THIS JUNIOR BIOTECH MAY HAVE FOUND A CURE TO A RARE FORM OF BLOOD CANCER

Success! One of my first US biotech picks back in 2023—Cellectar Biosciences (CLRB-NASD) has turned into a double this morning ($1.60 – $3.20) , after reporting GREAT data that will help save a lot of lives.

This comes just two months after my other big win, MYOMO MYO-NASD which is a 5-bagger (80 cents – $4) after getting national insurance approval for its electronic arm brace.

Back in June, I bought Cellectar at a $6 million Enterprise Value (so cheap!!!) that has a new molecule to fight a rare blood cancer called Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia (WM), a non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It is—as yet—uncurable.

But this morning’s data on Phase 2 trials showed a 75% Overall Response Rate for high risk patients—meaning other drugs did not work for them—but more importantly, an 8% Complete Response—meaning the cancerous tumors went away completely. The disease was GONE. THAT RARELY HAPPENS.

Source: Cellectar presentation Jan 8 2024

That’s incredible! Also worth noting in the data—response was immediate, and continued to get better throughout the trial—meaning that even though this was just a few months, if people keep on Cellectar’s Iopofosine, their condition will continue to improve.

And the stock is responding, up 20% this morning to $3.20 on huge volume. This is still just a $90 million market cap.

I sold half my position on Friday at $2.70, hedging my bets, and I bought it back this morning at $3.20.

This data is so good, it could overtake the current drug to become the #1 Standard Of Care (SOC) and have a market well over US$1 billion.

Here is the few paragraphs that I wrote back in June that showed how Cellectar’s molecule—they call it IOPOFOSINE—works:

Iopofosine is really a combination of two elements:

1. The delivery vehicle.

1. The payload.

First, there is Cellectar’s phospholipid ether (PLE) delivery vehicle, which is designed to deliver a payload to the site of cancer cells, while limiting exposure to healthy cells.

Second is the payload, which in this case is iodine-131, a cytotoxic (cell-killing) radioisotope that is a very efficient killer of mutated cells.

Together, Cellectar can target the correct cells and attack them efficiently.

Iopofosine binds to the cell surface and is delivered into the cytoplasm of the cancer cell. The iodine-131 performs “intracellular radiation” on the cell, which kills it.

How good is it at what it does? Potentially pretty good. 

The data so far has been promising. But it is a very small sample size. Which means it could be noise, or it could be real. If it is legit, then Cellectar is onto something.

One patient had a complete response—meaning the disease went away and has not come back.

While the trial is going after 3rd line patients, if it works, Iopofosine should be able to challenge as the standard of care (SOC) option, BTKi, which are drugs like rituximab and ibrutinib, for the disease.

For one, Iopofosine131 has better dosing than the SOC. It is four doses: a 30-minute infusion, then another 14 days later, another on day 57 and another on day 71. Then they are done.

This compares to an indefinite treatment with BTKi – patients are taking an oral medication every day in perpetuity until they can no longer tolerate the drug or it no longer works. 

Second, the BTKi SOC has limited efficacy.  Although it can work initially, especially in earlier lines of therapy, several patients and subtypes struggle to get a meaningful response and durability of response. If you discontinue the disease returns in 4-6 weeks.

Third, BTKi simply doesn’t work at all with some patients.

The stock is still cheap because of a structured financing in place, meaning that the group who funded Cellectar to keep it alive the last couple years gave themselves SEVERAL warrants that exercise at higher and higher prices after the company meets certain milestones.

One of those staged fundings is 14 million warrants at US$3.18. I have no idea how they chose that price, but at the time the stock was much lower.

Once 14 million shares trades above $3.18, I see the stock trading higher. These warrants expire in TEN days from now, so what I would call a “trading cap” is completely off the stock then.

With the extra $40 million cash from these warrants, I’m not 100% certain how much “runway” the company has; how many months of working capital that is for the company—but almost certainly enough to get them through to FDA approval on Iopofosine—but I will be monitoring that.

HERE’S WHAT’S COMING NEXT

This is a great way to start the year—a double! Biotech is coming out of a harsh, two-year long bear market and good results are now being recognized by the Market.

Cellectar and Myomo were beaten down stocks from the small cap bear market of 2022-2023 with promising technology—and a coming catalyst; test results or regulatory approval.

The next big catalyst for the InvestingWhisperer portfolio is next Thursday, January 18, when one of my favourite companies announces its year end financials. If they meet their goal of positive cash flow in Q4 23, I see the stock moving higher.

GET MY REPORT ON THIS STOCK—RISK FREE—by clicking HERE.