Member Info for RMM3383

Brick - I was based at Farnboro but visited a lot of sites. As to Thoth's 'scary' experience, Porton Down was not a place I'd hang around at. Boscombe Down - fascinating but made me put the microwave in the utility room and I never stand over it when in use!!! I'm sure its quite safe......

Hi Working - I worked with what is now Qinetiq on their preparation for going private. It was painful working with the bureaucrats to put it mildly. When the city analysts visited to meet the BoD it was a real clash of cultures (city wolf meets naieve scientist). With the Covid Grant we are at the mercy of the bureaucrats. The assigned mentor will no doubt want to tick all the boxes as their prime motivation is not to get blamed if anything goes wrong. Speed was never a high priority. The politicians are totally fixated on their ratings(votes) hence the focus on a vaccine (because that's the only thing they understand - Cytokine Storm? Is that the same as the Beast from the East??). The civil servants are totally fixated on process. What will really accelerate things is if we get PoC and the virus continues to mutate (which it will). We are already known by the big players and that's where I place my faith if all goes well over the next few months.Getting PoC might appear slow but if it works then watch out for the fireworks. Pushing now when there will be little data could well be counter productive. All just IMHO.

Only last week Moderna claimed that their vaccine was effective against both the UK and South African variants. But then they announced that they would be modifying their vaccine. Now it would appear that it's not so effective against the SA variant after all. As with the flu it was always going to be a case of catch up but it's pretty clear that there will be no silver bullet. 1801 PoC can't come soon enough for all our sakes.
https://endpts.com/as-new-covid-19-task-force-gets-underway-threat-looms-of-vaccine-monoclonal-antibody-resistant-variants/

Interesting article/extract in EndPoints yesterday. Tamping down the cytokine storm may involve a combo approach that uses both an immunosuppressant and an anti-inflammatory. Opens up the field in terms of potential partnerships.
https://endpts.com/biotech-voices-revisiting-the-cytokine-storm-in-ards-the-painful-wait-for-anti-inflammatory-drugs-targets-that-solve-covid-19-deaths/

Thoth - I concur. Raise awareness, raise money, go into trials, get the data and hold big pharma to ransom. Standard negotiating tactics for those who've been there. GLA

It was a general point that not all big Pharmas are going to be successful in the vaccine arena. Some will look to therapeutics. Merck, amongst others, could well look to our TYK2 as an interesting option if none of their ATR inhibitors work with Covid.

Merck have just announced their withdrawal from the Covid vaccine race. Could be an interesting re-focus on the therapeutics as a way of staying in the sector.

Brighty - I'm quite happy for the BoD to concentrate on what is already on their plate - getting 1801 into the clinic, going through the hoops to get POC for Covid, developing 1802 to follow 1801 into trials. Tyk2 was always the jewel and whereas before Covid we had 2 pipeline prospects we now have 3. I am of the view that plenty is going on behind the scenes plus we clearly have a big buyer who is constantly upping their stake.

Thoth – When people started to talk about ‘Long Covid’ many months ago I immediately wondered if this was a form of either post viral fatigue or ME. My view was that if 1801 worked with Covid sufferers then it would probably work with a number of respiratory viral infections not least pneumonia and we would have a ‘blockbuster’ on our hands. A combo of anti-inflammatories and immune system suppressants could be a powerful therapy for a number of conditions including Covid. However, there is a caveat for those who think that such therapies will restore the status quo. In a number of cases the after-effects of pneumonia can take up to 6 months to disappear and for some they will never regain the full capacity of their lungs. I suspect that this will be true for Covid, some/most will recover fully but for a smaller proportion there will be lasting consequences. In my humble opinion its high time the politicians stopped looking solely at the silver bullet vaccine and moved the focus to therapeutics that would moderate the symptoms of those unlucky enough not to be protected by the vaccines or who simply cannot have the vaccine. By moderating the symptoms you would be less likely to develop long term issues whereby once the damage has been done it is very difficult to restore the body to its original state. The public are waking up to the politically unacceptable news that this will be with us for a long time if not forever (just like the common cold and flu). Learning to live with something requires cultural change as well as medical interventions thus combo treatments are going to need to take on a new dimension. We could very well be an important part of this combo. Successful POC against Covid will open up a whole new array of opportunities for SAR. In reply to another question, the BoD were very clear that we are on a 6 month runway to prove PoC so don't expect anything soon. GLA all genuine LTH’s.

Some reports emerging in the media regarding allergic reactions to the mRNA based Covid 19 vaccines. The Safety section of the Nature article is worth a read even if it is a few years old. The authors suggest that those with potentential allergic reactions should be filtered out. However, the key section is 'some mRNA based vaccine platforms induce potent Type 1 interferon responses.... associated with autoimmunity'. The possibility is that TYK2 could moderate allergic reactions to mRNA vaccines as well as moderating symptoms of those who catch the virus either because the vaccine fails or are unable to be vaccinated due to other medical conditions.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2017.243#Tab2

Ovarian hitting the headlines:
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/ovarian-cancer-breakthrough-thousands-women-benefit-drug-delays-disease-830276
And we have previous with Niraparib:
http://filecache.investorroom.com/mr5ircnw_sierra/165/Sierra_AACR_SRA737%20niraparib_FINAL.pdf
Time for Sierra to get off the pot.....

I suspect its Synairgen who released a RNS this morning saying that the first patient had been dosed with their P3 drug that targets interferon beta.

Ahfam - If (and its a huge if) one of our molecules proved effective in helping to treat diabetes then according to my little model it would add 96p to the SP if we got it into P1 and around £2.88 if we got into P2. I'm using Lilly's Trulicity as the benchmark. That's on top of everything else. Whoever wants to acquire our TYK2 will need deep pockets if they wait too long and we can achieve POC in a number of indications.

JAK1/TYK2 mentioned again in relation to diabetes.....

Brighty - It's an interesting comparison. Kymab and Sar have pipelines at comparable stages.However, the indications we are targeting have much greater commercial potential. The big difference is that Kymab have a big and expensive overhead but it is packed with commercial nouse. The key for our BoD is to focus efforts on getting our jewel in the crown into the limelight. I believe that Dilly has a plan for 737 so leave him to get on with it. FLT3 can be left on the shelf for another time but TYK2 is the here and now. GLA

Can't think why anybody would invest heavily at this point. Enrollment is not even complete and around 18 months to go before first readouts. So it can't just be Momo thats driving the investment...... To get a stake of that size bought Dilly would have had to have revealed his plans.....

Zylo - Diabetes market is forecast to hit >$60bn in 5 years time. If I added that into my model I'd have to change my underwear.

Hi Bridges - the play was always TYK2 in terms of generating significant value. I wonder how many people googled TYK2 over the weekend and looked for the next Hemo/SNG?

..... I'd be sharpening my pencil and running the calculator over Sar. The Chinese Pharma may well not have resolved the solubility issue with FLT3 but they made progress. This suggests to me that Tim's words that its difficult (but not impossible?) could open up a whole new dialogue. Resolve the solubility issue and you have a cancer treatment and also potentially a vaccine adjuvant. With 737 we have a share in a drug that Gilead are already aware of and I suspect eyeing up via Sierra. Then there's TYK2. Rapidly gaining publicity in the war against Covid and with potential in multiple indications. Gilead are already aware of SAR. We have the patent's resolved, we've now got FLT3 back unfettered and TYK2 (1801 and 1802) are all ours. Could be an interesting dialogue. Bear in mind that 'conversations' are ongoing and it puts a whole new perspective on the Chinese decdiing not to progress a licence. GLA

Hi Fadec - You are correct in that the animals don't always have to die but there is a timescale element that means these trials take time. With regard to MTD for 1801 I've now had confirmation that the reformulation means that they have a proven safety profile above the level of any therapeutic dose so MTD is definitely not an issue. Thanks for tidying up my post!