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Some interesting comments on the Macmillan website yesterday from the renal cancer patient (We already know about this lady, she is the second patient in Cohort 4 of the Modify trial, on Modi 1 plus nivolumab).
“It’s not having any short term benefit on tumour size, but that doesn’t mean it’s not bringing any other longer term benefit”.
“Since this all began, I have never realized I felt sub-standard, only retrospectively. Right now, I really do feel normal again, running aside”.
I certainly wish her all the best as she continues on the Modify trial till June 2025.
Konar, I totally agree with you.
In my view this is all current, given the dates of the article on Texas Biomedical’s website and the KSAT news article. This is further confirmed by the following:-
On 26 May’23 Scancell put the following vaccine publication on its website. Texas Biomed Innovation Lab Principal Investigator Viraj Kulkarni, PhD is named in this article. Also note that the article was received 13 April’23 and published 2 May’23:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/publications/papers/brentville-et-al-2023.pdf
It is an updated version of the following vaccine publication that Scancell put on their website on 22 June ’21. Note that this earlier version makes NO REFERENCE to Texas Biomed Innovation Lab Principal Investigator Viraj Kulkarni, PhD:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/publications/papers/brentville-et-al-2021-preprint.pdf
Texas Biomedical Research Institute has partnered with Scancell to test its Covid 19 vaccine in mice and was waiting for official approval to move into primate studies, hopefully followed by FDA human clinical trials.
It would be interesting to know how these studies are progressing. It would also be interesting to know how these studies are being funded, given the company’s decision to concentrate on its lead cancer vaccines, SCIB1 and Modi-1.
It seems a bit of a step backwards after the human trials in South Africa. Maybe a new partner wants more in depth research before totally committing. I suspect that there may be some sort of non disclosure agreement here?
It is also interesting that they are using a Bio Rad Gene Gun rather than the Pharmajet device.
Bermuda, I think you are probably right, it says:-
"6 patients had reached the first imaging timepoint, and the objective response rate in cohort 1 is 83%".
If 5 of these 6 patients showed an objective response that would be an ORR of 83%.
I see that the latest SCIB1abstract is now on Scancell's website:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/publications/papers/2023/scope_abstract_august-23_smr.pdf
"Conclusions: SCIB1 in combination with nivolumab and ipilimumab as first line treatment for unresectable melanoma improved the ORR to 83% without an increase in clinically meaningful adverse events. These results provide confidence in initiating a randomised registration programme in unresectable melanoma pts with our novel DNA plasmid technology."
I don't understand this though, "6 patients had reached the first imaging timepoint, and the objective response rate in cohort 1 is 83%".
The previous poster stated "11 patients in cohort 1, had reached at least the first imaging timepoint at 13 weeks post- vaccination".
Hi Bermuda,
I must admit I do not know what the rules are governing Directors share option schemes.
Logic to me would be that if a Director does not exercise a share option before it expires then the option would lapse (Unless the expiry date is extended).
When I first saw the RNS 17 April’23 I interpreted it that RG had paid his money and exercised his options over 2,880,000 shares. I made a post to this effect on 21 April’23 and you and others on here quite rightly corrected me. You said-
“Johnny,I'm not sure that we do know that RG has exercised his options. All we know is that Scancell have made a block listing to cover RG's these options. The shares will sit unallotted until they are exercised so we'll have to keep an eye on the 6 monthly block lisitng return to work out whether or not he has exercised his options.”
I see that the RNS states “The Company will make six-monthly announcements of the utilisation of the block admission, in line with its obligations under AIM Rule 29.”
Note it says six-monthly announcements in the plural. The whole business of the Block Listing does not really make sense to me. It’s effectively saying the options expire 30 July’23 however you can exercise these options at any time in the future.
Maybe it is to do with RG retiring. Perhaps there are specific rules governing retiring Directors in Directors share option schemes in? I really don’t know.
The “Block Listing 6 Monthly Return” RNS 17 October’23 shows that RG exercised a total of 1,260,000 of his share options during this period (He was granted a total of 2,880,000 share options at 4.5 pence each).
Article number 18 on page 55 of Scancell’s financial accounts tells us that he exercised 500,000 of these in April’23:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/fininfo/scancell-holdings-annual-report-to-30-april-2023.pdf
I incorrectly assumed that he had probably exercised the remaining 760,000 (1,260,000 minus 500,000) share options not long after April’23. I suspected he had subsequently sold all of these adding to the share price decline.
From today’s filing at Companies House it transpires that he exercised the 760,000 share options between 25 September’23 and 9 October’23.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/06564638/filing-history
I wonder if he is lining his ducks up for some news.
The information in the extract must be prior to 19 September’23. It states “10 patients had reached the first imaging timepoint at 13 weeks and the objective response rate is 80%”. (i.e. 8 out of 10 patients). The accompanying chart also details 10 patients.
Scancell’s presentation dated 19 September’23 shows data for 11 patients and gives an objective response rate of 82% (i.e. 9 out of 11 patients):-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/docspres/230919-phase-2-scope-trial.pdf
The share price has not been helped by Calculus Capital selling 3,507,322 shares since 18 May’23.
18 May’23 they held 37,546,331 shares:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/share-info
Page 21 of the Financial Accounts shows that they held 34,039,009 shares as at 26 October’23:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/Data/Sites/1/media/fininfo/scancell-holdings-annual-report-to-30-april-2023.pdf
Violin,
That’s what I was wondering.
There was originally also going to be an analyst briefing at 10.00 am on the day/revised day of the Final Results. I have heard nothing of the analyst briefing and there has been no news on the presentation for investors.
The Accounts were all signed off 30 October’23. If these 2 events were going to happen Scancell could have easily sent a RNS to this effect yesterday.
It’s almost as though there was going to be some bigger news announced on the day of the Final Results but for some reason this has not happened or has been delayed for some reason? AIMHO
On the day that the year end results are published (Whenever that is) Lindy will hold an analyst meeting at 10.00 am.
At 4.30 pm, precisely the same time that the London market closes, there will be an investor presentation. The presentation is open to all existing and POTENTIAL shareholders and will be followed by a Q&A session.(Capital letters are mine for emphasis).
This would fit in with some relatively recent comments by Lindy:-
1. The Guardian article 20 June’23 states:-
If the trials work well, a Nasdaq listing in New York would be “a realistic opportunity” to raise more money, Durrant says. “The Americans are much more into high-risk, high-reward investments. The UK is much more conservative.”
2. Then in a Proactive interview 10 July’23 Lindy says “Clearly if the clinical data continues to look really exciting and we do need to move into those registration studies we will have to consider raising further funding and clearly a company of our size always needs to think about that as we move forward”.
I suspect that we will get a RNS this week (Probably Friday 20th) for the block listing of 2,880,000 shares in respect of RG’s share options. This was detailed in the RNS 17 April’23:-
“The block listing is expected to become effective on 20 April 2023. The Company will make six-monthly announcements of the utilisation of the block admission, in line with its obligations under AIM Rule 29.”
Cleaner,
You could well be right; a comment by Samantha Paston in the news article dated 29 August'23 on the Texas Biomedical website refers to "test our products" (in the plural):-
“Texas Biomed has the biocontainment facilities and expertise to test our products,” says Samantha Paston Head of Translational sciences at Scancell. “We appreciated partnering with the Innovation Lab to complete these early preclinical tests”
Hi Violindog,
Yes definitely (99.9 recurring %) an up to date story.
It is linked to this paper dated 26 May’23 on Scancell’s website:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/sars-cov-2-spike-rbd-and-nucleocapsid-encoding-dna-vaccine-elicits-t-cell-and-neutralising-antibody-responses-that-cross-react-with-variants
And this article dated 29 August’23 on Texas Biomedical website:-
https://www.txbiomed.org/news-press/news/texas-biomed-partners-with-scancell-to-test-novel-covid-vaccine/
All articles make reference to and the video features Dr. Viraj Kulkarni of Texas Biomed.
I wonder who is funding this work? :-
“The research team is now waiting for official approval to move into primate studies, hopefully followed by FDA human clinical trials.”
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/10/02/new-type-of-covid-vaccine-showing-promise-at-texas-biomed/
It will be interesting to see if this gets wider media coverage.
I have not looked at them yet but two of the three posters have landed:-
https://www.scancell.co.uk/vaccine-publications
Texas Biomedical Research Institute recently added this to their linkedin page. I wonder if they discussed Scancell’s “NOVEL COVID VACCINE”:-
“Texas Biomed proudly took part in a side event to the United Nations General Assembly this week in NYC. The Assembly addresses some of the most pressing social and public health issues around the world. Alongside the CDC Foundation, we hosted a discussion about pandemic preparedness and pivoting during an infectious disease crisis. It was fantastic to bring together experts including Dr. Henry Walke, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of Readiness and Response, Dr. Judy Monroe, President & CEO of the CDC Foundation, Dr. Larry Schlesinger, President & CEO of Texas Biomed and Dr. Kayla Laserson, Director of the CDC's Global Health Center to discuss these topics with moderator Dr. Akudo Anyanwu, Texas Biomed's VP of Development. It is critical to take the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and turn them into action so we can protect more people from the next emerging threat. #infectiousdiseases#pandemicpreparedness #unitednations #globalhealth #publichealth “
Separately this article on gov.uk about UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) yesterday:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-announces-transformational-support-to-boost-global-health-at-unga
“The UK’s health package includes:-
up to £103.5 million for the UK Vaccine Network (UKVN) Project to support critical research into combating infectious diseases that cause epidemics in developing countries, and ensure vaccines are accessible to everyone in need. UKVN funding was key for the foundational research and progression of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the first in the world that was authorised for COVID-19”
The RNS 10 July’23 only makes reference to 2 antibody deals, it states:-
“The platform has generated revenues and the antibodies continue to yield compelling results which have led to a new 6-month evaluation by a leading Biotech company. Additional in-house data has illustrated the potential of our antibodies as chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CART) therapies providing the data for a deal with a cell therapy company”.
However, todays webcast makes reference to 3 antibody deals. A slide states “Interest expressed by 3 biotechs for ADC and CART applications” (and Lindy confirms this verbally).
James Osbourne of Stifel ask a question about this. Lindy answers “Hopefully we always improve on the first deal but clearly there is a market value for a target so it is not going to be massively different. If we enter the clinic or present a product that is when you start having much larger sums associated with a deal. Hopefully better, but it will be of the same order of magnitude”.
The Genmab deal was an upfront payment of $6 million. So if these 3 do turn into license agreements we are talking of potential upfront payments totalling circa $18 million. that would certainly help the cash runway.
Poster 1 is titled “Anti-sialyl-di-lewisa CAR T cells for effective anti-tumour therapy”.
I believe I am right in thinking that this is SC129 and that this is the anti-glycan monoclonal antibody that Scancell signed a Commercial License Agreement with Genmab.
The RNS 25 October’22 stated (Capital letters are mine for emphasis):-
“Genmab has been granted the exclusive right to develop and commercialise the Scancell antibody in multiple novel potential therapeutic products for any and all potential disease areas, EXCLUDING CELL THERAPY APPLICATION.”
As a lay person it looks to me that Scancell are getting the most out of SC129. Maybe it could be interpreted that Genmab’s work with SC129 is progressing well?