Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Hi Crumbs, the arrival of a big pharma is one thing but what if the UK Government looks at the initial trial results and puts in an order for say 70m doses at £20 each? - and maybe turfs up £100m - £150 to cover trial costs on the basis that we knock it off the cost of the vaccine if it works as well as anticipated?, do you reckon we need a bigger partner then? They spent £20Bn on track and trace! Funding trials for Scancell is a complete no brainer ... Mind you Government and brains in the same sentence....
Covidity works as advertised, we must be looking at what £40 or £50 a dose? After all its possibly the last vaccination people might need against Coronavirus , no more long annual queues of people for another covid jab, no more logistical problems, job done!
70m doses in the UK , 330m in the US, 4 / 500m ij Europe and scandinavia. Say 1bn doses a year for 6 or 7 years at an average of £25 or even £20 per dose until,everyone is vaccinated......tick tock ...£8 SP is peanuts.
Once again Cliff has managed to take an opportunity and turn it into another down day for shareholders. Will someone please either send him on a sales and marketing course or better still persuade him to employ an RNS writer and give him some presentation skills lessons. This "news" wasn't really news, it had ben expected, did it really even need an RNS ? If it did, why didn't he couch it in such a way that the obvious advantages of bringing SCIB 2 back in-house were highlighted and add that the new people on board meant there was little downside to this and that it wouldn't affect any of our other planned work? This was an opportunity to sell the company positively not a chance to allow some minor disappointment to cause an unnecessary early morning hiatus. I am starting to wonder whose side Cliff is on. So frustrating. I can only wonder what the Redmile guys thought when they woke up this morning.
Hi Ray, I would sincerely hope you are correct. Having a product to sell will be a new experience for Scancell and should put some vavavroom under the SP . It will also signal a major shift from being purely science-led to becoming more sales-aware if not entirely fully focused. More delays at this stage would be unwelcome.
Bermuda, I get the gist of your argument but there are times when good enough is good enough, if rolling out SN15 doesn't affect timelines all well and good, but I think we all know about Scancell's somewhat "loose" associations with timelines. Wouldn't it be great if just once, a critical timeline prediction was adhered to? My thinking is simply that as more and more vaccines come onto the market, the harder it becomes to achieve a position in the market. I guess SN15 will need the same delivery system as SN14 so my fingers are crossed we end up at the same place on the timeline with a better product, but history suggests perhaps not. Its frustrating to be on the brink of the company's first product in the market and then be told about another scientific tweak.....
Surely the trick now is to get a product that works into the market and then work on further iterations. It's all very well being "science led" but at some point the science has to stop and take a breather. If SN14 works, get it out there, and then follow it up wih version 2 , 3 , 4 etc. This situation calls for sooner not later. Positioning Covidity in the market is important now, SN15 will then have something to build on. Sometimes you just have to stop training and jump in and start competing.
To replace ageing diagnostic equipment like MRI and CT scanners according to the spending review last week, sorry if this is old news but I missed it last week. Looks like a good opportunity for the NHS to get the IQAI software to go with new scanners. Apparently to get on top of all the appointments that have been missed because of the covids.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/11/13/2126448/0/en/Preliminary-Data-from-Real-World-Study-Demonstrate-T-cell-Testing-Outperforms-Antibody-Testing-in-Identifying-Past-SARS-CoV-2-Infections.html“These data add to the growing body of real-world evidence that the T cell plays a critical role in immunity to SARS-CoV-2,” said Lance Baldo, Chief Medical Officer of Adaptive Biotechnologies. “T cells are emerging as another key indicator for past infection and immunity to the novel coronavirus, and a T-cell test for patients that is accurate and reproducible can serve large populations of people given what we are learning about the biology of the immune response.”
So Pfizer / BioNtech are charging approx £15 per dose (£30 for each course of treatment) The EU has signed up for 300,000,000 doses and there is an estimate they might make $13Bn from their Vaccine.One wonders what they might want to do with that sort of cash. Given Redmile are into BioNtech for over $200m you wonder why the sudden decision to put more cash into Sclp? Did they have an early indication that the BioNtech / Pfizer Vaccine was a runner, say by the end of September , early October ?And did they see Covidity as the natural follow-on Vaccine once their sticking plaster Vaccine had done its job for 12 - 18 months (and put a shed -load of cash in their coffers}?
I have seen the numbers in the article in a couple of other places too and they are averages so numbers of centres, recruits and complexity of the drugs involved etc will change. Clearly it doesnt count the cost of developing a new drug, just trialling it. And they are US figures so I guess you can add 30% for UK costs.
Modi 1 will be trialled against 4 cancers so maybe the plan is to start with 4 at P1 and then have enough cash to take the best 2 to P2 with the plan of then licencing them to finance the other 2 to p2 and then take other products into the clinic.
"How much does a clinical trial cost?
The average cost of phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials across therapeutic areas is around $4, 13, and 20 million respectively. Pivotal (phase 3) studies for new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States cost a median of $41,117 per patient."
https://www.sofpromed.com/how-much-does-a-clinical-trial-cost/
I only looked to get the gist of the extent and size etc of what Redmile are about. I dont think I have seen many / any UK or European investments beyond the ones we already know about so maybe they are now casting their net wider. Interesting that their minimum investment into the fund seems to be $2m so there must be plenty of due diligence by investors into what they do and how they do it.
A quick look at the Redmile portfolio reveals that their investment in SCLP is pocket change. Clearly something got their attention and you would have to say "why would they bother" ? My sense is that they have been tipped off by BioNtech (currently 3.8 % of their portfolio) that Moditope is something special, especially as it is just about ready to go into the clinic (hence 2 years to repay the loan). Maybe with a bit more work, they are confident that BioNtech will be doing a deal with SCLP for some sort of Modi licence and have invested with upside in both companies in mind. 1, to protect and grow their BioNtech investment and 2. to grow SCLP and its innovative science as a longer term investment. Win, Win, Win!
https://whalewisdom.com/filer/redmile-group-llc#tabholdings_tab_link
Do I want some sort of commercial activity that turns the SP North ? Yes.
Do I want the company sold for less than its potential worth ? Obviously not.
So is it more likely that having several products on the start line all at once will advance the SP and make the company more attractive to a buyer more than a convoy one behind the other? I think it is, especially if one of the products fails to do what is hoped for, otherwise we are back in a waiting game and to be honest I'm not desperate to have more years of delay and even more dilution .
The runners are lining up for the final straight. I like the idea that having 4 or 5 horses in the race all at once in the hope of getting 1 or 2 or even 3 over the line in quick succesion rather than entering in the same race for year after year.