Celldex Trying To Regroup With Its Early-Stage Assets

It was clear back in April that Celldex Therapeutics (CLDX) would be restructuring and realigning its priorities after the failure of its Phase III METRIC study of glembatumumab ("glemba") in triple-negative breast cancer, and after the first quarter earnings report, investors have a clearer picture of management's near-term plan.

Unfortunately, this new plan is still relying on assets that have either shown lackluster initial signs of efficacy (varlilumab or "varli") or are in very early stages of development. Assigning more than 10% odds of success to any of these programs based on the data seen to-date requires a leap of faith, but the good news (if you can call it that) is that the Street isn't assigning them much more value than that.

At this point, it really is about the data and management's ability to pull a rabbit out of its hat. Should the varli combo studies, or one of its other current clinical programs, show strong efficacy sufficient to support more robust odds of approval, the shares will likely react strongly and Celldex will be able to raise more cash on better terms. That's a long shot, and Celldex's poor drug development history shouldn't be ignored, but Celldex does at least still have multiple shots on goal and enough cash to get them at least to the point of early-stage data in human studies.

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Celldex Trying To Regroup With Its Early-Stage Assets