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Https://hira-ni.com/astrazeneca-and-northern-ireland-forge-new-strategic-partnership/

announced this morning - if the benefits flow through to the likes of the FMI and fusion this could be big as well as the link ups inn the ecosystem they're heavily involved in

My read of that link is that it's in the final stages of getting issued, maybe they haven't got the certificate in hand despite that link Chris has posted saying the status as granted and having registration number when you click in

It's easy to forget how big a deal that is for them. The ongoing grant support to boost the margins, not withstanding the awesome connections they'll get through the with the like sod Almac, Randox and other big names and the unis

There does seem to be a stack of things we could potentially hear about I hope the company does their explanation of these issues justice so potential new investors can understand their context and commercial importance and doesn't just assume everyone will understand the science and previous work like the last one

Cryptic...any more light you can shed?

Great spot guys. Very exciting times ahead

We're def entering the news zone, plenty on the cards, away in. San Diego this weekend too....

Certainly possible and would be nice! There's a few irons in the fire that could drop before the trading update. One thing we've not talked about for a while is that exclusive licence option the client was evaluating off optiphage. I think it was about 12 months ago they said they had delivered that to their client I wonder is their evaluation window coming to a close on that

Dont be doing that now 🤪

I wonder whether they're constrained in what they can say about the contract dues to the NDAS. The Allenby note did say that some of those nda discussions had progressed to them providing written proposals for optimal. Maybe they've taken the early stage projects which fall beneath the rns threshold. We'll see - it would be great to see in the rns that optimal has already scored some early stage smaller projects and yes NCI would be good to proceed. The Allenby broke note on 30 January also confirmed the negotiations weee underway:

"The company’s flagship partner for OptiMAL® remains the US National Cancer Institute, with which it is collaborating on a project that successfully screened for antibodies to three named targets. The company is also in discussions with the NCI to add some additional projects, in which it also expects to obtain a greater economic interest. These proposals remain subject to a lengthy and formal approval process at the US National Institutes of Health and it will probably take several months to complete this."

I disagree on timings - I think NCI may be pushing it throug but eeemeebd they also have to go through the National Institute for Health who oversee the NCI due to the scale of the proposals and this is public procurement so it's naturally going to be a little slower than a commercial org who could just move at the pace they need. Bear in mind there's also probably a backlog with the shutdown so I don't see where we're sittin now as unusual. Would be nice to get it over the line though.

They released a trading update on 6th May last year with an accompanying investor meet company. We should have both within the next few weeks hopefully and our opportunity to grill the company on where they've got to with all this

Looking at how they fare versus competitors:

Library size

• OptiMAL: >10⁹ variants

• Many competitors: ~10⁶–10⁸

That’s not a small step up — that’s:

• 10x larger vs the top end

• up to 1,000x larger vs the lower end

So instead of searching a pond, you’re searching a lake… or an ocean. Except fusions ocean is 70% full of antibodies

The company actually did a helpful video on this, and I think one part that’s easy to misunderstand is what the “scale” advantage really means in practice.

My interpretation (based on their materials, not me being an expert):

In mammalian display, you’re not just generating antibody sequences—you’re trying to test them in cells that behave like human biology.

So the key unit isn’t just a sequence, it’s:

👉 a cell expressing one antibody variant that you can actually measure (binding, stability, etc.)

Where the order-of-magnitude difference comes in:

• OptiMAL:

10⁹ variants, >70% efficiency

• Typical systems:

~10⁶–10⁸ variants, ~1–5% efficiency

If you combine those:

• Lower-end competitor:

10⁶ library × 1% → ~10⁴ usable, testable variants

• OptiMAL:

10⁹ × 70% → ~7×10⁸ usable variants

👉 That’s up to ~70,000x more actual, testable antibodies in cells in a single experiment

Not just theoretical diversity—real experimental coverage.

Why that matters for clients (biotech/pharma):

1. Better odds of finding a high-quality antibody

You’re sampling far more of the “search space”, including rare hits others might miss

2. Fewer wasted cycles

Higher efficiency = less time spent on cells that don’t express anything useful

3. More relevant data earlier

Because it’s in mammalian cells, you get a better read on developability (not just binding)

4. Potentially faster timelines

More usable data per run = fewer rounds of screening

Why this is interesting from an investor perspective:

If that scale advantage translates in practice, it should mean:

• Higher success rates in discovery

• Faster programme progression

• Stronger value proposition to partners

Which is exactly what pharma is trying to optimise.

As always, the key question isn’t the headline numbers—it’s whether this shows up in:

👉 better candidates, faster timelines, and repeat commercial deals.

Allenby said that some customers had already been presented with proposals might they have already converted but not been RNSd?

That’s the bit to watch.

100%. The presentation they have uploaded on their investor hub at the conference in December is quite something in terms of the stats comparison with competitors and just how efficient it is - 70-90% efficiency versus other competitors which can only reach around 6-7% if i recall correctly. Anything that saves big pharma clients money and time is likely to be very attractive. Maybe they want NCI over the line before they go for the big guns - could probably command an even bigger premium. Hopefully they "bump into" the NCI team in San Diego at the weekend.

Nice to see some more people putting fab into their ISAs

I'm confident we'll hear soon. If anything we know the trading update will come shortly and the investor meet company that usually follows will be a great opportunity for additional colour

"The AACR Annual Meeting 2026 is just around the corner, and excitement is building to see what groundbreaking advances will be showcased this year when more than 22,000 attendees convene in San Diego. The meeting will be held from April 17 to 22"

There's both actually.

14-Apr-26 08:02:46 14.15 20,000 Buy* 2,830 O

14-Apr-26 08:00:24 14.46 138,302 Buy* 20.00k O

138302 shares bought