The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
I did see a lovely graph, but can’t find it. Anyway, a couple of links here:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.02.20120014v1
Median viral load at the initial sample collection was significantly higher in adults than in children and in symptomatic than in asymptomatic patients
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971220303374
The study findings demonstrated that although APs with COVID-19 have a lower viral load, they still have certain period of viral shedding, which suggests the possibility of transmission during their asymptomatic period
I think they would have been more specific if they didn’t. I read it that the affimers are successful anywhere in that range. If I asked you to pick a number within the range 1-100, what would you think?
I saw a chart of viral load over time for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients and those asymptomatic had about half the load. Can’t remember where I saw it I’m afraid.
" I would guess diagnosed patients carry higher viral loads than asymptomatic " I don't think this has to be true and it is one of the big questions still to be answered.
As far as testing goes - patients wouldn't need to be symptomatic within the assessment it is simply a question of measured viral load whether they appear / present as poorly or not. If you did miss it and are at all genuinely interested. Try Googling ICH Q8/Q9/Q10/Q11 you will find your answers (start in Q8) in the definitions of Quality by Design approaches and specifically Critical Quality Attributes as defined within the (Q)TPP. Avacta will have tested the ranges and extremes of those CQA's in all probability.
AIM is game. PROtraders know every trick of the trade
and get rich while investors live in hope. Nobody does care.
Life is not fair. The sharks on AIM love their killer game.
My concern was if the range of real values is between 10 and 100/then picking up values between 50-100 could be said to be within range as opposed to all values. I would guess diagnosed patients carry higher viral loads than asymptomatic but I'd need to google it
Apologies if I missed your previous post.
Yes - I already explained but as a green box you probably missed it
Quote "So, patients with COVID-19 show a range of concentration of the virus in their saliva and I’m pleased to say that the first attempt, which we announced this morning, the test strips are detecting these spike protein within that clinic development range."
Does this mean it is picking up patients at the lowest viral concentrations ?
continued " Q3: Now, you also recently announced that some of the Affimer reagents that you’ve developed which block the interaction between the virus spike protein and a human cell receptor have now been shown to prevent infection of human cells in a model coronavirus system. Could you explain that please?
A3: So, as you said, some of the Affimer reagents that we generate for diagnostic purposes, which is our focus, also block the interaction between the virus spike protein and a receptor on human cells called ACE2. The binding of the coronavirus spike protein to ACE2 is the first step in the virus infecting human cells so in principal, if you can prevent that interaction from occurring you’ve got the potential for a treatment for COVID-19.
Last week, working with Professor David Bhella’s group at Glasgow University Centre for Virus Research, using a model for the coronavirus, Avacta Group showed that if you treat the virus with the Affimer reagents then the virus is prevented from getting into human cells.
So, that’s a really interesting finding and there’s numerous large pharmaceutical companies now investing heavily in developing these types of, what we call, neutralising therapies. We’re working hard to secure a partnership to develop potential Affimer therapies for COVID-19."
FYI " Avacta Group Q&A: Positive results from first set of COVID-19 test strips (LON:AVCT)
Avacta Group plc (LON:AVCT) Chief Executive Officer Alistair Smith caught up with ************* for an exclusive interview to discuss progress of the COVID-19 antigen test strips, the next steps in development with Cytiva and how some of the Affimer reagents can prevent the virus from getting into human cells.
Q1: This morning you announced a positive progress update regarding the rapid COVID-19 antigen test development with Cytiva. Could you talk us through that update please?
A1: Just as a reminder, we are using Avacta Group’s Affimer reagents to develop a rapid test strip that intends to use saliva as the sample to detect the virus antigen. So, that’s a test that’s designed to tell you in a few minutes whether you’ve got the disease right now or not and not an antibody test that tells you whether you’ve had it for a while or in the past. So, that’s what we’re developing.
The announcement today was to update the market on positive results from the first set of test strips developed by Cytiva.
So, patients with COVID-19 show a range of concentration of the virus in their saliva and I’m pleased to say that the first attempt, which we announced this morning, the test strips are detecting these spike protein within that clinic development range.
Q2: So, what are the next steps in the development plan with Cytiva?
A2: This is a really good start, now our partners at Cytiva are working to refine and optimise all the different components of the test strips so we can detect the lowest possible concentration of the coronavirus spike protein in the samples. That’s important because it’s going to be a major factor in determining the clinical sensitivity of the test which is key obviously.
Once we’ve optimised the test strip then we’ll have a design that we can transfer to manufacturers who we’re putting in place at the moment. One of our biggest challenges right now is in compressing the normal diagnostic development timeline which could be 18 months or more and compressing that into a matter of weeks.
When we’ve put those manufacturing partners in place and we’ve agreed with them those development plans and timeline then we’ll be able to update the market more accurately."