Member Info for Muck165

Hormona replied - not the answer I was hoping for.....

"Thank you for your kind words and enthusiasm for our hormone test launch, we’re thrilled to hear that you and your wife are looking forward to it, and hope that she has signed up to the waiting list for first access 💫

To answer your question, our tests are made in the USA, where we’ve partnered with a highly skilled team to ensure the quality and reliability of our products. We’ve been very selective with our manufacturing process to meet our high quality standards."

Thank you again for reaching out, we’re excited to have you both along on this journey with us! If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out. 🙌"

So, I guess we can scrub Hormona off the list. Would explain why ABDX haven't been reacting to any Hormona social media

Well, I've also written to Hormona to see if they will tell me if the tests are made in the UK. As always, I'll let people here know if I get a reply.

Thought this was interesting.

If Vast can manage to get through current issues then the copper market looks strong!

https://www.bhp.com/news/bhp-insights/2024/09/how-copper-will-shape-our-future

Certainly agree with the first question! No commission, no issue! But I suspect MB did pay commission.

One last thing I’d add is that the FCA are due to bring in rules requiring Personal Investment Firms to hold more capital if they identify a potential liability arising out of past advice. So for example, if they were to get a few complaints relating to the same issue, all upheld, then they will be required to consider all past cases with same issue, calculate potential liability, and retain capital equal to a portion of it (28%).

I don’t know if the same applies to lenders. But if it does, and MB find they have issues arising out of the latest judgment, then Vanquis would be required to retain an awful lot more capital I think and would, most likely, be placed under a capital retention order by the FCA restricting future operational flexibility.

Lots of “ifs” there i know….

Also of interest is para 30, relating to Hopcroft.

She bought the car and signed the credit agreements in 2014. She made the claim in 2023, 9 years later. Para 30 confirms that a limitation defence was pleaded, but not pursued.

For anyone interested in the full judgment, it’s here.

https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2024/1282.html&query=(.FirstRand.)

Para’s 18-20 summarise the decision.

Honestly, it annoyed me a little Gubbie. They’ve already told us that they were working with Hormona; I can’t see how it could breach an NDA if they were just to confirm that they still are!

Equally though, if they weren’t then you would have just thought they’d say so.

So I am still looking out for the Hormona launch.

Here’s the reply I got from the company today;

“Thank you for your interest in Abingdon.

Unless we are given permission, we do not comment on individual customers due to NDAs in place.

Kind regards.”

Came across this one in a weird way - I noticed from the Armadale Capital results that it had investment in here. Whilst they have been shocking at really advancing their own project, they have been much better with their investments and so I thought I'd take a look.

As far as I can gather there are two pretty "imminent" things which could materially impact the SP and future prospects - funding agreements, and sale of an asset for c$5m gross. The latest interview made me think that the funding, which is a little overdue but not much, is more likely than not going to happen and with the AGM due shortly you might think they'd want it concluded before then? Wishful thinking may be?

But overall this seems pretty much like a shovel ready but very overlooked/ignored opportunity.

Is there something I am missing?

Liquidity seems to be an issue so I've only had a couple of K today.

"If the lender is going to be on the hook for years and years worth of commissions undisclosed by the broker then where does that end and what's the quantum?"

Precisely why I don't feel quite as comfortable here as I did.....

Its just my view - could easily be wrong an find the company did everything perfectly!

But if the ruling stands (it will be appealed I am sure) then it could potentially impact a much wider group of finance providers,.

A decent summary of the case (actually 3 decisions given at the same time) is here

https://www.macfarlanes.com/what-we-think/102eli5/court-of-appeal-hands-down-decision-in-motor-finance-test-case-102jn76/

Well, I took comfort from the fact MB had no involvement in discretionary commission arrangements and so, consequently all the claims were just spurious.

I’m more concerned now, because the Court of Appeal cases were all decided not on whether there was a discretionary element, but whether commission payments were adequately disclosed to customers.

I don’t know how good MB’s processes were in that respect.

But if they weren’t good, then I think it opens up a gilt edged opportunity for the claims management weasels out there.

The full version of this was published today.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1447523/full

Lots of science that I won't even try to understand. But the message is that Loop have a novel and successful way of allowing emergency departments to quickly and effectively triage suspected sepsis patients and, quite fundamentally, they say there are "zero" other tests currently available that does available to do this.

Honestly, you'd think it was a no brainer for commercial take up.

Just for info, you can see all the FOS decisions involving MB here

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions/search?Keyword=Moneybarn&Sort=date

Observations are…

There’s loads

BUT, the vast majority are NOT upheld

Of the ones that are, some relate to irresponsible lending, and some to the quality of the vehicle bought.

I think, though, that the real relevance of the court decision was that it was arrived at based on fiduciary principles rather than FCA rules.

So, it seems to me that whether or not there was a discretionary element to payments was “by the by”. The foundation of the decision was more simple - were customers adequately told that commission was payable or not.

So we know MB had no DC arrangements. The question now is whether or their borrowers were told commission would be paid.

I see NHS England are launching a new campaign telling people not to delay calling 999 if they have any signs of stroke.

“ The campaign's message is that without fast action, dying from a stroke or being left with long-term issues such as paralysis, memory loss and communication problems, is far more likely.”

Nice timing for us I think given Upfront are knocking on the door of commercialisation, and the whole point of its test is “time is life”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9g810m8kxo

Perhaps also worth remembering that last year Upfront were one of just 4 companies invited to talk about their innovations at a BIVDA parliamentary reception, which included Stephen Powis, Medical Director of NHS England and the man behind this latest campaign.

https://bivdanewsletter.com/membership-news/bivda-holds-successful-parliamentary-reception-on-the-house-of-commons-terrace/

For info, Loop have had a new research paper accepted for publication to further support their original research.

The preliminary version is here

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2024.1447523/abstract

The full version is to be published shortly.

Just on ADC’s in the pipe Bein, thought this one was interesting

https://tubulis.com/news/tubulis-receives-fda-fast-track-designation-for-antibody-drug-conjugate-candidate-tub-040-in-platinum-resistant-ovarian-cancer/

Looks to me like an ADC with Exatecan warhead that got pre-clinical fast track approval after securing nearly $140m in specialist funding.

(Sorry if this is old news - haven’t really followed the board much recently)

https://tubulis.com/news/tubulis-closes-upsized-e128-million-series-b2-to-accelerate-clinical-development-of-solid-tumor-focused-adc-pipeline/

Thanks ASI.

Don’t agree with the £9.4m debt though. With Alpha, Mercuria, ANAF and trade creditors, all secured and unsecured debt comes to nearer $19m I think. And then there are other loans amounting to nearly $1m for third parties.