Member Info for pomander

How do you know they are in talks with ''several', (my emphasis) potential partners. The trials to date are based upon tiny samples, it absolutely does not have a robust set of P2 data and you seem to be arguing against yourself, for if it did surely a partner would already be in place.? Ridinilazole as a drug is fine, but it clearly does not present a commercial opportunity of any great interest to big-pharma. The price dropped back once the day traders and HF's exited to reflect the risk associated with getting a DMD drug through P2. The later milestones are completely meaningless, they are unfunded. Seems to me that the $40 m and $22m milestones will be required to meet Summ's share of the utrophin modulator-related research and development costs at a 45%/55% split, respectively, beginning in 2018. Important to have some balance.

If everything were as rosy in the garden as GMCC presents for the C-Diff program, surely Summ would have unearthed a third party collaborator by now? I agree with cfhmetal, and the point is that without third party collaboration Summ simply cannot take a drug to market on its own. As I have said before there is very little interest in new antibiotics being shown by Big-pharma and that is b not a reflection on Summ's C-Diff drug which unquestionably has potential. GMCC is failing to understand the commercial considerations behind funding a new drug and I note never comments on any new antibiotic having a lifespan of 4/5 years if you are lucky before the the bacteria mutates and renders it ineffective. That is simply not long enough for big-pharma to make a turn. I also believe that the use of specific viruses to kill the bacteria and which also mutate over time to maintain their effectiveness is the long term solution.

There was a 1 for 20 share consolidation announced 3rd June 2014. He is referring to the the 4,150,000 options at 20 p, now 207,500 at £4. (20 x 20p). These will lapse 5 years from date of grant- 10th May 2017. Unless Glyn can produce a rabbit out of the hat it would appear that the original grants and vesting conditions were overly optimistic about where Summ would be by now.

I retain a small holding in Summ, and hope it succeeds especially in the DMD space. However, when I read comments such as the company is now well financed I really must take issue as they are far form reality. The DMD program is funded via the agreemenet with Sarepta, but Sarepta does not have the cash resources itself to meet future milestones. It will need to go to its own shareholders,cap in hand, or find another way to fund those milestones. Admittedly Sarepta will have exposure to a much wider and more willing and able investor base than Summ. The deal with Sarepta also involves Summ essentially committing the milestone payments back to Sarepta to fund it's half share of future development costs. So no real funding provided there. The deal was a cheap hedge for Sarepta and only if P2 results are stellar will there be further progress and I suspect that will be via an acquisition of Sarepta. As for the C-Diff program, I am assuming that as with other licences, Summ is restricted form applying any milestone proceeds to its C-Diff program. Funding maybe achieved via some organisation of one kind or another but even that will not allow Summ to bring a drug to market. That can only be achieved with big / medium pharma assistance and currently there is little interest from big-pharma in new antibiotics due to the limited lifespan and perceived govt intervention. It must have been a huge disappointment for the BOD not have been able to sell on the C-F Diff program and I believe with cash running out they were left with little alternative but to agree to Sarepta's offer of collaboration. Many may disagree with my take, but clearly it would seem to be the majority viewed as evidenced by the current share price. It is also a little disappointing that JM's top US pharma pick was SYGP and not SUMM.

cfhmetal - you are correct to point that out, but do keep in mind that deal involved 3 previously approved antibiotics and two in clinical trial with Merrem being the most significant approved drug in the portfolio. The deal was another example of big pharma exiting antibiotic research and development, although Astra will continue to sell its older products. Astra is not retaining a significant stake in this business. The pharmaceutical industry has largely turned away from antibiotic research due to the low likelihood of getting a return on investment. Any new class of antibiotics would need to be used sparingly to conserve their effectiveness, meaning sales would be slow. Th problem is any new drugs will have a very limited life span before the bacteria develops resistance to them - I am beginning to think that the virus approach which will adapt along side the bacteria is where the long term solution and future might be. I agree that a deal pre P3 will be hard to achieve and that does beg the question as to how will SUMM fund P3 ? To date clinical trials have been based upon tiny sample sizes, so there is even a question mark in my mind about efficacy/side effects until more substantial trials are carried out to disprove any concerns. A mass market antibiotic will require rigourous trial data well beyond current sample sizes and that will be expensive.

SUMM is in a tough space , no big pharma interest in C-Diff and DMD is what it is - a very high risk low probability drug. Let's hope 2017 will be a breakthrough year.

I would go with SP7- no point is completing the legals for a charging document without having punters lined up. RP would look pretty stupid participating having just passed on the waiving of the 2 Tranche under their original DBC funding agreement, FFWD I doubt, as would not be consistent with their comments nor their stance on making further investments into DBC- I also get vibe of a falling out between Lorne Abbey and JM. I think we have to take £200k from PEBI on face value, but again doubt further investment as PEBI only has a mkt cap of circa £1.4m. I think JM and friends are putting themselves in a nice position ahead of a listing for DBC via what is effectively a float. DBC will be valued at circa 15m -20m and will have a decent cash balance to take the business forward so hopefully will be an attractive prospect for investors to come on board. Only problem with this, is that no exactly a great deal for RP shareholders as they have given up further share entitlements and warrants.

Thks MFL - do you think others have stumped up the £2m as would appear usual suspects have not participated?

If I understand it correctly there is only one £2m convertible loan note holder - JM.

You guys are ignoring reality, the efficacy of Ridinilazole is not the issue. The C-Diff program is not fully funded and that is an unbelievably naive comment to make. How would Summ even get a drug to market without a licensing deal - it has no sales force for starters. Big pharma is showing absolutely no signs of wishing to become involved in the development of new antibiotics despite an Armageddon scenario being painted by many, due squarely to commercial considerations. It could pick off the likes of Summ C-Diff program for relative petty cash if it wished to do so. The free market is not working so governments will have to step in eventually if a Public Health crisis becomes a reality. Existing treatments will inevitably become less effective, of course that's true, but that's also the root cause of the problem as bacteria evolves ever more quickly to become resistant. We have to date simply relied upon new antibiotics being introduced but that supply has now been exhausted. Coliston is a antibiotic of last resort in the western world, China are already administering it to farm animals. In my view the most viable long term solution is attacking bacteria with viruses that can themselves evolve with the bacteria to maintain their effectiveness. The problem with the current approach is that the same situation will arise every 4/5 years. I suspect this is behind the lack of any Big-Parma interest, they want drugs that will work for 10-15 years under exclusivity without the risk of Govt intervention. I don't expect you to share this view, but it must be a little concerning that Summ has yet to put in place a deal of any kind.

saintpeter- I also note the following. Might be an exercise of that ahead of the LIFE formal offer document. Maybe its a housekeeping exercise. Share options It is also noted that Diabetic Boot has an outstanding share option held by an independent third party in respect of 1,326 Diabetic Boot Shares, which can be exercised at the price of GBP 5.09 (or approximately US$7.87 or HK$61.39), for an aggregate amount of GBP 6,749.34 (or approximately US$10,439.88 or HK$81,431.06), on or before 30 November 2022.

Presumably u you are basing this on the fact that it has dropped 40% since the post Sarepta high. I prefer more concrete reasons- C-Diff looks as though facing strong headwinds and DMD is a P2 binary event with historical probabilities stacked against it. If you believe a C-Diff deal is close then a buck 50 might be a good entry, I don't share that view right now, but I hope I am wrong.

I am not disputing, and nor am I qualified to do so, the relative efficacy of Fidaxomicin and ridinilazole, although it must be kept in mind SUMM's sample sizes are tiny. I think there is a much more fundamental barrier that Summ currently faces in respect to its C-Diff program. Over the last 20 years there has been an absolute dearth of interest shown by big-pharma in developing new antibiotics. This is dispite of reports that show that 700,000 deaths a year currently arise due to antibiotic resistant infections and this is expected to grow to 10 million by 2050 without new antibiotics, The cost due to antibiotic resistant infections is estimated to be 66 trillion dollars by 2050. Given these alarming statistics the lack of interest being shown by big-pharma in developing new antibiotics seems counter -intuitive and quite shocking. There are however , as always, sound commercial and business reasons for this lack of interest. Firstly the bacteria will itself develop resistance to any new antibiotics within 4/5 years at most; this leaves bi-pharma little time to make a decent turn on the huge costs and time frames necessary to develop new antibiotics. Big-pharma would rather focus on drugs for high blood pressure and stomach ulcers. The next question is - should the development of new antibiotics be a public health service and not something governed by a free market- government intervention and the inevitable margin compression does not excite big-pharma. There are also more novel approaches for which clinical trial have become which are based upon attacking the bacteria with viruses, such that the virus itself evolves along side the bacteria to retain its effectiveness. I think the commercial attractiveness of a C-Diff drug is a major hurdle and probably explains why Summ is finding it very difficult to land a deal of any kind.

Original collaboration I believe was between Astra and Optimer pharma before sold to Cubist pharma (antibiotic specialist). Cubist was bought by Merck for $8.4 billion (its top seller was daptmycin and it had a portfolio of other drugs so don't read in a sky high value for ridinilazole on back of this). I think unlikely Merck and the big guns like P3 complete and some sales unless prospects exceptional and no competition. They would also be potentially cannibalising their own pipeline. I think interest likely from elsewhere, although right now there is very little interest being shown by Big pharma in the C-Diff space - so where ?, no clues yet from the BOD all very open ended stuff like ''Company continues to explore options to support the future development of ridinilazole with a view to maximising the potential commercial value of this antibiotic.'' Would be nice to get an incline of what is going on- it has been a while now since BOD first indicated it waned to a deal.

I don't think they can go it alone - they don't have the funding in place. From memory its also a very small sample size.

The drift down is due to the realisation of the very long time frames and substantial risks associated with any DMD program and the failure to announce any deal on C-Diff. Markets always over shoot on good news and return to normality when the traders disappear. Who knows when a C-Diff deal may materialise, its certainly been in the pipeline for sometime so may not be quite as attractive proposition as the BOD had hoped for. Not sure how the C-Diff program will be funded if Summ forced to go on alone- I assume there are covenants restricting the use of the milestone cash.

That's fine siantpete7r - I pop this on here too with a bit more commnet at the end, as you may not visit RP/Ple board very often Thanks sainpeter7- I suspected that maybe the case or the t/o of RP which has also been discussed. I support a t/o theory and the fact that is now more than 2 months that LIFE has been suspended kinda supports my view. The LIFE acquisition of DBC on the face of it appears quite strange, because it was only a few months ago that RP put in place a fairly complex funding arrangement, including the allotment of further shares in DBC to RP, upon it achieving certain milestones. I am struggling to understand why LIFE has been suspended for so long, especially with JM on both sides of this deal, surely in normal circumstances a formal offer document would have gone out by now. There must also have been some advanced planning. If this all due to a possible t/o of RP, LIFE may simply new shares directly to the shareholders of record in RP thus preventing LIFE hitting RP's balance sheet as any acquirer will only be interested in the rights to Fortacin. If that is the case the Its all speculative, but the best we can come up with given the radio silence. Good luck to you also- In know JM is very bullish about DBC and it has begun supply pulse flow to US veterans - there is a range of views, but the top end is that could be a blockbuster product which is why a I am surprised it is being shipped out of RP. I don't think it was just to save the LIFE listing, that would be pretty negative for you guys and JM has a multitude of entities that he could have rto into LIFE. I think it is a sound investment d for LIFE shareholders. If I don't get some LIFE shares via any t/o I will certainly add some to my portfolio.

saintpeter- as JM is effectively on both sides of this deal and controls the process why would take so long to get a formal offer document out? Its pretty miserable for any LIFE shareholders that might like to trade to be suspended for so long already, particularly as we approach Xmas You refer to a business reorganisation at Regent Pacific - what exactly do you mean by that.

Hopefully they can translate to deals.

The P2 binary outcome for DMD is some time away. In the meantime a deal for C-Diff is needed but that is going to be easy - very little, if any big-pharma interest currently. SYN got whacked recently having put in a place a funding - I think were also hoping for a deal that never materialised in time.