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Good grief

So easy to become a bit blasé when another RNS appears with yet more research involving Parsortix but the findings regarding the ability to identify changes in HER2 status could be important for future commercialisation.

Link to the research is below and particularly like this paragraph:-

'One challenge to process aliquots of DLA-samples is their high content of white blood cells (WBCs), which is normally beyond the separation capacities of most CTC-isolation devices. The label-free microfluidic ParsortixTM platform has been developed to separates CTCs by size and deformability while keeping CTCs viable [16] and has the ability to process blood volumes larger than 7.5 mL. We, therefore, selected this method to develop a robust, cost-effective workflow for enrichment of CTCs from DLA-products by combining ParsortixTM with single cell micro-manipulation using the CellCelectorTM'

https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/11/7/903/htm

Strong trading update from Ergomed this morning with both revenue and EBITDA for the year projected to be ahead of current market expectations:-

- H1 unaudited revenue up 36% to £35m
- CRO revenue up 40%
- PV revenue up 32%
- Strong new business sales for H1

Also the announcement of further strengthening of the BOD with the appointment of ex BTG CFO, Rolf Soderstrom

Haven't a clue - if so they'll have to notify the market. Would be just as interesting to know where the stock is coming from.

No, hadn't looked, thanks for the heads up.

Gresham House have acquired just under 2 million shares in Ergomed, split between their UK Micro Cap and UK Smaller Companies Funds. They have bought the stock on behalf of their clients and so don't directly own the voting rights attached to the shares, only indirectly through management of the fund. Hope that makes sense.

We now know the reason for the large trades and good to see 2 institutions building significant holdings.

Unfortunately not a holder here but wow, fantastic deal for SLN - well done to them and to all holders.

Sushifishman - yes there was an RNS this morning. For some reason it doesn't appear to be showing on this site but link is below.

https://investegate.co.uk/ergomed-plc--ergo-/rns/holdings-in-company/201907180700099006F/

TR1 this morning accounts for a good chunk of it. Christopher Mills' Oryx International Growth Fund spending about £2.6m to increase their position by approx. 970,000 shares.

The process of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is where epithelial cells change to more invasive mesenchymal cells and is associated with cancer metastasis. Circulating tumour cells can be either epithelial or mesenchymal and Parsortix can pick up both.

A major limitation with CellSearch is that it's an antibody based system which uses antibodies to identify and capture CTCs expressing the EpCAM antigen (epithelial cell adhesion molecule). This means that it will miss mesenchymal cells completely and also may miss any epithelial cells with low EpCAM expression. You can change/add other antibodies to target different antigens but you have to know what you're looking for, ie. know in advance the antigens for every CTC in that patient's blood which is clearly not possible.

In short, unlike Parsortix, antibody based CTC liquid biopsy systems are only going to capture circulating tumour cells that express a sufficient level of the antigen targeted and will miss the rest.

sorry, ignore last sentence - too boring to go into the differences between the systems.

researcher,

CellSearch were the only CTC liquid biopsy system to have received FDA approval (not sure if that's still the case) but approval was purely for capture and counting CTCs as their presence is linked to a poor prognosis. Angle hope that Parsortix will be the first ever system to receive FDA approval for capture and subsequent analysis of CTCs.

The drawback with CellSearch is that it's an

A new clinical trial involving Parsortix has been added to the Clinical Trials register today. The sponsor is the Canadian Lawson Health Research Institute and the trial is a direct head to head comparison between Parsortix and CellSearch in prostate cancer.

They're investigating the impact of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition on CTC capture rate. One of the advantages of Parsortix is that it can capture both epithelial and mesenchymal CTCs whereas CellSearch only captures epithelial cells.

Https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04021394?term=parsortix&rank=2

We now know that Conifer Management contributed the lion's share of the US funds from the recent raise. Approximately 12m shares (6.96%) costing just under £7.4m. Interestingly, principal of Conifer Management is Greg Alexander.

Worth checking out linkedin and googling, an impressive and big name and seemingly a favourite of Warren Buffett:-

'But secondly, there is another great investor at Ruane, and that is Greg Alexander. Those who attend the Sequoia annual meetings see Greg, because he is regularly introduced, even though he is a separate profit center at Ruane and he and his team have nothing to do with Sequoia Fund. However, Bruce Greenwald of Columbia, in a Value Walk interview in June of 2010 said Buffett had indicated there were three people he would like to have manage his money after he died (this was before the index fund comment). One of them was Seth Klarman at Baupost. Li Lu who manages Charlie Munger’s money was a second, and Greg Alexander at Ruane was the third. Greg has been at Ruane since 1985 and his partnerships have been unique'

Great news that he has decided to take a position in Angle.

Excellent news!

Market cap of just £8m and deal with Jazz Pharmaceuticals worth over $200m. Upfront payment of $3.5 million and milestones of up to $203m. Worth noting that there are near term milestones with both IND enabling studies and IND submission triggering payments. Moreover, Jazz are paying REDX to carry out the preclinical development.

Good stuff.

Yesterday, somebody from the VAL bb sent me a private message. Unfortunately, only premium members on lse can pick up private messages so I'm unable to read it. If you post on advfn you can dm me there -Bermudashorts

ValJu - yep fair enough, I'll leave you to it.

ValJu,

Not sure whether that post was directed at me or not, if so, I think you need to read my posts again. There was no intention to berate the BOD or the products.

Marmited,

Unfortunately VAL have released so little information regarding the current trial that it doesn't make it easy for investors to draw any conclusions, we don't even know how many patients have been treated.

I wouldn't get too hung up on what you call a trial, whether it's a phase I, IIa, IIb or III, whether it's a completely fresh trial or an extension of an existing trial - it doesn't really matter. The point is that once they have finally established the optimised dosing regime, they will then need to run another proof of concept, efficacy trial with this new dose. This will most likely be a small, open label, single arm trial. Most people would call it a phase IIa.

My understanding from the wording of the RNS is that VAL will run this trial and hope that the results will attract a partner who will then obviously need to run larger, randomised trials with a view to seeking marketing approval. I'd be surprised if a partner went straight into a phase III but it's sort of academic at this stage.

I hope that helps and just to be clear, although I have spent a good deal of time researching VAL, I'm not invested.

Marmited,

This is the salient paragraph from VAL's RNS of 20th June:-

'Additionally, the amendment relating to dosing strategies means that, in light of accumulated clinical data, the Company is able to develop further protocols. These will be designed to evaluate a range of defined therapeutic approaches that are to be tested against each other, to determine the most effective approach, in terms of disease management, cost effectiveness and patient welfare, in further clinical trials. These protocols will be the precursor to seeking approval to conduct trials aimed at gaining sufficient data to secure partnering and then Market Approval Application.'

In other words, Valirx will be taking what they have learned from the existing VAL201 trial and try to come up with the best dosing regime in terms of level, frequency and duration. They will then need to apply for regulatory approval to carry out further clinical trials with the optimised dosing regime.

It's unfortunate that they are still at the stage of optimising dose but that is the nature of the beast. Clinical trials are designed to highlight unpredictable events and the VAL201 trial has done its job. It picked up that the drug concentration levels in human tissue are much higher than their preclinical research suggested and on the positive side it also highlighted that these higher levels didn't appear to result in any harm to patients.