Yesterday, Warren Buffett announced that he will donate most of his personal fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, doubling its size and amount of money spent every year. Makes us wonder, is there any listed companies that may benefit from increasing spending?
We have found company named Immtech Pharmaceuticals (IMM), which has mkt cap of $96m (note: short interest stands at 9.5%). Co's first and main drug candidate is pafuramidine maleate, also known as DB289, which is currently in two Ph III clinical trials, one for the treatment of Pneumocystis pneumonia ("PCP") in patients with HIV/AIDS and the other for the treatment of African sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis). The co's treatment of African trypanosomiasis has designated "fast-track" by the FDA. Pafuramidine were discovered and initially evaluated by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). The co has exclusive worldwide licenses to develop and commercialize compounds discovered and patented by scientists at UNC-CH.
The co's development of pafuramidine for treating African sleeping sickness has been supported financially by a grant to UNC-CH from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. To date, the Foundation has granted to UNC-CH approximately $40m for the development of pafuramidine; pursuant to the Clinical Research Subcontract, Immtech has received approximately $17.3m of such funds. The co plans to submit a NDA to the FDA for accelerated approval of pafuramidine to treat African sleeping sickness, if they meet the designated end points in Ph III pivotal trial.
We believe that the company may benefit from increased spending by the Fundation.
In addition, Ferris Baker Watts on June 14. noted that the co recently renewed its contract agreement with UNC-CH. UNC most recently received additional $22.6 million from the Gates Foundation, of witch $13 million will go directly to Immtech.
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