Member Info for marik

FT article was a few days back.

That's not the information coming out from SA. There have been cases in SA where double vaccinated individuals still contracted the virus (might be worth looking at the very recent medrxiv paper [1]).

We can't tell what fuss Omicron is causing here in the UK as we haven't had long enough for the virus to spread and the hospitalisations stats lag approx. 2-3 weeks behind the initial cases. I'm expecting to see those numbers from the 15th Dec onwards.

"The pandemic is over guys or its at the end." the pandemic is not over. Moderna chief Stephane Bancel predicts that existing vaccines will struggle with Omicron and it could be months before the right variant-specific jab is produced at scale (see excellent article in the FT today). Then there is the obvious issue of distribution, vaccine take-up and finally the time it takes for the immune system to provide sufficient protection post-jab. Although he advocates for waiting for the data, he says that all the scientists that he's spoken to have said "This is not going to be good".

There is a minimum of 3-6 months of adapting the vaccine to be relevant towards Omicron, so we could be here for a while.

GL.

1. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.21266068v2

p.s. I presume you are aware of all this but want to keep the BB all excited with your edgy pantomime comments.

Hi Ian,

Could you put me down for Monday (I'm expecting £7.50 a share soon) after hours.

Have a great weekend

Marik

"There has been a slight spike in volume at around 4.10pm" Must have been an artefact.

Looking at the reports out of Gauteng (SA), the epicentre of Omicron variant, the hospitalisation has increased dramatically week on week. Compared to 4 weeks ago, there has been a ~8 fold increase in hospitalisations doesn't look as mild as some have suggested. There is a strong need for diagnostics.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFs9pTPWUAA8Z6H?format=png&name=small

Looking at the reports out of Gauteng (SA), the epicentre of Omicron variant, the hospitalisation has increased dramatically week on week. Compared to 4 weeks ago, there has been a ~8 fold increase in hospitalisations doesn't look as mild as some have suggested. There is a strong need for diagnostics.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFs9pTPWUAA8Z6H?format=png&name=small

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFs9pTPWUAA8Z6H?format=png&name=medium

Looking at the reports out of Gauteng (SA), the epicentre of Omicron variant, the hospitalisation has increased dramatically week on week. Compared to 4 weeks ago, there has been a ~8 fold increase in hospitalisations doesn't look as mild as some have suggested. There is a strong need for broad therapeutics such as SNG001.

@Monkshood, I had a quick look through my notes and thought this might be useful for others as well:

Size of Affimers and Antibodies
". A large binding surface, obtained through two 9 amino acid loops, enables Affimer proteins to bind with high affinity and exquisite selectivity. At 12-14 kDa, Affimer® molecules are around 10 times smaller than antibodies, giving several performances advantages such as increased packing density on surfaces and greater proximity to sensor surfaces." [Avacta website]

Spike Protein Mutations
"Since the Affimer reagents we use in Avacta’s range of SARS-CoV-2 tests do not bind in the region of the spike protein where the dominant mutations appear, we do not anticipate that the performance of the tests will be affected." [Avacta website]

S protein homology
Although Sars-Cov-1 (responsible for ‘01-‘04 SARS outbreak) is also a coronavirus, the Sars-CoV-2 (covid-19) has some distinguishing features. The Spike (S) protein (RBD region) found on both virus surfaces, has only 66% homology between the two strains. The Nucleocapsid (N) protein is significantly higher at 90%.

GLA

One of the likely buyers is NN, so it is related.

"Marik, so how do you explain in the spikes in volume we see before news is announced?"

They send a memo and then turn up the tele - same as what KingofClangers said.

"I've just switched mi telly up if that counts?" LOL

"...the market doesn’t appear to think news is close as we would see a lot more volume."

I don't think if someone did know that they would pass a memo around to the rest of the market.

"As much as i want to be excited i think i'll wait before i sprint around the block in my mankini"

That's where you have gone wrong with GGP you took your mankini off on Monday night, look what's happened.

"Bull**** news why the hell u talking all rubbish" I would suggest you dial down the aggression.
The 5 minute chart (@16.10) had a spike in volume.

There has been a slight spike in volume at around 4.10pm, I'm guessing that there could be news after hours?

I wouldn't imagine them targeting the spike protein without considering the impact of mutations, it would be a mistake. The S protein RBD homology was known between the two strains (Cov1/Cov2). The size comparison does give an advantage such as higher surface packing density and better proximity.

*Q4 2021 or Q1 2022
Thanks

@Monkshood, some good points there. To add, we can assume that affimers were specifically designed to bind regions where dominant mutations do not occur. Antibodies targeting the same antigen, compared to affimers, will have comparatively poor specificity (larger in size) and as such mutations will have a bigger impact on antibodies. Omicron has mutations on the N and S protein and it is not a straight forward comparison. We also know that Avacta was able to detect the Delta variant (and they provided data). Looks like an interesting period ahead.

GL

For VelosBio their lead candidate was in phase 1 dose-escalation and expansion. VelosBio was bought for $2.75 billion. Any positive top-line PK data and this would imply a wide range of other pre|Cision pro-drugs become part of the pipeline and significantly increases the market value of Avacta. Although the trial finishes later on, we were told during the presentations by Alastair Smith that top line PK data would be available from Q3 2021 or Q4 2022. It's not long to go!