Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) has four products that together make around $3 billion per quarter - these are, Revlimid at $2bn, and Pomalyst/Imnovid, the two iMiDs or Immunomodulatory imide drugs, and Otezla and Abraxane at around the $300mn-$400mn mark each. Its market cap is around $111bn today. The company has a number of drugs in phase 3 trials; most of these are label expansions of self-owned existing products, some are NCEs or new chemical entities, some like Luspatercept are collaborations, and at least one, Mongersen in Crohn's disease, is a partnered investigational drug in phase 3 trials.
What is more interesting for the very long term investor is Celgene's library of next generation cereblon-modulators, some of which have begun to percolate to the clinic after years of research at Celgene. The first generation cereblon modulator, thalidomide, was not well understood, and led to various well-publicized teratogenic safety issues with the drug. Then we had Revlimid and Imnovid; Revlimid is another cereblon-modulator that promotes cereblon-dependent destruction of Ikaros proteins. An excellent article discusses the entire story behind this science and the story of the relationship between IMiDs, cereblon, and IKZF1/IKZF3. Bototmline is, there's a whole new world out there of cereblon-binding small molecules opening up through Celgene's research, and with better understanding of what drives the safety behind the iMiD binder molecules. This area of work, if successful, will keep Celgene alive and strong for decades to come - and this is a critical area where it differs from colleague Gilead (GILD), whose early stage development was in tatters.
