In The Spotlight: ImmunoGen

(RTTNews) - Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. (IMGN) are up an impressive 160% year-to-date compared to a gain of just 17.5% by the iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB) during the same period.

ImmunoGen is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that develops targeted cancer therapeutics using its proprietary antibody-drug conjugate technology.

Antibody Drug Conjugates, or ADCs, are monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) linked to biologically active cytotoxic drugs, and therefore exhibit the specificity of therapeutic antibodies as well as the cancer-killing ability of cytotoxic drugs.

The Company's lead product candidate is Mirvetuximab soravtansine, an ADC, under a phase III trial as a single agent for the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, dubbed FORWARD I, and under a phase 1b/2 study as combination regimens for both platinum-resistant and platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer, known as FORWARD II.

Also in the pipeline are IMGN779 and IMGN632.

IMGN779 is under a phase I trial in adult patients with relapsed/refractory CD33-positive Acute Myeloid Leukemia while IMGN632, being developed for hematologic malignancies, is expected to enter into phase I study before the end of the year.

ImmunoGen's ADC technology is also used in Roche's marketed breast cancer drug, Kadcyla, and in programs in development by Amgen, Bayer, Biotest, CytomX, Debiopharm, Lilly, Novartis, Sanofi, Takeda, Jazz Pharma and Debiopharm.

The Company derives revenue from out-licenses and collaborations.

While announcing its second quarter financial results on July 28, 2017, the Company had said that it expects full-year 2017 revenues to be between $115 million and $120 million.

ImmunoGen will be reporting its third quarter financial results today.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the Company to incur a loss of $0.19 per share on revenue of $33.62 million.

Will the results fall short or trounce estimates? Stay tuned...

IMGN closed Thursday's trading at $5.31, up 4.73%. In after-hours, the stock gained another 7.72% to $5.72.