In response to a job posting by Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) for a price manager regarding imetelstat on August 24th 2018, Geron’s ($GERN) stock climbed 42%, as the expectation now is that J&J will continue imetelstat’s development. J&J has a licensing agreement that could result in over $75 million in milestone payments for Geron, however it has been unclear in recent months whether J&J would continue the licensing agreement, and just return the rights to the drug to Geron. J&J later insisted the job posting did not have anything to do with Geron’s licensing deal, however that still did not stop investors.
Imetelstat is currently being developed for MDS (Myelodysplastic syndrome). The drug works by inhibiting an enzyme called telomerase by binding to its RNA template. Earlier in June, imetelstat showed positive effects in a phase II/III MDS study, with 34% of patients positing a median duration of transfusion independence past 24.1 weeks.