Member Info for The_Paladin

Synairgen’s Chairman currently has eleven active directorships , in addition to his day job as Savills’ CFO. His latest appointment in 2022 is with a company in the software development space. He has maintained his Synairgen Chairman role for two decades.

How can anyone with his fingers in so many pies justify asking for a stipend of £85K p.a. from a small struggling pharmaceutical company? The same question could be put to the other directors, in particular the three overpaid Synairgen executives? Someone mentioned something about it being a suitable payment for “World class” directors? Surely no one in Synairgen’s boardroom merits that description?

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/dNimElwmaD2JNgfjP6gnKrNKZbk/appointments

I agree with Docdaneeka that if there is nothing new and significant added at the AGM, serious questions need to be asked about how this business is being run?

GLALTIs.

The directors’ budget is £200K - an average of £25K p.a. for each director. Three of the directors are also the company’s three most senior executives, each with a salary and other remunerations package in excess of £350K. (I have based this on online sources, please feel free to correct me, if appropriate).

None of these individuals has merited a pay increase. If there has been an overspend in the budget, perhaps it should be absorbed from next year’s budget?

The company hasn’t earned any money. It remains in existence solely from a shareholder capital raise for their previous trial.

The company needs to be more prudent with our money, until it becomes self financing IMHO.

B2HS2L

My guesstimate share price range was based on the interim values achieved during the company’s previous upward trajectory to a funded Phase III trial.

Should the company demonstrate similar progress in the future, their return to credibility will be acknowledged by the market.

Should this prove to be the case, I doubt whether they will receive the backing of investors, as before? The trial would need to be funded by a different ‘vehicle’, or another solution to bring the product to market would need to be found?

Thank you Lurker2020.

The AGM is all about the reappointment of directors, and approving a 75% increase in their annual remuneration pot. Simon Shaw justifies the increase as being less than the net increase in RPI since 2004. A pompous statement from a chairman who doesn’t acknowledge the fact that, for the time being, all of Synairgen’s expenses are derived from the residue of the shareholder capital invested in their SNG0018 trial.

I will stick with my cart and horse analogy. Why not wait for the company to deliver a clinical outcome to significantly increase the share price first? A share price increase, to 40-50p say, would get Synairgen back on track. It would be more appropriate for the company to submit a claim for additional director remuneration, and share options for executives when they actually deliver a “concrete” outcome to investors.

My personal thanks 🙏 to all of you attending the AGM. If there is a Q&A session at the end, I hope that the answers will offer more insight than the jam tomorrow statements offered by the CEO last time around.

GLALTIs.

Apparently the LSE formatting tool introduced a “.” at the end of the link. Here it is again:

https://rb.gy/v2k1q

Apparently life has started to go on at Synairgen Research following the departure of Brooke Clarke. The following appeared on LinkedIn about 1h ago.

I admired the Synairgen corporate image that Mrs. Clarke had consistently repeated in the twitter/LinkedIn carousel. That has disappeared. The link just leads to the first page of the website. Vin ordinaire at best.

“For #Media #Investors

“It’s Love Your Lungs Week in the UK! According to Asthma + Lung UK, 1 in every 5 people will have a lung condition in their lifetime and 5.4 million people in the UK are currently living with asthma. Our lungs are vital for a healthy and active life.

Understanding how and why some people’s lungs are unable to defend themselves has been at the heart of the Synairgen story from the beginning.

Learn more: https://rb.gy/v2k1q. ”

Aether, you really should have worked out who that is, as you have given him an unflattering mention on many occasions.

Spacman’s valued contribution to our debate has never evoked the negativity of that individual, who has made more comebacks than Frank Sinatra!

He is trying his best to remain hidden in plain sight, but not succeeding! Anyhow, why am I bothering to give him more of the oxygen that he craves?

Last year, Brooke Clarke was granted share options. Helen Gearing was not. From today’s update, we can conclude that Brooke Clarke has not been granted any options. Presumably, this is because she has left the company? Other than this nothing else about the process has changed, other than the magnitude of the awards.

Other than stating that this is the company’s process, can the CEO defend these awards to investors if questioned next week? Surely the answer to that question is no. Today’s grant of options has not been earned, as the company has offered nothing concrete to investors in 16 months. We all want that situation to change. Let us see if there is an update in the run up to the AGM. The CEO and his execs have disappointed investors for well over a year, so I shan’t hold my breath.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/SNG/grant-of-options/15527414

GLALTIs.

Jody Brookes and Richard Francis are SVPs. They have been granted options.

So much to look forward to here. It will be good when we reach a position (in terms of the appropriate company updates) when the real rise starts to take place. All we have seen recently are a continuation of the market shenanigans that have gone on with this share for so long!

More P&D? This inevitably happens here whenever investors’ aspirations, based on IB’s potential and progress, are raised. When will these games cease?

Agreed Wigster. I hope that all is well with

BigjohnnyWin. He hasn’t posted since early April last year.

Is it possible that Helen Gearing has left the company? Her profile is still listed with the other execs, so that it seems odd that she has not been granted any share options?

Brooke Clarke was sneaked out of the back door quietly. Is the same happening to Helen Gearing?

Last year, this notice was given post AGM on July 6 2022. This year, the same procedure is happening a week before the AGM. Is this significant?

The award includes “ over 6,132,718 ordinary shares of one pence each in the capital of the Company ('Ordinary Shares') at an exercise price of one pence per Ordinary Share. The Options represent in aggregate 3.05 % of the Company's issued share capital.

Following this grant, Synairgen has 18,119,156 options in issue, representing 9% of the company’s share capital.”

The fact that Brooke Clarke is not included on the list of major beneficiaries implicitly confirms that she is no longer employed by the company.

Despite this being a routine part of company procedure, it still gives me an impression that they are putting the cart ahead of the horse, as was the case last July. We can but hopefully anticipate that something will be announced to justify this award over the coming week? After all, the proverbial cart has now been stuck in a ditch for 16 months!

Eight months ago, while waiting for a delayed flight, I remember responding to one of MrCosts’ contributions by stating that he was persistently boring and repetitive. He politely responded stating that his crusade would continue until there was a change in the state of his investment.

He has since been true to his word, and long term contributors to this board have seen no significant change to reverse the decline of our investments since then.

I have finally come to terms with the fact that, on the balance of things, I was correct in investing in the potential value of SNG001 during a pandemic. IMHO, the post trial event that decimated the share price was most probably due to negligence? The CEO was focused on the future, and greater diligence was necessary from the company to give the trial the best chance of success?

I agree with MrCosts that the communication from the company since then has been woeful.

The interferon-beta for dummies media content was very professionally produced, but had zero impact. I learned a lot about my investment from it. Some of the academic references shared on this page were indecipherable, and Synairgen’s initiative filled that gap.

I suspect that the aforementioned media initiatives came from Brooke Clarke? Since her recent departure there has been no new content, and the LinkedIn/twitter messages have dried up.

The Rick Bright “endorsement” hasn’t worked either. I recently followed him on twitter. His contributions on a daily basis are prolific, so that single initiatives from him could well go unnoticed?

The company’s platform trial aspiration has failed - neither a JV or a PT have emerged in the last year. Investors are now focusing on company trials, which will commence sometime during the next six months?

My main concern rests with the company’s cash burn. Currently, there is no discernible future income stream ahead? My worst case scenario is that our CEO will turn out to be the latest AIM leader suffering from King’s New Clothes syndrome? He could easily allay those fears by finally offering LTIs a concrete statement leading to future progress next Thursday.

Hopefully, not too “doom and gloom” from me, but a dose of realism based on “concrete” facts as I see them.

GLALTIs.

The facts at our disposal, from the most recent company statement, are:

1. (Synairgen has) identified a clinical development plan for SNG001 designed to address the unmet need in targeted, high-risk patient populations that appear to be most responsive to SNG001 in previous clinical trials, for example elderly patients and those with certain co-morbidities.

2. In addition, (the company) plans to assess SNG001 in immunocompromised patients who are particularly vulnerable to respiratory viral infections, ventilated patients with confirmed viral pneumonia, and also those who appear unable to clear virus and become long term "shedders" and mutation hosts.

3. (The) plan will start with a series of focused, investigator-led/Synairgen-sponsored studies, using existing resources, which are intended to lead towards a Phase 3 registrational programme. Preparation is underway for these focused trials to initiate in H2 2023.

This is an outline of Synairgen's immediate intentions. I agree that investors need to be given more detailed information. A time frame for these proposals, and details of the costs involved would be appreciated. This is because the company's cash reserves are dwindling, and there has been no announcement about any cost saving measures.

We will, presumably, know more next Thursday. I totally understand why some investors are feeling anxious. There hasn't been sufficient concrete information for us to form a proper assessment of the state of our investment for far too long IMHO.

GLALTIs

I have just found out that pmjh responded to one of my rare tweets a few days ago with two comments (below). His response regarding Synairgen’s latest plans, and the company’s future potential was bullish.

1. “Investors received a plan on 27/4 and that included the outline for 3 trials starting in H2. Once the trials are formally announced, the market can react accordingly. Finncap’s target price* is currently TBD. A trial or trials will fix that.”

* Market scanner (Is this computer generated content?) quoted a target price of 220p ( from a single source). I have no idea how recent that prediction was put forward. This share price seems highly unlikely at the present time, but who knows what the future may hold?

I hope that the CEO has something positive and concrete to offer investors at the AGM. Similar vague statements to those of a year ago would be very disappointing.

https://m.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/SYNAIRGEN-PLC-4004905/

2. “ In my opinion, the market has nothing to go on at present, so why would the SP be anywhere else? H2 is the next period for potential news and the company are no doubt working hard to get the trials off the ground.”

Doc83.

I looked at pmjh’s recent output briefly after reading Aether’s comment. This includes:

1. Comments on the inevitability of a future pandemic, and the UK’s pandemic preparedness plans.

2. This paper entitled “ Clinically Evaluated COVID-19 Drugs with Therapeutic Potential for Biological Warfare Agents”.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/11/6/1577

Synairgen gets a mention in the long list of therapeutic agents in the paper:

“ IFN β-1a

SNG001, IFN β-1a, which is administered by nebulization to hospitalized patients for 14 days, demonstrated therapeutic potential (rapid recovery and higher likelihood of clinical improvement) alongside a positive safety profile in a phase 2 clinical trial of about 100 participants (half of whom received SNG001) . Although the final and decisive stage of the trial did not lead to similar conclusions, it cannot be ruled out that this treatment might be more effective if administered at different time points (e.g., early treatment or prophylactic treatment) or in combination with other drugs. Additionally, it should be examined whether SNG001 has potential in treating other viral agents.”

There is no apparent reason for this spurious increase any more than there was an explanation for yesterday's closing price.

Even 260% wouldn't induce any excitement for LTIs without a promising piece of news underpinning it.

A x6 increase aligned with concrete trial news would be worth receiving. This is essentially why TFG and long term retail investors remain invested. We are not here for tiny incremental changes of a few pennies. That is the domain of traders who thrive on regular daily trading.

GLALTIs.

Thank you for clarifying that issue jint. The optimal cohort for trial success has been known for some time, hence my comment - the Universal data presumably adds fine tuning to that cohort?