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It seemed so far away only a week ago and now we are there. Zak Mir had better revise his forecast.

Aptamer at 1p is valued at a Market Cap of £27.64m. There is an awful lot of mileage in this share price yet.

A market Cap of £250m is perfectly reasonable over the next year or so as the current projects, especially if the licensing agreements with Unilever and Astrazeneca progress to earn royalties. I have been pleasantly surprised by how quickly this share has moved up to 1P and £25M, what is the next way marker?, a share price of 4p and Market Cap of £100M? Now wouldn't that be nice?

Yes, thanks for that heads up Imperial, in fact the Proteomics website confirms that dedicated reimbursement code in the United States for its PromarkerD test, which predicts diabetic kidney disease, is priced at $390.75 per test.

If Aptamer’s biomarker service achieves comparable prices, the revenue potential could be substantial.

I stand corrected

"revenue enhancing in the current financial year...."

This new fee-for-service revenue stream, based on typical biomarker discovery pricing in biotech Contract Research Orgs, could typically generate about £40K per project. Assuming 2 or 3 projects per month, it could recover about a third of Aptamers annual overhead. A big contributor and a significant development for the company. Now that is great news.

I am not sure that you have understood the Farm -Out deal with Prime. The RNS announcement said that 'The Company believes that the US$15,000,000 being raised from the farm-out transaction will be sufficient to meet the current NJOM-3 well commitment.' Now why would Tower want to get Perenco or anyone else involved if it would only serve to dilute our interest? Also your further point about the need for a dilutive placing to fund the well doesn't make sense, if we already have the necessary finance to fund the drill from the Prime farm-out!!

Or am I mistaken?

No, thats rubbish, my spreadsheet is wrong, Petrotal have bought back about 1.25m shares since May, and that makes them on target to buy back the same as last time. Still, the upward pressure that it creates on the share price is a positive nonetheless, sorry for the error.

Re-purchases under the present Share Buy Back scheme, which has been going since June 3rd amount to only 34,566 shares so far.

The last scheme which ran from May 2024 to May 2025, the company had repurchased 5.4 million shares at an average price of US$0.4669, spending some £2.5M. The company hasn't declared a target but the programme is way behind last times schedule and to have any effect on shareholder value, it must be accelerated over the coming weeks. This should lift the share price considerably, especially with the dividend coming up.

Norway cashes in on 134m barrels of North Sea oil as Ed Miliband ends UK exploration

It is not good riddence, he retains 117,933,333 shares, some 4% of the company.

What he's done of course, is sell sufficient of his shares to pay back his initial capital investment so that his 117 million stand him in for nothing.

Very reasonable investment practise I would say, and I should image that he will let the rest ride the wave going forward.

This is indeed excellent news for Aptamer as it enhances Aptamers reputation with top-tier pharma and it validates the use of Optimer for diagnostics.

Diagnostics hasn't, until now been of high importance in my cash flow evaluation of the business. I will need to revise my assumptions upwards.

The paid for extension will immediately boost cash inflow and I suspect that there will be minimal further R and D expenditure on this one. Maybe they have agreed milestone payments for achievement of performance targets! Whatever, but it strengthens Optimers claims for future pharma contracts and licensing revenues will bring recurring income and new revenue streams. Well done Aaron and his team.

You and Dad should be on solid ground Vik with your ISA investment, WalletInvestor has a forecast of 2.4p for Aptamer Group's share price by the end of 2025 to middle of next year.

They use technical analysis to generate their predictions and their model currently projects a 1-year target of 2.417p for Aptamer Group PLC.

That is 4 times what it is today. If this is achieved, Aptamer group's market capitalisation will be approx £60 million. I think a very modest value and it will still represent a significant upside potential. Good luck.

Dr. Bunka’s expertise shone through. His explanation of high-throughput aptamer selection and the ability to develop binders without needing biomarkers was compelling. His claim that Optimer binders can cut development timelines by 70% compared to antibodies was a standout point that, if true, will be the real value generator to APTA. I would have liked more performance metrics to support this claim, but the conceptual overview was strong. Well done APTA and Dr Bunka

Https://www.turnerpope.com/register/

Admarine 510 is the official rig proposed for NJOM-3.

It’s the most modern and government-preferred option.

SD Victory offers a near-identical spec and is already in Luba, making it a strong backup or cost-saving alternative.

Common sense would point us towards SD Victory, unless switching would cause further approval delays to the drill.

Admarine 510 jack-up rig has completed its five-yearly recertification project in Bahrain and is now preparing for deployment to Cameroon.

As of now, Admarine 510 is anchored in the Persian Gulf, en route to Zuluf, with an expected arrival on August 19, 2025, where it will undergo final preparations before mobilization to Camaroon.

It is now committed to two drilling contracts in Cameroon:

1. Tower Resources: To drill the NJOM-3 well on the Thali license in Q4 2025.

2. Addax Petroleum: A one-year firm contract starting late 2025, with two optional six-month extensions

I am hoping that the update on Thursday will brief us on the Unilever collaboration. Someone has suggested that we may be moving to people trials. If that happens, it will be a powerful signal of success and a wonderful endorsement of the Optimer tech. Just watch the SP go if that happens on Thursday.

I am increasingly intrigued by the opportunities for inorganic growth that must present themselves to Serica over the next six to 18 months. With zero net debt expected by year-end and up to $500 million FCF in 2026, let alone the move to the main market, Serica is well-positioned to consider both asset acquisitions and buying whole businesses. Tailwind and Enquest weren't appropriate, but what about Ithaca's nearby fields? Then there is Dana. No doubt Serica could make a better job of operating Triton itself, so why not buy out Dana's interest? I am sure that Serica are looking at all these things and it makes it a very exciting prospect for the coming months, quite apart from the volume growth that is now expected in 2026.

A ballpark valuation of £450 million would equate to a share price of 17p, some 30 times todays price.

Perfectly achievable in my view, but APTA need to negotiate a number of challenges along the way to get there.

Short term, it would be my view that a strong trading update in October will push this share price above 1.0p, double what it is today.

An SP of .53 values APTA at £15Million.

Gilead committed $80 million upfront to Scholar Rock, with the deal potentially worth up to $1.5 billion for a potential treatment for one condition.

This example illustrates for me the potential value of Aptamer.

The numbers are huge here, many hundreds of millions, if Aptamer proves to have a workable solution to these various conditions and treatments.

By the way:-

'Having put the Novo collaboration on hold, Gilead remains deeply committed to fibrosis, through its partnership with Scholar Rock, with whom Gilead recently signed a deal worth up to $1.5 billion to co-develop SRK-181, a TGFβ1 inhibitor targeting fibrotic diseases like diabetic nephropathy and pulmonary fibrosis. This marks a pivot toward upstream regulators of fibrosis'

How important, do you consider it is that Gilead fill that hole? Do you have a view on the strategic importance of Fibrotic disease treatments to Gilead?

I put those questions to Copilot AI and it responded with:-

'Gilead Sciences’ fibrotic disease pipeline is strategically significant for several reasons, reflecting both scientific ambition and commercial opportunity.

Scientific Relevance

Targeting TGFβ Pathways: Gilead’s collaboration with Scholar Rock focuses on inhibiting the activation of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ), a key driver of fibrosis. This approach could revolutionize treatment for diseases like nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and diabetic kidney disease.

Unmet Medical Need: Fibrotic diseases often lack effective therapies. By investing in novel mechanisms, Gilead positions itself to address high-burden conditions with limited competition.

Financial Potential

Gilead committed $80 million upfront to Scholar Rock, with the deal potentially worth up to $1.5 billion. This reflects strong confidence in the pipeline’s commercial viability.

Fibrosis represents a strategic expansion into inflammation and metabolic diseases, aligning with its goal to deliver 10+ transformative therapies by 2030.

As Gilead Sciences faces patent cliffs and competition in virology, fibrosis offers a new growth engine'

I would say from the above insight that Gilead Sciences would be a very hot prospect for a collaboration project with APTA

Well done Imperial