A Disruptor In The Space?

[kmall]

Back in January 2019, during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan conducted an interview with Jim Cramer of CNBC discussing the future of healthcare and the cure over treatment model they intend to execute. Here's an excerpt from that interview:

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/01/07/n ... ments.html

Key points from the interview:

- Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan discusses how the drugmaker is refocusing its business to leverage new-age treatments and potential cures in an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer.

- Narasimhan, a medical doctor and Novartis' former chief medical officer, says people will "ultimately" come to value a company that produces real cures to diseases rather than chronic treatments.

- Novartis' latest foray into new medicines was its $2.1 billion acquisition of Endocyte, a cancer-focused biopharmaceutical.

As Geron continues to pursue additional indications with multiple Clinical Trials and the "potential" for Imetelstat to possibly target 90% of cancers by inhibiting telomerase,* is Geron setting itself up to be a disruptor in the healthcare space?

*https://www.geron.com/r-d/telomerase/

I remember investing in Amazon in 2010 when shares were in the $200 range. They had yet to make a profit and by the time my cost average reached around $400, the volitility associated with a speculative company still laying it's foundation for future earnings definitely had me questioning if Bezos' master plan would ever come to fruition. Within seven years AMZN passed $1000 PPS and by the time I unloaded the majority of my position, it had touched $1900+.

Point is, when I first invested in GERN, I quickly surmised that Imetelstat and Geron could be the AMZN of healthcare. Back in early 2014, before their initial collaboration with JNJ, I took a minor position as a pure speculative addition to my portfolio. Into 2017 and the run to 2018, that position ballooned substantially. Like most who rode that wave, I licked my wounds in September 2018, but I never strayed from my original belief in the science behind Imetelstat. I held steady and have added 3 fold since, taking advantage of what I believe was a gift handed to me for looking at what really took place with the JNJ discontinuation. A pure business decision. ASH 2018 and 30 months OS vs 12 months BAT was only the beginning of what is looking to be a validation of my basic understanding of telomerase and it's cause/effect with regards to malignant cells.

When you think of a space ready and ripe for a true disruptor, I can think of none bigger and more warranted than healthcare. I personally think Big Pharma needs to consider a good long look at Geron before this gets out of their reach. Think about the measly $1.6B Google paid for YouTube now. Back then in 2006 it was a stretch. Today, YouTube's worldwide advertising revenues amounted to 7.34 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2022, representing a five percent year-over-year increase. Here are just a few examples of disruptors in the past two decades and their Market Caps today:

Uber - $57.2B
Airbnb - $74.5B
Tesla - $925B
Amazon - $1.37Trillion

What is Imetelstat worth?

The Lymphoid Malignancy studies at MD Anderson will add quite a bit to that answer. As will P3 IMerge TLR in January and hopefully FDA NDA to follow.

If some Big Pharma doesn't step up to the plate soon, this could easily be out of their reach in the very near future. Just my take on how I see things these days. -Kmall

[bucbeard]

great post, KMall!

I can assimilate to what you shared.

thank you...onward we go.

[biopearl123]

Wish we had a way to give thumbs up votes, kmall. I know you will be looking at this but can you give us some info on the UK regulatory position? (Now gone from careers site, presumably filled…) bp

[kmall]

@bucbeard........

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 2QDj-A0Rht

-Kmall