Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
Although mtph is going through a bit of a lull I'm going to have a Mystic Meg moment and share what I guess is going on. I thought hat it was Janssen that was the mysterious European partner (like I predicted on 15 Apr 2021 17:00). I think they are developing an inhaled MAb to treat COVID. Simply because the tech would lend itself to that, J&J are well into that game and the new pharm dev hire at mtph has a background in delivering inhaled products, which I thought was interesting (I have no more information than anyone else). I might be wrong, it's a guess, but I'm going to have (another) punt on this.
Thanks for sharing the Edison summary Viveka, they have done a pretty good job.
I had another read of the slides presented last month again and of course we are waiting for in-vivo data for MTX214 & MTX216. MTX213 is a bit of a question mark for me, it says data was presented in Aug. I've been a bit dormant on this share lately but I can't find any reference to the August data anywhere else. I'm assuming this means the data was presented internally at Mida? Just asking as I'm trying to figure out if we investors are actually going to get news from 214 & 216 or whether Mida will have their own private review of this data? I suppose we will find out either way if there's a formal partnership with milestone payments etc. announced.
The short term play seems clear here. Buy at ~27p, wait for ~8-10 weeks, sell on pharma collaboration news at 80p to £1 (or maybe more). Unless of course everything goes horribly wrong, which I think is lower risk (but still a risk).
Thanks for the link, that confirms it's definitely antibody engineering.
It looks like the Rexulti marketing exclusivity ended in 2020 but the associated patent runs to 2026 in the two approved indications. I don't see how it could be anyone other than the patent holder that could partner on this in schizophrenia / MDD so you may be right?
Interesting. I'm not sure that this a proprietary approach per se though, antibody engineering has been going on for several decades. Not sure if any of the methods they used to do it are proprietary. They have just re-engineered natural antibodies derived from patients into synthetic analogues (i.e. changed the antibody structure to make it work longer). In essence this makes a completely new mAb. This is good at the drug discovery phase transitioning into the clinic for the 1st time but won't help with the repurposing of old drugs as you have to go back to the start again with the entire development process (apart for biosimilars, which this is not). MTPH reformulates old drugs and keeps them the same, just the formulation changes, the development pathway for this is much quicker and less expensive. Just putting this information into context.
We were in the 20s two weeks ago, before the breakthrough news, the SP was hovering around 26p. As far as I can see MTPH have actually done a good job this time of raising funds without having to offer a massive SP discount, the timing was almost perfect.
I don't have a Capri for sale but I have a Reliant Regal going cheap. Turns out I don't need it anymore as it's exactly a year from this time last year and I've upgraded to a Roller. On a more serious note, based on tangible information we are expecting news of the Q-sphera collaboration in ~90 days from now. However I would expect (going by previous performance) that news will probably be late. Nonetheless I intend to let the SP stabilise and then buy some more for the short term trading pot. Assuming good news on the collaboration this should prove fruitful as funding uncertainty is sorted now.
I was thinking about the Q-Sphera pharma collaboration and came up with an interesting scenario related to the mAb announcement. Given the timing of all of this I wonder if the partners assets are actually mAbs/large molecules? MTPH may not have been able to communicate successful formulation of the partners assets, even mention they are mAbs, under CDA/confidentiality agreement. After successful formulation for the partner MTPH may have been forced to go back and perform some of the work on a ‘test’ mAb themselves to declare the breakthrough legally. I’ve wondered why it’s taken nearly a year to formulate the partners assets, in-house small molecule activities have been much quicker. It may be that it took a long time to deliver because it was technically more difficult than small molecule formulation and mAbs were being formulated. It would make great reading if in 90 days the partnership is declared and also, by the way, MTPH are assisting big pharma take long acting mAbs into the clinic for the first time… Not sure the market would be expecting that. The RNS from 2020 declaring the partnership says: “The feasibility studies may establish the application of the Q-Sphera platform to new modalities in drug delivery”. I wonder if the ‘new modalities’ were mAbs? Any counter arguments/thoughts welcome as I did have a fair bit to drink on the weekend….
Thanks NtM and likewise. Good point about Viveka, I hope all is well? I remember that Viveka thought/predicted that the cracking the mAb / large molecule formulation problem would a game changer around a year ago so surprised not to see any posts. I have to say I am a little surprised that the SP stays so suppressed with the news, I would have expected it to be slightly higher, even in the face of the anticipated raise that's coming. This is going to be on Stamp and Co. to get the message out. The news isn't exactly top of any mainstream pharma newsfeeds. PR has been an issue for Mida in the past, I hope those days are behind us.
For anyone that has been here for a long time (NicetoMichu included) we are used to the constant boom and bust after any news. Sometimes even after no news at all. The poor liquidity and I suspect general negative outlook from short term shareholders make this a reality. Due to short term volatility this is ripe for the picking. I have held shares since 2015, when they were pounds not pence. I've kept some while they massively deflated through dilution but also traded short term to regain the losses. The point is, if you believe in the company (as I do) then always hold a portion of shares in case this explodes, which I am hopeful of. That doesn't stop one from also trading short term. One share, two plays. That advice is for free, take it or leave it ;-)
I agree with Gray00143 - there is probably a reluctance to buy now knowing that there will most likely be a dilution before any meaningful news is released. On the other hand things may move pretty quickly, the tech has made a game-changing breakthrough so more positive news may come sooner than expected, many may miss the boat in that case. It's a bit of a gamble but looks like a good investment either way.
Well for what it's worth my 2 cents are that this is truly transformative. The tech has been proven in small molecules in the lab and in the clinic (MDT201). The tech translates from bench to humans. From what I saw in the presentation the test Mab formulation process leaves the test Mab completely intact and as functional as the positive control (which is the normal functional Mab). There is high confidence in my mind that this will hold true in the clinic too. The top 5 Mabs on the market generate $75 billon of annual sales. Some of these Mabs have tox issues that the Q-sphera tech could formulate away. Also cost of goods could be reduced with the extended release profile (less dose needed). The data is in an early place but it's not silly to think that the likes of the big pharma players may be interested at this stage. They might want to see more data though. It really depends on Midatech getting the message out.
Just finished attending the webinar. RNS covers most of the info but Mida are more upbeat about the Mab formulation breakthrough than anything preceding this. It could be truly transformative for the business. They described it as their 'Watson and Crick moment'. The IND studies for 214 and 216 should be finished in 90 days at which point a deal will be struck for both (if data is positive). They aren't particularly worried about the Secura Bio scenario and view it as a distraction that they would be able to discharge in court if it ever got that far. Working capital is still available to the end of year at current burn and they do not intend to increase that burn rate.
It's probably a bit of both, hawking for new partners and new cash. The cash runway will run out before the end of the year unless the existing partnership comes good and provides funds. I have to say I'm getting a little frustrated with the progress. 1Q2021, the supposed communication timeframe is going to turn into 3Q2021 in about three weeks time. If they want folk to invest then they are going to have to get moving...
Pretty much as expected from the annual financials. A couple of extra bits of info. Failure to give more info on the pharma partnership is punishing the SP, which has been largely propped up by the initial announcement. Midatech promised more info by 1Q2021 but has missed this. They are tied into confidentiality with the partner so don't have control of comms. Funds run out in 4Q2021 so a raise is needed a few months before then. I'm hoping that we get news before the raise so some of the beleaguered shareholders can get a non-diluted return. As stated before, the positive announcement of the pharma partnership plus milestone payments is pivotal and in my mind makes or breaks the company (unless another partnership is announced, but let's deal with what we know). As the SP falls it is tempting to buy in some more but this would be more casino and less investment.
The MTX-110 DIPG exploratory trial (PNOC015) was reported at the end of last year?
https://academic.oup.com/neuro-oncology/article-abstract/22/Supplement_2/ii66/5960703?redirectedFrom=fulltext
The primary and secondary endpoints read out. Safety was favourable and overall survival looks better at 12 months than doing nothing at all (although the study wasn't set up to say anything definitive). The clinical experiment will continue with a more definitive PhII efficacy study, which should start in the 2nd half of this year.
Nast, I don't think MTX stands for methotrexate, it's just the nomenclature for some of the Midatech assets (MTX-110 is panobinostat). Now as for the mysterious European Pharma affiliate, I have a sneaking suspicion that it's Jannsen, being the European affiliate of J&J. Wouldn't put any money on it though.
Regarding progress, if there's one Midatech always delivers on it's late delivery. It's been about 9 months since the 'big pharma' collaboration announcement. Building an IND from the (re)formulation stages takes a significant amount of time so on the face of it there's nothing too concerning. Stamp did say in a recent interview regarding the collaboration something like 'Midatech did not control the timelines as it was the partner was preparing the IND'. I took this as a prelude to late delivery. I too hope the info is positive. In a way, the fact that this is going on a long time is positive, if it had failed we would probably know by now....
Viveka, not sure why the collaboration with Dr. Reddy's didn't work out. As you say, not a great deal would have got done in the 6 months but they may have got one or two simple pre-clinical in-vivo PK studies set up and reported in that time. Maybe whatever it was they were developing didn't work out (perhaps it was something more challenging like reformulating a biologic). Given the timing they would have killed it pretty early so perhaps it was just Dr. Reddy's reprioritising where it wants to invest?
We know the Q-sphera tech works from the previous in-house Q-sphera endeavors in the clinic so I'm less concerned about any fundamental technology issues. The enigmatic 'big pharma' has added to the number of molecules it wants to investigate taking forward since the collaboration was announced. I am encouraged by this and the fact they are recruiting for clinical-phase personnel.