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Coffee always a good idea.
I note two v large trade reports at exactly the same times on the same day over at RENE…

“That $800 million buyout of Nightstar has turned into a bust for Biogen as the lead therapy in the deal failed a pivotal study, signaling a severe setback for the biotech’s ambitions in gene therapies.

The big biotech put out the word after the market closed on Monday that the gene therapy they picked up in the deal for a degenerative blindness called choroideremia failed the Phase III study, just a month after their #2 drug in the deal also flopped in a mid-stage study.

We don’t have the data yet on timrepigene emparvovec, but Biogen $BIIB left little to the imagination. The treatment failed the primary endpoint — proportion of participants with a =15 letter improvement from baseline in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at Month 12 — as well as all key secondaries. Biogen execs say they’re studying the results now, but a salvage operation looks unlikely.

Katherine Dawson, head of the Therapeutics Development Unit at Biogen, took a stoic stand in her prepared statement.

While we are disappointed by the results of the STAR study, we are hopeful that the clinical insights gleaned from this study may help to shape therapeutic innovation for inherited retinal diseases including choroideremia, so that in the future there may be treatment options for the community affected by these debilitating disorders.
As Jason Mast reported several weeks ago, their Nightstar therapy for a rare and progressive form of blindness called X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP) “failed to sufficiently improve vision in patients’ treated eye — patients only received an injection in one eye — after a year, on a standard scale, compared to their untreated eye.” But there was some hope for a comeback. “The company said they saw ‘positive trends’ on several secondary endpoints, including visual acuity, but declined to say whether the trial actually hit any of those endpoints.”

https://endpts.com/biogen-signals-a-big-phiii-failure-as-the-lead-gene-therapy-in-their-800m-nightstar-buyout-goes-down-in-flames/

Clearly a big disappointment to patient groups but, assuming the patient eye infection issue is indeed a one-off, we have fewer horses in the race against us than we did. Perhaps even more importantly gene therapy, which was like cat nip to big pharma/biotech, is more problematic than the industry wanted to believe. We are the science equivalent of flairs or wide lapels. Our tech has been out of fashion but perhaps not for much longer….

From endpoints. Our North American license partner is on the naughty step again. Nothing directly related to DNL product but ‘sub optimal’ if Eton’s image/reputation is tarnished with medics and its reps find it harder to get in the door to sell.
“For the second time in three years, Eton Pharmaceuticals has received a complete response letter from the FDA, this time for its dehydrated alcohol injection to treat methanol poisoning. The company blamed the delay on a missing inspection but also pointed to “other questions” from the agency.

On Friday, Eton disclosed it had received a letter from the agency, tying it to a pending pre-approval inspection of its European manufacturer due to Covid-related travel restrictions. But it’s worth noting that the FDA doesn’t issue CRLs based solely on inspection delays, an agency spokesman previously told Endpoints News, indicating there may have been other issues with Eton’s application.

“The company believes all other FDA questions raised in the letter can be fully addressed in a response in the coming months,” the company said in a release. A spokesman could not be reached at press time.

Chaps, I think you’re off the mark. These comp packages are typical middle ranking salary packages that you’d see in any city law firm or banking corporate finance department. Without highly sophisticated and experienced deal makers this company is worthless. I doubt you realise the skill and work behind the scenes to bring in the lithium deal, for e.g..
Give them another year /18 months and judge them then. If this company was a widget maker in S****horpe, you’d think nothing of two or three hundred grand being invested in shiny new equipment. Well, we’re investing in human capital so you’re going to have to get used to punchy compensation packages to incentivise top talent, or you’ll chose to move on.

It’s a blood bath in the Nasdaq biotech index at the moment. We’re bound to feel a slight chill as a result. An issue for traders but not investors...all still good here in my view.

A very large uncrossing trade... - 12mn. That moves the dial a tad.
Agreed that the update is something to look forward to. Nasdaq de risking pressure and some kind of contagion effect on PRTC is the only real short term threat.

Only point I’d make is that the Nasdaq biotech index has been hammered over the last few weeks, with many stocks down 30% plus.
I think it’s just a general de-grossing of the portfolio to raise cash levels and try to stay in control if things were to get out of control in the US. DNL is illiquid and to risk manage the portfolio the manager keeps an eye on ‘days to liquidate’ related metrics. Basically, it’s a very bad look to end up too long of stuff that will take many months to sell down. It says NOTHING about the EMA news we are waiting for.

Any mention on the call of target assets or M&A, Bronx?
After the institutional raise, I also think the market wants to see what Joe does with the proceeds before it commits to re-rating us to where we should be....

You raise a great question. Given that his proposed fund will have no retail element, I think there’s a strong possibility that he’d be keen to be back in Rene and other names he knows so well (no retail means he doesn’t have to care about retail investor / media frustrations in him buying back into old WPCT names).
Rene was an early /classic example of Woodford’s patient capital approach when he was at Invesco.
To watch Rene as it’s about to mature and not have exposure to it would be painful for him.
Although Woodford hurt a lot of us, he was one of only a handful of investors who propped up U.K. biotech and innovation for many years. That doesn’t clean the slate perhaps, but it is an inconvenient truth...

Encouraging- from the renishaw half year results ...non covid activity starting again - as it must.

“We have seen growth in our neurological product line and good growth in our spectroscopy product line which has seen a recovery in Raman spectrometer investment across all our regions, plus increasing adoption of the Virsa™ Raman Analyzer which was launched during FY 2019/20. We are also seeing that those surgeries and procedures that were delayed due to the pandemic have started to be rescheduled.“

take a look at ACT for an example of front-end/customer driven feedback technology - in broadband at least....

Unequivocally bullish for Xeros.
Griffiths is one of the most aggressive, well-informed and successful micro cap traders in the U.K. market.
Let’s see what news flow is coming our way this quarter.
Investors trying to play the global water theme find it difficult because global water stocks are expensive and/or water-related technologies are frequently part of large conglomerates or utilities (e.g. suez, veoila).
Xeros is a very clever way to leverage the theme in a portfolio. This recently restructured asset-lite company has a long way to go. The forced sales of the Woodford era have created an exciting lay-up opportunity for investors, in my view.

It has been referred to in previous RNS but it’s clearly got to the point where it has significant strategic value and focus. The pre-clinical data they already have has made them increasingly confident.
For investors there are two shots at goal here: the peanut allergy market is the headline act, but global recognition for expertise in VLP delivery in the broader area of immunotherapy, covering lots of additional markets, would be, arguably, more important and worth billions.

Today’s RNS is the most significant in years for AGY, in my opinion.
Effectively, they’re building a compelling, very high quality data pack around a short course of up to three injections to give life long tolerance to peanut.
The market is huge and peanut allergy plays in the US have been valued in the many hundreds of millions, if not billions of US$.
Of course, no one ever looks at AGY these days so this news is easily overlooked...

As things take off, they may have some working capital pressures, I agree. A quality problem to have but one all the same. I actually think their days of coming back to the AIM market are already over, however. There’s been so much progress - with the aerospace news ahead of us, that these guys will be able to fund via a strategic industry investor and/or an institution.
In short, if you think you’ll be able to participate in a placing a lot lower than here, I think you’re taking a big risk of missing out.
The market cap is still a far too low....

This has just been published by the FDA this evening. It's a reminder of the size of the opportunity in just one of TRX's assets, OrthoPure, as we move from European to add full US approval, too. As someone observed recently on this chat - Patience is KEY.

FDA Authorizes Marketing of New Implant to Repair a Torn ACL

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted marketing authorization—under the De Novo premarket review pathway—for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) implant, intended to serve as an alternative to ACL reconstruction to treat ACL tears. The device, the Bridge-Enhanced ACL Repair (BEAR) Implant, unlike traditional reconstruction, does not require the use of harvested tendons for ACL repair and is the only currently- available alternative to reconstruction with allograft, autograft or suture-only repair for the treatment of ACL rupture.

“Torn ACLs are among the most common knee injuries in the U.S., but for years, treatment has been limited to ACL reconstruction, which can be quite invasive and typically requires using tendon or a combination of tendon and bone from other parts of the body, or obtained from a tissue bank, to complete the reconstruction,” said Capt. Raquel Peat, Ph.D., MPH, USPHS, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health’s Office of Orthopedic Devices, “Today’s marketing authorization provides new options for the hundreds of thousands of people affected by ACL rupture in the U.S. each year.”

The ACL, a ligament stretching from the front to the back of the knee, aids in keeping the knee stable. Despite being a very common injury, until today, the only surgical treatment available for...

The LSE’s machine redacted the name in my previous post. I hadn’t thought of them as competition to LSE. Fair-enough.
Anyway, take a look at ACT’s Twi**er account and website.

There’s a good interview with Dave Page on ************* this morning...Some visibility on potential revenue growth, etc...All v encouraging...

Consolidation just refers to the start of a share buy back program and/or the cancelling of shares held in treasury...all good.