Here's Something Markets Just Missed About Cellectar Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CLRB)

Cellectar Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ:CLRB) is a stock that we have looked at a number of occasions in the past and it is one that we have repeatedly highlighted as being one to keep an eye on in biotechnology space. The company has made a number of announcements over the last few months detailing various operational developments and building on the evidence we have put forward previously as supportive of this one gaining strength.Normally, we'd take a look at these developments and put forward our interpretation as to how they feed into our thesis going forward.Instead, however, today, we're going to take a look at this one from a slightly different angle – one that markets, as yet, seem to have missed. Daily chart CLRBThis angle is rooted in a just announced biotechnology development associated with two completely separate companies from Cellectar, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:JAZZ) and ImmunoGen, Inc. (NASDAQ:IMGN).ImmunoGen just announced that it and Jazz have come to an agreement whereby the latter will fund the research and development for three of the former's development stage drugs, an agreement that will see ImmunoGen get $75 million upfront and a further $100 million in potential opt-in payments as and when the deal matures.The root of the deal is a platform that ImmunoGen has developed and with which it can create what are called antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). These are drugs that use antibodies expressed by cancer cells as a marker for a drug to target the cells in question and deliver cancer killing compounds to them.it's a hot topic in the biotechnology sector right now, and has been for the last few years. These sorts of drugs are hailed as the next big thing in targeted cancer therapy and ImmunoGen has a platform that is able to essentially spit them out on demand.So where does Cellectar come into this?Cellectar's lead proprietary platform is able to produce an alternative to ADCs called phospholipid drug conjugates (PDC's). These are potentially superior to their ADC peers based on their potential for a more targeted delivery (and by proxy a more effective kill rate) and, a few weeks ago, Cellectar signed a deal with an entity called Avicenna that will see the two companies team up to try and prove this superiority.Avicenna will provide a payload and Cellectar will use its technology to turn the payload into a PDC drug. This drug will then be compared with previously designed ADC that uses the same payload provided by Avicenna. If the program demonstrates superiority, it will put Cellectar in line for the sort of collaboration agreements that ImmunoGen is signing left right and center. We are talking close to $200 million in committed funds (and that's just the latest ImmunoGen, Jazz deal), which, for reference, compares to Cellectar's current market capitalization of just $25 million.This is speculative, of course, and that has to be taken into consideration before picking up an exposure asked on this thesis alone. The company has its own development programs underway (most of which are early-stage right now) and these programs are going to cost money to advance. Further, the Avicenna deal will require injection of capital – something that Cellectar doesn't have a lot of right now. With this in mind, dilution is a real possibility between now and the just discussed program bearing fruit.That said, the program is successful and Cellectar is able to show that its PDCs are superior to ADCs when combined with the same payload, things should start moving quick enough to negate any dilution medium-term.Check out our previous coverage of this one here.We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on CLRB, sign up below!Image courtesy of NIAID via FlickrDisclosure: We have no position in CLRB and have not been compensated for this article.