Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (MACK) May Be Right For Your Portfolio

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) may be the perfect biotech company for your speculative portfolio. The company had its Initial Public Offering in March of 2012 and raised $100 million for its operations. The sale of the public offering was at $7 dollars a share, valuing the company at $647 million. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) seems to have come to market at the right time, as it currently has eight drugs in it’s portfolio to bring long term value for investors. The price of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) has been stagnant since its initial public offering as investors await for results from its late stage cancer trials.

Partnership

Biotech stocks that are at an early stage have a lot of trouble with raising capital and obtaining funding for trials. Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) is in a good spot as it already has two partnerships for it’s drug portfolio. MM-121 is one of these compounds–it is a monoclonal antibody that targets the ERbB3 cell surface receptor, and is partnered with Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY) for multiple cancer indications like ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and NSCLC cancer. MM-398 is the lead candidate for Merrimack as it is in a phase three trial for metastatic pancreatic cancer for patients who had previously failed treatment with Gemcitabine. It is partnered with Pharmengine, who hold rights in Taiwan for the drug. The best part about Merrimack’s MM-398 is that the FDA has granted it an orphan drug designation.

Pancreatic Cancer Market

To this day pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest forms of cancer to treat. The five year survival rate for people living with the disease is around 4% and the current therapies are toxic. The current therapies for pancreatic cancer aren’t extending the life of patients for long and more drugs are needed for this indication. If Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK) is successful in their phase three trial for MM-398 the company would have a huge market opportunity, as the pancreatic cancer market is set to be worth about $1.2 billion dollars by the year 2015.