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Open Orphan
Open Orphan (AIM:ORPH) hit the headlines earlier this year when it worked with the UK government’s vaccines task force to organise the first Covid human challenge trial, in which some 90 volunteers were deliberately inoculated under carefully controlled conditions with a version of the virus to test its impact on the immunity system.
The company signed a £3m contract with Imperial College London in May as part of a Wellcome Trust funded initiative to manufacture a Covid challenge virus. But Open Orphan’s ambitions extend beyond Covid, to developing treatments for the wider infectious diseases pharmaceuticals market. The pandemic has highlighted decades long neglect of investment in fresh treatments for continually evolving respiratory and infectious diseases like the common cold and influenza. Governments and pharmaceutical companies across the world are now sinking billions into new drugs generating a market forecast to grow from $20bn in 2019 to $250bn by 2025. Open Orphan is developing a growing range of human challenge trial services that now encompass Covid, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), influenza, asthma, human Rhinovirus hRV, and malaria.
The company owns Venn Life Sciences, a drug development, clinical trial design and execution consultancy, and hVIVO, which conducts challenge studies for several respiratory viruses. It has clinics and screening centres in London and Manchester that allow it to screen more than 500 volunteers each week.
Open Orphan’s financial fortunes soared in 2020, allowing it to record Q4 revenues of £22m, up from £3.5m for the previous year. This year it has continued to make progress in pursuit of its aim of winning new and repeat contracts with leading pharmaceutical companies, including an £8.1m agreement for asthma challenge tests, a £5.7m agreement for testing influenza antiviral therapeutics, and a renewed £1.5m contract with a Big Pharma client to provide dedicated clinical pharmacokinetics support for an array of drug development programmes. Earlier this month the company signed a £5m influenza human challenge study contract with a client developing an antiviral drug for protection against respiratory viral infections.
Open Orphan’s most recent interims reported revenue of £21.9m, up from £6.4m in H1 2020, and an EBITDA profit of £2.1m contrasted with a loss of £4.1m in H1 2020. The company is keen to emphasis its core work beyond Covid, which is expected to account for around 70pc of its 2021 full year revenue mix, earning a projected £50m in 2022.
With its substantial investment in challenge trials Open Orphan continues to make solid progress in establishing itself as a go-to partner in the complex process of bringing new treatments to market. With a coherent business model in place for positioning itself in a fast growing sector the company is one for biotech investors to watch in 2022: its share price is currently around 22p, but was as high as 40p earlier in the year
https://twitter.com/PoolbegPharma/status/1476448023962136583?t=3yeb5A4eihU193suNP3fgQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/OpenOrphan/status/1476448026889756679?t=x4MClCLWnuZC629bBtmFPg&s=19
Cathal talking with Rosie about contract win
https://youtu.be/CbNgR35zMy0
In the last 4 months. How many companies are doing that?
https://www.**********.co.uk/rns/announcement/ae609743-c41c-4cc1-a23a-5a49adeeda9b/
destiny pharma working with chinese partner and looking at human challenge study? Did I hear that right?
Lemming investors doing podcast with Cathal today. You need to subscribe to watch it. That's Small cap champion.
Hope they will eventually release it on YouTube or SoundCloud.
Good Lads.... I am all in so no more cash to buy but I will spot a good time to buy.
Whenever I find myself in this position, when nobody is chatting on the boards, its always because they are too busy trying to buy shares.
This may not be 100% true but its just what I have noticed in about 15 years watching shares.
Has anyone noticed the buys coming in? Lets hope the sellers have ****ed off
https://www-lavanguardia-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20211201/7899008/vacuna-picaduras-mosquito-marcha.amp.html
The vaccine has already demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing malaria infection in mice, as well as its safety and activation of the immune system in humans, although as a consequence of the covid some of the studies were affected and clinical trials are pending. phase II in Europe or a phase III study in endemic areas, as explained to La Vanguardia Olga Pleguezuelos, the scientific director of ConserV Bioscience, the company that develops the new immunogen.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/intelligence-squared/id708371900?i=1000543399103
in a cohort of 3318 and 84 being infected with sars-cov-2, this system alerted for symptoms in 67 (80%).. Advance warning in a high percentage of cases. System can be used for early detection. That's a tick for DIM
Moniman? can I have some crumbs, even just to look at. Maybe 21p close today? Not bothered with the icing on the cake bud.
If this was any other company, it would be up. Joke
Hahaha come on the orph!
+0.27 Whoowhoo you can do this
I am delighted for CF and the team! Well done all.
I wonder what price AGS-v PLUS will be sold for.... When the time comes.
Well done to Cathal Friel and his team!
News rich period ahead.