Shares of biotech OncoGenex (OGXI) were up 8.9% today, March 10 at the close in New York. Why? Because March 10 is the day before March 11. The company is scheduled to report fourth quarter results on March 11 after the close of the New York market and speculation today is that the company will announce major progress on the Phase 3 trial of custirsen, its drug for metastatic prostate cancer and for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The company recently announced that the trial had reached the specified number of events required for final analysis and that the results would be reported as soon as they are available. The speculation is that “as soon as they are available” means before the end of March. That’s a major change from 2013 when expectations were that the final results wouldn’t be released until the middle of 2014. After hitting a low at $6.70 a share on November 6, 2013, shares of OncoGenex have climbed 107%. They are still 12.7% below the $15.71 March 14, 2012 price where I added OncoGenex to my Jubak’s Picks portfolio https://jubakpicks.com/the-jubak-picks/ . But I think we’re looking at news on custirsen and the company’s second cancer drug apatorsen in 2014 that will finally move the stock to my $22 target price. The Phase 3 SYNERGY trial for custirsen is a big deal for OncoGenex since the drug represents a novel target for treating advanced prostate cancer. Success in this trial wouldn’t just give the company a substantial new drug but, more importantly, it would validate the company’s approach to cancer as a platform for developing other cancer drugs. It’s the potential for that platform that got Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) to sign on for potential milestone payments of $370 million. I expect to hear something from OncoGenex on its progress in reaching those milestones on March 11. I’m also expecting to hear some news on the Phase 2 trials for apatorsen in bladder cancer. The report on the results of those trials is likely for the second half of 2014. Speculation ahead of the fourth quarter report is that this will be the year that OncoGenex demonstrates the validity of its cancer platform. After the recent run up in the shares on that speculation, the danger is that the actual news could disappoint. I’d hold through any sell on the news dip as long as the reports on the custirsen trials are solidly positive. Full disclosure: I don’t own shares of any of the companies mentioned in this post in my personal portfolio. When in 2010 I started the mutual fund I manage, Jubak Global Equity Fund http://jubakfund.com/, I liquidated all my individual stock holdings and put the money into the fund. The fund may or may not now own positions in any stock mentioned in this post. The fund did not own shares of OncoGenex as of the end of December. For a full list of the stocks in the fund see the fund’s portfolio at http://jubakfund.com/about-the-fund/holdings/.