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Hat-tip to GTA5 elsewhere for this article - from a few months back - that I'd not seen.

https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2021/10/16/simandou-is-chinas-poisoned-chalice/

some interesting 'compare and contrast' points made.

.."China is cognisant of political risk and is not afraid of airing it publicly. China Geological Survey published a report in 2020 highlighting the Guinea government’s lack of respect for contractual arrangements, political instability and rising African resource nationalism.

The report is critical of industrial relations in the country and cites increasingly frequent strikes as a ‘negative’ for investment. It concludes by saying that while the Simandou project’s advantages are clear, the risks are also significant, including huge investment outlay, a long investment cycle, and uncertainty. Chinese firms have acquired mining rights, but there is significant uncertainty about the profitability of the project. The report notes, ‘Chinese companies will face significant challenges during implementation and operation stages of this project’.

The Chinese government’s geology services further warn about the Guinean government’s desire to extract as much as US$15.5 billion in tax. A non-Chinese mining executive who was heavily involved in the early development of the Simandou project noted: ‘the biggest [issue] is that Simandou is a national crown jewel and in any country … resources of that scale come with very big political strings … this is far bigger than anything they’ve ever had to deal with before’...

Ho hum

Whilst we wait for news on this front, I see that 23 andMe , the personal genomics and biotech company, is stepping up its own monetisation efforts . I've just received this mailshot from them :

.."Thank you for being a valuable part of our genetics research.
For some of our research, we look at DNA variants that are not currently included in your 23andMe genetic reports. We'd like to include more people with these interesting variants to learn how their genetics could influence their health..."

I took out the bog standard deal years ago (a saliva test used to determine your DNA and give some 'fun' medical feedback and a basis for finding (maybe) some ancestors).

This was used as the loss-leader 'hook' to draw in over the years a large enough group of individuals to provide eventually meaningful statistical info of commercial value. By 2018 a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline allowed the pharmaceutical company to use test results from 5 million customers to design new drugs. GlaxoSmithKline invested $300 million in the company.
In July 2020, 23andMe and GSK announced their partnership's first clinical trial: a joint asset being co-developed by the two companies for cancer treatment. It's also been researching Parkinson's.

It even 'dabbled' with coronavirus : In June 2020, 23andMe published results from a study that claimed that people with type O blood may be at lower risk of catching COVID-19. Out of more than 750,000 participants, those with type O blood were 9–18% less likely to contract the virus, while those who had been exposed were 13–26% less likely to test positive. The study is ongoing and has not been peer-reviewed.

Last year it merged with Richard Branson's SPC , setting up a $ 3.5 billion JV.

In this latest mailshot initiative, it wants to its database to target specific genetic characteristics for further R and D.
Meanwhile, thanks to its internet-based approach , it collects not only genetic and personal information from customers who order DNA tests, but also data about other web behaviour information.
This makes 23andMe a valuable data mine for third parties such as health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, advertising companies, biotechnology companies, law enforcement, or other interested parties.

DIM's disease progression database might be an interesting 'fit' for 23andMe and its business partners, I wonder to what extent its limited geographic sourcing (at a guess, mainly British isles) might affect ie reduce its commercial value ?

Meanwhile, I've realised (belatedly) that - for 23andMe as with facebook et al - I am the product.....

Ho hum

.."It certainly was easy being a investor i Eco pre Jethro/Joe heavy oil disclosure!.."

Yes. Gil did himself no favours there. I still like the assets, but the risk/reward balance shifted for me at that point.

Thanks. And here at least we get 'proper' coverage :

.."The trial, led by researchers at Imperial College London and a Dublin-based commercial clinical-research organization called Open Orphan and its London-based subsidiary hVIVO...."

I wrote the other day to ORPH PR asking to make sure, wherever possible, that ORPH gets a mention whenever hVivo does. There may be political or protocol reasons why they sometimes don't, but 'every little helps', maybe not amongst the professionals but certainly amongst potential private investors.

.."mm's use the CLN to drag the sp down, allowing interested parties to buy more cheap shares..."

Alternatively, the CLN mechanism (shares in lieu of cash), gives the lender shares at a discount- £ 0.0011407p being the latest - which it can then sell at a profit to get its capital back.
It might - perish the thought - even sell forward the shares it has elected (and SYME agreed) to convert, to lock in a gain.

The 5 x 'professional investors' (in at 0.54p or thereabouts) must be well impressed.

Agreed : content itself good. CF needs to work on his delivery, though - I found his frequent 'gazes off' very distracting !

Copyright © 2022 Advertainment Media All Rights Reserved....

It's a PR company :
Nature of business (SIC)
58190 - Other publishing activities
59112 - Video production activities
64999 - Financial intermediation not elsewhere classified
82990 - Other business support service activities not elsewhere classified

AFAICS

.."While we have a tory government in the UK we will never see far left listings like a cannabis cultivated company listing in the uk.."

Actually, even the conservatives are catching up with the increasing evidence of the medical benefits not only of cannabis but also psychedelics as effective treatments for a wide range of mental health issues , from addictive and compulsive behaviours to depression and PTSD/trauma.

See the website of the Conservative Party Drug Reform Group https://www.cdprg.co.uk/research

This customer experience - from the tradeflowplus.com website is interesting :
.."Industry: Computer Software & Technology
Solutions: Electronic Invoicing

“We chose Taulia because they were cost-efficient, they wanted to go on a European journey with us, and the partnering was incredible. The support from day one was really impressive and it’s continued until today.”

On the face of it, Taulia is including SupplyMe in its portfolio offering of receivables discounting and other supplychain finance solutions.
If so, a definite step forward.
AFAICS

Who knows ?

The lack of communication can't help. If GLEN is having a tidy-up of its unwanted portfolio, it could pick up ZIOC for chump change now...and then at least have a 'clean' company to offer.

Ho hum.

...continued

Was the Delta ‘brew’ now ready (flagged as an issue in the Aug Daily Mail article) ? This and a number of other Q’s (verbal or in chat) weren’t covered, we were told they’d come back to the group on these.

HTH

I took part in yesterday evening's Imperial-led HIC-Vac focus group meeting to discuss the results of its Wuhan CHIM study (naive, unvaccinated volunteers) and share our thoughts on a future Delta CHIM (vaccinated volunteers, some of whom would instead be infected with Wuhan, for comparison purposes *).

*this bit would seem to overlap with the just-announced Oxford study. Does it ? My Q was noted, I may get a reply later.

Disclaimer : What follows is only my understanding/’good faith’ interpretation of event contents.

hVivo got a credit as participant in the study, clients being SAGE + NERVTAG + Vac Task Force + DoHealth.

The study seems to have been pretty rigorous : 187 volunteers were screened, 147 rejected, 4 withdrew or dropped out, net 36. Roughly 50% got infected, so the dosage level was spot on.

The main results related to detailed data re disease progression; range of symptoms; and relative performance (accuracy/timing) of PCR and lateral flow tests. Much of this seems to have informed the detail of subsequent government advice/ policy.
But the study seems also to have found that the nose was a more significant repository - and vector - of infection than the throat, which AFAIAA wasn’t widely communicated to the public. Several participants queried this.

Thankfully , there were no serious ‘ adverse’ reactions, although loss of smell lingered in a few (3/36 cases) and , perhaps tellingly, we were told that future studies would alert potential volunteers of this specific risk.

The volunteers were 2/3rds M , 1/10th BAME, median BMI 24, some time was spent discussing how to get a more diverse / representative cohort in future trials.

The results should be released – pre-print – in a week or so.

The focus group consensus feed-back / mood seemed to be that this first trial had been ‘high risk/high reward’ and had to some extent been overtaken by events : the equation had changed with advent of treatments (regeneron and anti-viral pills) on one hand and reduced virulence of variants on the other.

The moderator didn’t push back on this. When asked ‘why not jump to test agst Omicron’, we were told that (a) this trial outcome should speed decision-making up and (b) there were lots more studies to derive from this, as each (material) variant taught something new. This, of course, is a researcher's viewpoint !

Someone asked what the volunteers felt now about the overall value of the exercise. Not clear if we’ll get a reply / the question has been asked

There’s clearly a lot still to find out : rather disarmingly, when somebody asked about using antibody tests for screening, the comment was ‘ we test anti-bodies because we can; they may not be the best test.'

Regarding the upcoming Delta based trial, if approved (they hope ‘shortly’), it may take some time , challenging 60 (+ 30 Wuhan) in phases, dictated by the available 6-bed containment venue.

Continued...

My bad re link !
Try https://www.dw.com/en/ecuador-expands-galapagos-marine-reserve/a-60436043 ie without the bracket at the end....

Rees-Mogg hasn't acknowledged yet...or maybe his PA didn't think it was funny.

Ho hum

.."special tests , which are either not normally done or, at least, AFAICS not disclosed..."
particularly - call me a cynic - if that might muddy the consensus narrative.

.."I think there are plenty of people under 35 who've not had it. My wife and I are both under 35 and neither of us have had it. I genuinely don't know that many people that have..."

One of the problems is that you wouldn't necessarily know, infection can be asymptomatic and can also take many unexpected forms : I had a first ever case of 'chilblains' last year - I'm in my mid 60s - and chanced to discuss a few weeks later with a family member doctor. I 'd been sufficiently curious to have taken some photos.
'Oh' !' was the immediate reply, 'that looks like 'covid toes'. Which apparently 'normally' only afflicts the young.

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58801462

This report https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19latestinsights/antibodies

says "The presence of antibodies to COVID-19 suggests that a person has previously had the infection or been vaccinated. In the week beginning 3 January 2022, the percentage of adults that would have tested positive for antibodies is estimated to be 98.0% in England... of these 78.6% state that they've had 3 (or more) jabs."

You and your family and acquaintances might all have 'dodged a bullet' but the numbers suggest otherwise : the younger and later-vaccinated are just more likely to find themselves in the inadvertent, naturally acquired 'herd immunity' camp.

I believe it IS possible to tell from the antibodies whether your immunity is 'natural' (ie via infection) or acquired (via vaccination), but this needs special tests , which are either not normally done or, at least, AFAICS not disclosed.

HTH

Tbc, ‘ours’ as in ‘the one our focus group is discussing’…..

Thanks, guys.
The key sentence,from the politico link

..” The two U.K. studies are using the original Wuhan strain of the virus synthesized by hVIVO in London. While Imperial College and hVIVIO are studying people who haven't previously been infected, Oxford University is examining those who have previously caught the virus...”

Ours is the naive , hence riskier group. So on the face of it , a bigger ethical hurdle.
AIUI.

.."they probably have better connections with government agencies and much deeper pockets, seeing as they made a fortune from the UK gov vaccine programme one assumes?.."

Not so : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/17/astrazeneca-vaccine-price-pledge-omits-some-poor-countries-contract-shows
.."In contrast to its pharmaceutical competitors, AstraZeneca has forgone billions of dollars in revenue by providing its vaccine at cost price, a promise that was key to securing its partnership with Oxford’s Jenner Institute, where the formulation was developed.."

I interpret the links provided as saying
(1) They haven't in fact got as far as us. I understand that tomorrow's results will include some 'hard' info that has already informed Govt pandemic policy.
(2) Our study is/was riskier since theirs is /will be on folk who have previous exposure (infection or vaccination), again AIUI.

HTH

And this is the rationale for Oxford's study :
.."'The aim of this trial is to find out what level of immune response - antibodies and T cells - we need in our bodies to prevent infection when healthy people are exposed to the virus. This is the immune response we then need to induce with a new vaccine.
'We have learned a lot about Covid over the past two years, but the emergence of new variants means that we will probably have to keep refining the vaccines. If we know what level of immune response we need the vaccine to induce it will make future vaccine development much quicker and much more efficient.'

Also worth noting that per the original April 21 news release
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-04-19-human-challenge-trial-launches-study-immune-response-covid-19
they expected to get the second phase underway 'by the summer of 2021', (where they're only now recruiting volunteers).

So we're not the only ones facing [ethical] headwinds !