Ryan Mee, CEO of Fulcrum Metals, reviews FY23 and progress on the Gold Tailings Hub in Canada. Watch the video here.
Taken from seekingalpha.com Summary Shares are up over 50% since my last writeup on the company. Major milestone achieved with positive pivotal data for fruquintinib in third-line colorectal cancer. Four ongoing pivotal trials and four to be initiated this year. Four early stage studies to report data later this year, providing potential near term upside. Risks include disappointing data and a slowdown of China's economy, while near term dilution appears off the table. Shares of Hutchison China Meditech (NASDAQ:HCM), also known as Chi-Med, have risen over 50% since my writeup in September last year. HCM Chart HCM data by YCharts In the prior article I explained why this company is a unique biotech core buy offering both a deep clinical pipeline and China exposure for investors' portfolios. Between a sales team of over 3,200 employees and 1,900 medical professionals in charge of the company's prescription drug business, eight clinical candidates being pushed forward by a 290 person research and development team, and a validating partnership with pharma giant AstraZeneca as its exclusive first tier distributor in China, it was my opinion that the market was offering investors a bargain that would not last long. While it's true that many Chinese companies trade at discounts to their American or European peers due higher instances of fraud and other concerns, I felt in this case that the "China discount" was overdone. My focus now is on how the thesis has changed and what investors should do at this point, as well as readers who are potentially interested in the story. At a market capitalization of around $2.4 billion, the company reported $173.7 million of cash as of December 31st. Revenue for the full year grew 21% to $216.1 million, while net income grew 46% to $11.7 million. Research and development expenses increased a decent bit from $55.8 million in 2015 to $76.1 million in 2016. Ten times revenue might appear very expensive for a commercial entity, but we must keep in mind this is a clinical stage biotech with several promising late stage assets that happens to also have a prescription drug business. If and when some of these assets reach approval, it is my opinion that the stock will look cheap in retrospect.
The attraction to Chi-Med lies with the new drugs pipeline and global pharma partnerships. With 30 active clinical trials and a chunk of money in the bank, we think there's scope for further share price gains here. Buy. Last IC View: Buy, 2,460p, 8 Mar 2017
From Petro Global News 24 Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Hutchison China MediTech Ltd – by 49.9% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 624,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,457,000 after buying an additional 208,006 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC raised its stake in Hutchison China MediTech Ltd – by 41.0% in the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 1,842,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,997,000 after buying an additional 535,618 shares in the last quarter. GRATRY & Co LLC purchased a new stake in Hutchison China MediTech Ltd – during the second quarter worth approximately $157,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its stake in Hutchison China MediTech Ltd – by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 153,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,086,000 after buying an additional 777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Matthews International Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Hutchison China MediTech Ltd – during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,376,000. 3.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Dr Mike Mitchell, an analyst at broker Panmure Gordon, thinks they can go further: "We believe the business has started to demonstrate the quality of its strategy and ability to execute in one of the most challenging areas of medicine with some potentially transformational programmes, covering 8 drug candidates now in 30 active clinical trials. "With today's announcement, we consider our investment thesis for Hutchison China MediTech not only affirmed but also reinforced," he says. Still rating Chi-Med shares a 'buy', Mitchell ramps up his price target by 9% from 2,656p to 2,900p, which, if reached, would be a record high.
Simon To, Chairman of Chi-Med, said, "Well over a decade of effort and investment has now paid-off with these compelling Phase III top-line results. They reinforce fruquintinib's potential to address major unmet clinical needs for patients in both China and around the world. They also open the way to our submitting a NDA on fruquintinib around the middle of this year." "The success of the FRESCO trial is an important milestone not just for CRC patients and Chi-Med, but also for Chinese innovation," he added. "We believe this is one of the first home-grown, China-discovered and developed, mainstream innovation in the field of oncology to succeed in a pivotal Phase III registration trial. It shows that China has the resources, capability and perseverance to emerge as an innovator in the global oncology field. With eight small molecule drug candidates in over 30 clinical studies worldwide, Chi-Med is at the forefront of this important evolution."
Mentioned in today's IC. But there are those who remain convinced that combination therapy will work. Aim-traded group Hutchison China Meditech (HCM) specifically targets drug candidates that it knows will work well in conjunction with other drugs either already on the market or in development. For example, its lung cancer drug, Savolitinib, is currently being trialled with AstraZeneca's drug Tagrisso. Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson agrees that this is the way forward for cancer care and it is in combination therapies that pharma companies will make their real fortunes.
Moljen. Good luck to you and all remaining holders. Hope you've made the correct decision and make money here. It will need some positive news to entice me in again, until then, I suspect this will drift back a bit more. Adios.
Interpret it as you like, still only just over 1% of his total number of shares held, and indeed current value of his holding, no matter how you like to dress it up. Need more directors to buy and more positive news for it to have any significance. I won't get sucked in, plenty of other shares to invest in that are in a better place with lower risk.
Hutchison China MediTech (LON:HCM, 2,137.50p) – HMPL-453 is a novel, highly selective and potent small molecule inhibitor targeting fibroblast growth factor receptor ('FGFR'). FGFRs are a sub-family of receptor tyrosine kinases. Activation of FGFR signaling pathways is central to several biological processes, including angiogenesis, tissue growth and repair. Given its complexity and critical role in a number of important physiological processes, aberrant FGFR signaling has been found to be a driving force in tumor growth, promotion of angiogenesis, as well as, conferring resistance to anti-tumor therapies. There are currently no approved therapies specifically targeting the FGFR signaling pathway. On a separate news, Chi-Med also announced that the Group and its partner, AstraZeneca, will present data from the ongoing Phase II clinical trial of savolitinib in patients with papillary renal cell carcinoma at the 2017 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. Chi-Med will announce final results for the FY2016 on 13 March Our view: The announcement follows positive pre-clinical studies which demonstrated greater potency and better kinase selectivity against other drugs in the same class, along with a good safety profile. The Phase I clinical trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and preliminary anti-tumor activity of HMPL-453, in patients with advanced or metastatic solid malignancies, who have failed or are unable to tolerate standard therapies or for whom no standard therapy exists. HMPL-453 was also found to have low likelihood of drug-to-drug interaction issues and the Group currently retain all rights to HMPL-453 worldwide. The presentation for savolitinib at the 2017 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium with AstraZeneca is also a positive news. Savolitinib is a highly selective inhibitor of c-Met receptor tyrosine kinase, and has shown early clinical benefit in multiple Phase I and II studies for a number of cancers. The Group has also confirmed that Chi-Med and AstraZeneca are currently initiating a global pivotal Phase III trial, the first pivotal study ever conducted in c-Met-driven PRCC and the first molecularly selected trial in RCC. We are encouraged by the Group's progress. Chi-Med is currently enrolling patients in 25 clinical trials around the world, including 4 pivotal Phase III studies the first of which, Fruquintinib in third-line colorectal cancer, will report top-line results early in 2017. For the FY2016 financial result, the Group already provided guidance with its interims, where it stated consolidated revenues should be in the range of US$190m-US$205m with net income attributable to Chi-Med in the range US$NIL-US$5m. The balance sheet of Chi-Med is expected to be enhanced following and compensation payment from the Shanghai government to its JV, which Chi-Med will book as an estimated one-time gain on the transaction of US$38.2m in the Q4 2016. Beaufort reiterates its Buy recommendation on the shares.
Taken from proactive Hutchison China MediTech Limited (LON:HCM, NASDAQ:HCM) has launched a phase I clinical trial in Australia of a drug that takes a completely new approach to tackling cancer. HMPL-453 targets fibroblast growth factor receptors. These are central to several biological processes including the formation of blood vessels that supply tumours (a process called angiogenesis) as well as tissue growth and repair. It is also thought the new drug, which is a small molecule, chemical entity rather than a harder-to-develop biologic, could prevent drug resistance. It is a “sub-family” of the new breed of tyrosine kinases, which potentially provide an ‘on-off switch’ for cancer. Chi-Med will look at the safety and how well tolerated the drug is while escalating the dosage. HMPL-453 is being administered to cancer patients where treatment options have run out, so researchers will look for signs of efficacy too. In pre-clinical studies, it was more potent and selective in the pathways targeted than other drugs in its class. It also had a favourable safety profile.