Member Info for cornishpixie

decide how much you're willing to pay and put in a limit order, then go and make some coffee
Or wait for the pullback after initial frenzy

It's my third biggest holding, and that's only as I've averaged down recently with some profit taking. Looks like I'm about to wish I'd waited a bit longer.
As to adding tomorrow - DYOR etc blah, but looks likely to shoot up first thing, will probably briefly pull back with some profit taking, then likely continue to rise. Anything under £1 probably good value, not to say cheap if news is confirmed. At the moment it isn't confirmed, but everything points to it being the case.
Will be interesting to see how NYCT, GDR, Avacta prices respond

To answer the original question:
There are many scientists and companies trying to come up with treatments for COVID. Some of these involve looking at well established drugs like dexamethasone and colchicine.
Others are developing new drugs, including monoclonal antibodies.
Big pharma is definitely interested, and have some plays of their own. AZN are trialling an monoclonal antibody that targets Covid-19 virus. However, there is plenty of room for small biotech companies to develop new drugs. If these succeed, the big pharma may buy them out. Developing new drugs is expensive and risky. Many new drug developments fall by the wayside. So for big pharma it is sometimes easier to let others take the risk of development, and then invest at a late stage in those most likely to succeed.

Second part of the answer:
There is a big difference between TILS and SNG approaches. In layman's terms:
TILS are suppressing immune response.
SNG are enhancing immune response.

TILS are trialling a monoclonal antibody that reduces the inflammatory response (unlike AZN monoclonal antibody it doesn't target the virus itself); on the basis that much of the serious harm from Covid-19 infections comes from the inflammatory response.

SNG are using Interferon-beta, which has been around for a while. Their thesis is that this boosts the protective mechanisms of body cells making them less susceptible to infection / entry by Covid-19.

It's already blue on HL, barely a drop at all - was expecting / hoping for more to top up.
Maybe the MM's found there just weren't any stop losses to hoover up, just people wanting to top up?

I'm not concerned, was in fact hoping for a brief dip below 2 this morning to top up some more.
Agree with others - at some point he needs to cash in some or all of his profits, and he has plenty of warrants / options to exercise.
Seems slightly odd time to sell, timing wise if for taxation, after 31st Jan, unless he is liable in Eire and timings are different there perhaps. Also shame for him to sell at such a low price, also seems a little odd. If he knew he was going to have to sell, why didn't he sell when price was nearer 3? Maybe he was hanging on for 3.
Anyway, onwards and upwards, love this company, represents way too much of my portfolio but with an average below 0.3 I'm not going anywhere

excellent thanks. I've taken my eye off orphan last few weeks but sounds like time to add to my holding

You called it right yesterday Nimmo - classic AIM spike on positive RNS.
I don't have a problem with people trading like that - surely most of us have done it at some time

plugged in now:
was just going to add that improvements in radiological and biochemical markers are promising and may be important, but the most important measures are clinical response. Having said that, diabetes is an example of a disease where many drugs have been developed that show effectiveness in reducing blood parameters (HbA1c), and achieve sales on the back of this, but are not shown to improve quality or quantity of life.

Anyway - good news today, hope it heralds progress in the fight. Selfishly hope there is a dip at some point so I can add to my holding more cheaply!

0161: thanks - well said. Yes, studying the RNS today suggests great promise. And as you say, TILS has a wide portfolio, whereas SNG is probably much more vulnerable to the success or failure of SNG001 in Covid. Clinical end points such as mortality, morbidity and length of hospital stay are are most important. Was going to say more but computer about to run out of juice!
I may even up my weighting between the two which at present is more heavily in SNG. Will be interesting to see where price goes from here; after SNG had their results published in Lancet with promise of more clinical trials the price briefly shot up before slumping back down for a while.

I'm with Ralarcan and JohnZ on this, also known as the sunk capital fallacy.
But I also know how hard it can be to see that red and sell at a loss.
It all depends on your initial and ongoing research. If you bought on a whim / AIM sentiment and actually it was a pump n dump, or the fundamentals of the company have changed. then you may be better moving your money into a different stock.
But wiser people than me have pointed out the value of patience. Almost by definition surges in share price are unpredictable (or else they would already have happened).
Buy stock you believe in and be prepared to wait a while, see it drop perhaps, before it makes you money.
Then know when to sell and take your profits elsewhere.

@sadiq: sorry to hear that.
Don't know how big your holding is or anything about your financial situation (and don't want to); but if price does dip again you may be surprised at how effectively you can average down without investing huge sums more. Even the price a couple of days ago was 1/3 of your average, which means you could have doubled your share holding for only adding 33% onto your investment cost.
There are some shares I bought that I soon regretted and were clearly badly run or worse. If you think that is true of GDR then you should get out now, regardless of loss. If not, then averaging down (if you can afford it) makes the journey up far more enjoyable.
For the record, I bought in at a bad time; got fed up with no sales and walked away with a loss; but came back in recently and am nearly back at break even, which at one stage I thought I would never see.

The mechanism of each drug is very different, though neither directly target the virus itself (so the report in the Guardian is probably irrelevant to both drugs, although I haven't read the article)
Definitely a potential role for each, depending on trial results.
SNG ahead on the timeline for now.

TILS: Foralumab is a anti-CD3 human monoclonal antibody, ie it binds to CD3 on the surface of T cells. It is in effect an immunosuppresive drug. It is suggested that the pathogenesis of COVID-19 includes an abnormal host response or overreaction of the immune system.

SNG: Interferon beta (IFN-beta) is a naturally occurring protein, which orchestrates the body’s antiviral responses. There is evidence that deficiency in IFN-beta production by the lung could explain the enhanced susceptibility of these at-risk patient groups to developing severe lung disease during respiratory viral infections. Furthermore, viruses, including coronaviruses, may suppress endogenous IFN-beta production, thereby helping the virus evade the innate immune system. It is postulated that SNG001 upregulates lung antiviral defences.

I'm in both, and holding. Each have other strings to their bows of course, but in terms of this, successful trial results will be a game changer both for treating COVID, and for the share price.
If trial results are poor then expect the share price to dive. It's not a slow steady investment option.

probably will drop tomorrow but maybe not quite to placing price.
Aeg placed yesterday at 1p, hovered a little above it most of the day and then closed at 1.20-1.30.
I missed both: after missing AEG yesterday I checked my emails after market closed today but before they announced today's placing.
Anyway, hope it goes well, I'm already invested here, but would have snapped up some more if I'd known. Be interesting to know if everyone gets their full allocation

Great post Lotto, thanks for filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge too
I suspect there are many buying and selling ARB without anywhere near that level of understanding.
So I would add that the price of ARB is driven by the BTC price, but the market will be looking ahead as well as at today's price

thanks for posting this; made it much easier to vote against all resolutions, albeit small holding

@Nin: great answer!

great overview here: https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1354849030572961792

I'll probably look to get back in if it drops to around 5p too

wasn't ready this morning, but if it dips back to near 500 again I'm stocking up

I think the chacnes of a small PI buying and selling when price is doing that are small, and at the mercy of the market. Very unlikely to work out in your favour