Shield Thera Share News (STX)

(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Tuesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Shield Therapeutics PLC - Newcastle, England-based commercial-stage pharmaceutical company focused on iron deficiency product Accrufer - Says Canadian watchdog Health Canada backs Accrufer for treatment of adults with iron deficiency anemia. Shield adds: "This development allows Shield's partner, Kye Pharmaceuticals Inc, to launch Accrufer in Canada. Shield will be responsible for all manufacturing and supply to the Canadian market. In accordance with the collaborative agreement, Shield is now due to receive a GBP250,000 milestone payment. For the remaining term of the agreement, Shield will receive additional revenue-based milestone payments along with double-digit royalties on net sales of Accrufer."

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Diaceutics PLC - Belfast-based technology and solutions provider to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry - Hails launch of new offering focused on rare-diseases. "Driving this enhancement are 3 key developments within the Diaceutics business," it explains. These include a number of new rare-disease genomic lab data partners joining the Diaceutics network. It also updates its advanced lab labelling Natural Language Processing process. "This process enables complex labelling such as pathogenic vs variants of unknown significance variant calling which until now has proven challenging for the industry to identify," Diaceutics adds. In addition, it says it now has team of industry experts with "deep rare-disease experience to support biopharma business opportunities".

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RUA Life Sciences PLC - Glasgow-based holding company of multiple medical device businesses - Trading in four months to July 31 ahead of expectations, with total revenue of GBP800,000. Says firm orders on hand suggest revenue for half-year to September 30 topping GBP1.2 million, a rise from GBP794,000 on-year. RUA adds: "Costs remain tightly controlled and were significantly down on budget for the period and the board expects this, together with increased revenues, to lead to a much-reduced loss in comparison to the first half of last year. The company remains confident in achieving the market expectations for this financial year."

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Marula Mining PLC - London-based mining company with operations in Africa - Assays confirm high-grade zone of manganese ore at Kilifi asset in Kenya. "The assays results confirm the potential for the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Muchai Mining Kenya Limited, to process this high-grade manganese ore at the Kilifi Plant to either produce a dedicated high grade manganese product or blend with the lower to medium grade manganese ore, and produce a higher grade/higher value saleable final product," it adds.

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United Oil & Gas PLC - oil and gas exploration company with key assets in Jamaica and the UK - Responding to "rumours circulating in Jamaica", it says it has not drilled any wells in Walton Morant licence and therefore no commercial oil or gas discovery has been made. "United holds a 100% working interest and is currently engaged in a farm-out process. United's 2024 work programme is focused on conducting piston core sampling, which aims to detect any oil residue before considering future exploration drilling targets," it adds.

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Prospex Energy PLC - Europe-focused gas and power project investor - Seals buy of 7.5% of HEYCO Energy Iberia SL. HEYCO owns majority of Viura gas field in northern Spain. "The acquisition marks a further important step in the development of the company's strategy to become a mid-tier independent European energy producing group," Prospex adds. HEYCO Energy Group Inc, the majority owner of HEYCO Energy Iberia, confirmed the deal earlier in August after receiving USD4.3 million from Prospex. Prospex Chief Executive Officer Mark Routh says: "I am extremely pleased to have closed the Viura transaction with HEYCO Energy which is a highly respected and competent operator in Spain. This acquisition has increased gas production and our booked gas reserves, with the potential for further upside from the very large remaining resources we have modelled in this very large gas field."

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Goldplat PLC - gold miner and producer with recovery operations in Ghana and South Africa - Recovery operations located in South Africa and Ghana achieve combined operating profit in fourth-quarter of 2024 of GBP4.4 million, a sharp rise on-year from GBP1.2 million. The operations achieve combined pretax profit of GBP3.0 million, compared with loss of GBP589,000 a year prior.

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Time Finance PLC - finance provider to small and medium businesses - Backed as accredited lending partner under UK government's growth guarantee scheme. GGS is a successor programme to recovery loan scheme and coronavirus business interruption scheme. Time Finance was accredited lending partner of both.

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Malvern International PLC - London-based learning and skills development company, which provides university pathway programmes, English language training, and teaching courses - Expects to report 22% rise in underlying revenue in first half of 2024 to GBP5.1 million from GBP4.2 million. Figure does not include agent commission. Expects slight underlying operating profit drop to GBP400,000 from GBP500,000. "After successfully completing the leap from a loss-making operation to a profitable business in 2023, management has ramped up strategic investment in people, travel and marketing activities in 2024. This spend is targeted at accelerating revenue and profit growth and business development across all divisions. Return on this investment will be seen from 2025 onwards. Further details will be outlined in the interim accounts in September 2024," Malvern adds.

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By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor

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