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Wild,

Yep Vulpes taking some profit - they've done it before and let's hope they get the opportunity to do it again. Institutional investors must be very happy atm and that can only be a good thing.

Crumbs,

Re. your 16.06 - not quite right. This is what I actually posted about HCTs back in July and remembering how little we knew about the virus back then, seems fair enough:-

Bermudashorts

Posted in: SCLP

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Price: 5.30

No Opinion

RE: Human challenge 'volunteers'16 Jul 2020 19:19
jsand,

I don't think there'll be a shortage of volunteers for challenge trials - over 300,000 people have already registered with 1DaySooner but they may still be a while off, here's just some of the issues:-

1) We still don't know enough to risk injecting live virus into healthy people.

2) To make it safer, the suggestion is to use a weakened form of the virus. If that's the case, how valuable will the results be? How can you be sure that the vaccine being tested would still offer protection against a more potent viral load?

3) Most likely only young adults would be allowed to take part, but that won't tell you how the vaccine performs in those who really need it ie. the elderly and vulnerable.

4) You'll still need to test any vaccine in tens of thousands of patients for safety.

So challenge trials wont replace phase III trials but they could give earlier indications of efficacy and shorten the timelines to approval. Another huge benefit would be the ability to identify vaccines that don't work at an earlier stage thereby allowing resources and funding to be redirected to those that do.

It's possible, some think even probable that they will come and there seems to be a growing body of experts pushing hard for them to start. Anything that can safely speed up the development process and reduce overall costs has to be a good thing but not sure whether we're there just yet.

LL,

Re. your 15.23, sorry I'm not with you. Scancell are fully funded, there is no rights issue.

This is a sale by the Vulpes Fund, not Martin Diggle. We have been notified due to Diggle's connection to the fund but it's important to be clear, the shares sold were held by Vulpes, not Diggle.

Nice find, thanks for posting.

Worth remembering that the aim of cRUK's CDD is to bring breakthrough drugs to patients sooner by developing drugs that its partners are unable to take forward themselves due to lack of resources. That was certainly the case for SCIB2 when the CRUK was originally struck but is no longer the case today and it's probably hard to justify using CRUK funds to develop SCIB2 when Scancell have just raised £55m.

This may already have been posted, but Prof. Janet Daly discusses the Scancell vaccine with BBC Nottingham at about 24 minutes in link below.

A couple of points of note. Firstly, she confirms that it's almost ready to go into patients now and that the platform has potential to be used for other viruses too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p095tbt1

Yes, for occasions such as the issue of CLNs, warrants or maybe employee share schemes, the Company can apply to have a whole block of shares admitted to AIM in advance rather than having to apply for admission each and every time a tranche is issued/converted.

Konar,

Correct, a regulatory requirement to issue 6 monthly updates on block listings - the block listing here being the unallotted shares covering the CLNs issued to Vulpes (£1m) and Redmile (£6m) as part of the first round of funding involving Redmile. As you can see, it reflects the conversion by Vulpes of all their CLNs and the £3.25m conversion by Redmile with just over 27m of the original 96.7m shares now left to be issued.

A bitter blow for sickle cell disease sufferers today with the announcement from Bluebird Bio that they have suspended their phase I/II and phase III trials for their gene therapy LentiGlobin after 2 patients have been diagnosed with cancer. They are investigating whether the lentviral vector used may be the cause. Hopefully it will transpire that these cases weren't treatment related and the trials will resume but this comment is interesting:-

'The new cancer cases, however, will refocus attention on a possible cancer risk inherent with Bluebird’s gene therapy — and also raise concerns for any gene therapy company that uses re-engineered lentiviruses as part of its treatments.'

Amryt of course have gone down the route of using HPAE - a synthetic polymer to deliver their EB gene therapy AP103 and from outset have highlighted the potential safety advantages this brings over other EB gene therapies using lentiviral vectors.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/16/bluebird-suspends-studies-of-sickle-cell-gene-therapy-following-cancer-diagnoses-in-two-more-treated-patients/

I understand that the publicity was nothing to do with David Evans this time . Assume it was down to CH and LD, so as previously posted, credit where credit is due and all that..............

TF - thanks for that.

WTP - no, that particular patent is for a new Moditope target but there may well be a patent awaiting publication which has been filed by UoN.

Sorry, forgot to add that Continuum are also opening new labs in Oxford's Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. Perhaps this is where Scancell's new labs will also be sited.

https://www.continuumlifesciences.com/continuum-announce-new-laboratory-in-oxford/

Have been out all day and just catching up. Saw a couple of posts re. the Continuum tweet about 'exciting developments expected soon' and speculation as to whether or nor this could involve Scancell. Not sure it takes us much further but the following is taken from Continuum's brochure and explains Lindy Durrant's contribution to the consortium:-

'Research focus: Identification of novel TCRs (T-cell receptors) and vaccine epitopes for the treatment of cancer patients from long term cancer survivors. Lindy Durrant is Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Nottingham. In 2019 she was awarded the Waldenstrom prize for Cancer Immunotherapy.

“We have identified some unique TCR clones from CLTS which recognise key tumour targets. There are no previous reports of T cells to these antigens, so they represent a significant step forward in immunotherapy. They also identify unique epitopes that can be used for cancer vaccines.”'

Make of that what you will.

botski,

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out now.

1) It may simply be that Scancell are seizing the moment and there's no doubt they've timed this perfectly. There's now a much greater awareness of the risk of mutation and that 1st gen vaccines in their current form aren't the final solution. I'm not sure the same coverage even a month ago would have resonated with so many or generated so much interest - timing is everything.

2) It may also be that they're now nearing the end of preclinical development, have finalised the delivery method and are pushing ahead with manufacture. If so, hopefully the next news will be that they've submitted to the MHRA for CTA and are gearing up for what should be a fairly short and sweet phase I trial. Not sure whether they'll need to do a dose escalation study but if you look at other phase I trials, the patient numbers don't need to be massive.

I think it would be raising expectations too high to go beyond no. 2 - but that in itself would be a fabulous achievement and should be more than enough for investors for now. Either way, credit where credit is due - well done to Cliff Holloway and Lindy Durrant for some excellent PR.

Ivy,

Yes and this too:-

'The vaccine is due to start early-stage clinical trials later this spring, funded by Innovate UK'

'Alexandra Brownfield, the company's business development director, said the vaccine is "grown" inside cells in a bio-reactor. Just 50 litres of a soup of cells and nutrients can produce "a few thousand doses" over four to six weeks.'

botski,

Completely agree. I assume the most likely development path here would be to run a phase I/IIa safety trial and then look for a partner. The phase I would just be an open label, single arm trial in healthy patients and should be quick and relatively inexpensive. Although its primary purpose would be to demonstrate that Covidity is safe, it would also give valuable data around the immune response generated. If the results are as good as expected, it would be the best way of attracting a partner and maximising the potential valuation.

I'm hoping the next news re. Covidity is that manufacture is underway and then CTA approval has been given. Publication of some preclinical results would be good too.

Crumbs,

In answer to your 17.45, sorry I don't know. I believe the cost to manufacture the last batch of SCIB1 was between £500k and £1m but whether you can draw any conclusions from that re. the cost of Covidity is another matter.

Yes so apparently Cobra is already manufacturing and trial is due to start in weeks. Good to see the supportive comments from Prof. Danny Altman from Imperial.

Crumbs

Posts crossed and agree, can't see any scenario whereby a pharma would invest hundreds of millions of pounds in Scancell to allow them to develop Covidity.

nom

There shouldn't be the need for any dilution if Scancell partner up to develop Covidity.

The whole reason for partnering is that Scancell simply don't have the required resources, infrastructure or specialist expertise to take Covidity through the clinical development process, to secure regulatory approval or to commercialise it. So the most likely route forward is a simple licensing deal with a large pharma.