Dendreon Capitulation

Following the announcement of Q3 results on November 2, 2011, Dendreon (DNDN) stock capitulated. One can only surmise that those who came to the Dendreon game late and hoped to make easy profits, thereby showing their lack of understanding of cancer drug introductions or poor choice in momentum stocks, are now out of the stock. It would be interesting to know who now owns all that stock. Dendreon's 52-week high was $43.96, but it actually hit a post-FDA approval of Provenge for prostate cancer high of $55.43 on May 10, 2010. Its 52-week low was on November 3, at $6.46, with a dead cat bounce today bringing it up to $6.69 at the close. That represents a market capitalization of just under $1 billion.

Q3 results were about what any reasonable person would expect. On August 9, 2011, I guesstimated Q3 revenue at $66 million. It came in at $64.3 million. That included $3 million in non-Provenge royalty payments. Which puts Provenge at $61 million, up 23% from $49.6 million in Q2. Where else would that be a slow ramp?

For those who baled there were two major factors. Revenues were not ramping as quickly as they hoped, and there is a not-unreasonable questioning of where Provenge revenues might peak. In a mere 12 months we have gone from wildly optimistic to deeply pessimistic projections.

What are reasonable projections for Provenge revenues? You have the number of patients covered by the label annually, less those who don't try the therapy. There is no financial reason to not try the therapy since it is covered by Medicaid and Medicare, as well as all major private health insurance plans. The current label constitutes a window through which most prostate cancer patients whose disease progresses will pass, but currently you have to wait for the window. If you a different therapy during the window and wait long enough you can find yourself off label. There is no good reason for a rational patient (or physician) to let that happen. Provenge is very safe and takes only 1 month to administer. It should be the first therapy tried when a patient enters the window. Other therapies can then be tried before waiting to see if Provenge is working, a good strategy given the low percentage of men it provides complete remission for.

33,000 men are expected to die of prostate cancer in 2011, but not all of those go through the Provenge label window because the cancer can become symptomatic before becoming castrate-resistant. I estimate that 15,000 men in the United States will reach the stage of hormone-refractory, non-symptomatic or minimally symptomatic, metastatic prostate cancer each year. This estimate is less that the over 30,000 deaths from prostate cancer each year, since not all men go through the window before dying. Men who knowingly hit this stage usually have already had surgery or radiation therapy plus hormone therapy, but many are not diagnosed until after they have passed the window. Provenge therapy costs about $90,000. If 10,000 men per year try Provenge revenues would be $900 million per year. (There will be 240,890 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. in 2011 according to the National Cancer Institute, but most men are cured by surgery or radiation or die of something else before their cancers become metastatic.)

I can only conclude that the $61 million for Provenge in Q3, annualized to $244 million, is just the beginning of the ramp. Add to that European patients. Add to that the rest of the world. Add to that the possible expansion of the label. Provenge works by getting immune cells to attack cells presenting PAP (Prostatic Acid Phosphatase). It is present in symptomatic disease and during the hormone dependent phase. It would not be surprising if Dendreon were able to extend the label following clinical trials targeting off label phases.

Guaranteed? Of course not. It may make sense to prescribe Provenge, but that does not mean doctors will universally make that a practice. Competitive therapies may prevail, and we can expect new therapies to come down the pipeline until something really can cure the great majority of metastatic prostate cancers.

Dendreon won't stand still either. In addition to global expansion and Provenge label expansion, we can expect other immunotherapies to be developed. Each cancer type that has an appropriate immune system target should be addressable by this paradigm.

Will this happen over night? Of course not. Management was way overconfident in their projections in early 2011. Now they seem to have received the message and are digging into the task of educating patients and physicians. Q4 will not see much of a revenue ramp, but that is because patients and doctors are not likely to start a complicated, month long procedure during the holidays.

Just guessing, but I would expect Q1 2012 to show a better revenue ramp, probably to between $75 and $80 million. Management won't give guidance, and it is really up to the doctors who deal with prostate cancer. I think as word gets out about successes from Provenge, the process will become demand driven. How long that might take, I am not willing to guess.

In any case Dendreon is a stock for patient investors, as has been keenly demonstrated several times in the last 5 years.

Disclaimer: I am long Dendreon. I won't trade the stock for at least 3 days after this article is posted. I am likely to be a buyer at today's price.