I-Mab bets on a Bristol buy-in

When you have $184m in the bank, enough to last for at least two years, scaling back clinical development to focus on one asset says a lot about your chances of raising cash in the coming economic cycle. Just ask I-Mab, which has found itself in this position, and has decided to throw all it can at givastomig, an anti-Claudin18.2 x 4-1BB bispecific antibody that at last year's ESMO yielded a 16% ORR as monotherapy among 43 patients given relevant doses. Investors reacted surprisingly positively to this narrowing of focus, sending I-Mab stock up 30% in early trade on Monday, but perhaps there's a reason: givastomig is the subject of a clinical trial collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, and the bull case is that this might lead to a more formal tie-up between the two companies. This thesis was given a boost by news of Bristol's termination of another Claudin18.2-targeting project, LaNova's ADC LM-302/TPX-4589, hinting perhaps that in Claudin18.2 Bristol is looking to bet on I-Mab. That said, this remains conjecture for now, and the history of 4-1BB co-stimulated bispecifics doesn't offer great hope.

What's left of I-Mab's R&D pipeline?

Note: *rhIL-7/Fc fusion protein; the rest are MAbs. Source: OncologyPipeline.