Chrisomalis Terry Chrisomalis Source: seekingalpha.com (
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Summary
Idera Pharmaceuticals fails phase 2 study treating patients with dermatomyositis using IMO-8400.
The true value in Idera lies in the combination study using IMO-2125 and Yervoy in patients with anti-PD-1 refractory melanoma.
The results from the phase 2 combination melanoma study were positive enough that a phase 3 study was initiated recently back in March of 2018.
The combination of Idera Pharmaceuticals together with BioCryst Pharmaceuticals added more rare disease products to the pipeline, and boosted the cash position as well.
The financials are good enough to fund operations for Idera well into Q3 of 2019, which means there is no near-term risk of a cash raise.
This idea was discussed in more depth with members of my private investing community, Biotech Analysis Central.
Recently, Idera Pharmaceuticals (IDRA) announced that it had failed a phase 2 study in treating patients with dermatomyositis. While this is very disappointing, this provides a good buying opportunity. That's because back in 2017, Idera's IMO-2125 in combination with Yervoy had posted positive data in patients with melanoma. I believe that despite the failure of this one study, Idera remains a strong buy.
Phase 2 Data
Recently, Idera Pharmaceuticals announced that it had failed to meet the primary endpoint for a phase 2 study in treating patients with dermatomyositis. This phase 2 study recruited a total of 30 patients with a disease known as dermatomyositis. Dermatomyositis is a rare disease characterized by inflammation of the skin and muscles. The reason why this disease occurs is because the body's own immune system attacks the skin/muscles. Patients in the study were treated with Idera's IMO-8400 treatment. The primary endpoint of the study was to determine the change in baseline in an activity score known as "Cutaneous Dermatomyositis Disease Area and Severity Index (CDASI). This is a measurement used to determine how severely damaged the skin is. This was used to determine if IMO-8400 could successfully achieve a greater score over placebo. Unfortunately, it was stated that IMO-8400 failed to achieve statistical significance against placebo with respect to this endpoint. That means that this program is likely going to be terminated from the pipeline.
