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Meant to add, does anyone have a clue what they'll be doing with the new lab in Oxford? Assume it might be used by Samantha Patson and her team.

Burble,

I don't believe Covidity is using a LNP delivery system - aren't they waiting for a peptide delivery system to be developed by the University of Nottingham? Agree though, it would have been good to get an update on that side of things.

There was a discussion recently on advfn regarding the issues facing 2nd generation vaccine developers when it comes to clinical trials. As more and more of the population are vaccinated, where are the patients for the next round of clinical trials going to come from and why would anybody volunteer for an untested vaccine when they can have an already approved one?

The article below gives details of an important initiative from CEPI to find a solution to this problem. The plan is to gather and evaluate enough data through its centralised lab network to identify reliable biomarkers that can be used to predict efficacy and will be acceptable to the regulators in the absence of large randomised trials.

'CEPI is working with regulators, researchers, and manufacturers around the world to determine what immunological data will be necessary for regulatory review of future COVID-19 vaccine candidates.'

If successful this could actually mean a much quicker and cheaper clinical development path for future vaccines so worth keeping an eye out for any updates on progress from CEPI.

https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/importance-blood-markers-assessing-vaccine-efficacy

Balerno,

The only comment I have heard from Scancell regarding an unnamed partner was purely in relation to the manufacture of the vaccine and we now know that was Cobra.

Yep, what a year for Redx:-

'During the period, whilst navigating our way through various financial scenarios and the COVID-19 global pandemic, we made tangible progress on advancing our pipeline. Our Phase 1 oncology study with RXC004 continued in the clinic. We nominated RXC007 as a development candidate for fibrosis indications and this is now progressing towards the clinic next year. Additionally, we completed two significant business development deals. '

'have secured sufficient investment to further develop our pipeline with the addition of three well-established and well-funded investment partners, Redmile, Sofinnova Partners and Polar Capital.'

'cash balance of £48.2 million on 24 December'

In depth interview here with AstraZeneca CEO, Pascal Soriot with his take on the EU vaccine supply issues and the claims from German newspaper, Handelsblatt that the AZN vax only has 8% efficacy in the over 65s. Interesting read and gives a good insight into the manufacturing issues facing vaccine developers.

https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2021/01/26/news/interview_pascal_soriot_ceo_astrazeneca_coronavirus_covid_vaccines-284349628/

dave,

Think notification threshold for some overseas funds is 5%. As Sangijuelas1 mentioned, Angle's website still shows their previous holdings - 10,550,748 as at 1st Dec. So looks like they've added just under another million shares. Good stuff.

Another cracking update from Ergomed.

- Pharmacovigilance revenue up 56% and particularly pleasing to see this includes organic growth of 30%, so increase isn't just down to acquisitive growth.

- Total revenue growth of 26.5% to £86.4 m

- Order book up by a massive 53% to £190m

- Debt free and cash increased to just under £19m despite funding 2 acquisitions during the year

https://www.investegate.co.uk/ergomed-plc--ergo-/rns/ergomed-2020-trading-update/202101260700038391M/

'Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced that the company is discontinuing development of its SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccine candidates, V590 and V591..........

This decision follows Merck’s review of findings from Phase 1 clinical studies for the vaccines. In these studies, both V590 and V591 were generally well tolerated, but the immune responses were inferior to those seen following natural infection and those reported for other SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccines.'

https://www.merck.com/news/merck-discontinues-development-of-sars-cov-2-covid-19-vaccine-candidates-continues-development-of-two-investigational-therapeutic-candidates/

S1mms - thanks for the heads up

Both John Chiplin and Cliff Holloway are attending the LSX World Congress (virtual) in a couple of weeks. Looks like Cliff will be presenting in the Company Showcase section. Sean Marett from BioNTech is one of the main speakers.

https://www.lsxleaders.com/lsx-world-congress

Mahmas = financial year end is 31st Dec and annual report is due around March but we are also likely to get a trading update by the end of the month.

Pompal - thanks

Assume an update for 2020 is due any day now.

Another excellent RNS from Angle this morning. Worth noting that this was completely independent research, funded by Canadian prostate cancer charities and worth repeating their findings:-

' Pending FDA approval, the unique attributes of Parsortix® such as easy marker customization and he ability to harvest CTCs for downstream analysis will position Parsortix® as an ideal CTC platform for use in clinical trials and clinical management.'

'In summary, we believe that this Technical Note will be valuable for aiding researchers in decision-making regarding
which CTC platform is best for their specifc studies.'

Excellent RNS from Amryt this morning.

Approval from NICE for Myalepta is a major step forward in Amryt's European marketing strategy for this drug and means that they've now secured reimbursement in UK, Italy and Germany as well as the US, Japan and Turkey. Applications are being considered in several other European countries too, so hopefully more to come. Myalepta (called Myalept in the US) is the 5th most expensive drug in the world so every new reimbursement approval is significant.

'Myalept Produced by the international Amryt Pharma, Myalept treats generalized lipodystrophy, a condition that removes virtually all the fat from a person’s body affecting the production of leptins — a hormone in the small intestine that helps regulate energy levels and determines hunger. It comes in a powder form, and is meant to be mixed with sterile water for each dose. Just one of these doses costs $6,412 which, at the necessary 30 doses a month, adds up to $192,335.'

Possible/likely that NICE have secured a discount for the NHS, nevertheless the total cost of just under $200k above is each and every month and patients remain on treatment for years.

https://www.healthing.ca/pharma/the-worlds-10-most-expensive-drugs

Chelsea,

I did say the title of the application was 'Immunotherapy' but don't think I mentioned ImmunoBody. I haven't gone back to check though.

Ray,

I believe it may well be. I guess, part of the ongoing development of the Moditope platform is to continually screen for tumour associated citrullinated/homocitrullinated proteins as new targets. I believe the new patent application would probably fall into this category.

Who knows - the patents being filed now may become part of Modi4/5/6 one day. Whether they do or not, it's good to see - every target identified and protected adds to the overall IP portfolio and potentially to the valuation of any deal for the platform/company.

Meant to add that it shows there is much going on in the background and am really happy to see that work on Moditope continues apace - still IMO the most exciting of Scancell's platforms.

Chelsea,

Re. your 12.30, I believe that the new patent application is connected with Moditope.

Re. your 19.59 - have been tied up with other matters recently and haven't paid too much attention to SCLP trades so I really have no idea. Interims due shortly which may give a clearer picture on the pipeline, especially the situation re. SN14 delivery system.