Member Info for Vander

By coincidence prof Fraser and uniquest have a dna vaccine for HPV and cervical cancer in development (see website) Maybe N4p did not take up the opportunity to commission research with them as per UoA as they are developing an hpv vaccine with medimmune Speculation but interesting all the same

Here is something on UNIQUEST- n4p does not get a mention yet

They invented the HPV vaccine there
https://uniquest.com.au/filething/get/17942/Gardasil_WEB%208%20Aug%202017.pdf

Yep- published on boxing day- with investment data up to first 8months

However, now we can go to cell and gene matchmaking events in UK as well as Japan
'There are more than 60 biotech firms specialising in cell and gene therapy in the UK, making it the second-biggest cluster in the world after the US'

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/dec/26/absolute-revolution-uk-biotech-firms-thrive-despite-brexit-threat
Any comments welcome

I think Jansen is an upgrade with previous experience in virology/immunology and more specifically in development of vaccines in combination with a delivery vehicle/ virosome in partnership with a large Pharma (astellas). Does she have the expertise required for immune- oncology development and chemotherapeutics? Leishman is still in contact- his expertise is in oncology- and more specifically with inside knowledge of AZ It seems a NED is part of good corporate governance, and agree it will depend on who they attract

Do you feel they need a more dedicated role?

It seems sensible to add specialist experience to the board as the company expands and options widen Remind me of the incumbent board members other than Nigel? Wide general experience in drug development I think The options for product development are becoming more complicated eg use to deliver multiple moieties etc. Below the board they have beefed up manufacturing with Allan hey and science with melody Jansen- maybe could do with more They will get specialist advice on product development from Eu ncl and TAB- this adds to that

This will be of interest to fellow n4p investors:

The AZ ‘5R framework’ - right target, right patient, right tissue, right safety, right commercial potential

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/articles/2018/new-research-paper-shows-that-astrazeneca-has-achieved-greater-than-four-fold-improvement-in-rd-productivity-19012018.html

Right patient/disease
Right plasmid DNA or mRNA or peptide or small molecular drug
Right delivery vehicle/method eg nuvec, plus others

They will decide at an early stage what the product will be used for- this is key to overall longer term commercial success- the big money comes with a marketed product, dependent on all of its elements (ie the 5Rs)

A interesting aspect of the last RNS was the emphasis on the MSN spikes, which differentiates nuvec from other MSNs/competitors. Also the possibility of dual action through use of the pores to incorporate chemotherapeutics etc. Maybe use as a next generation ADC

It also shows increasing knowledge of the underlying mechanism of action- they still lack info on cytosolic transport

Here are some snippets:Early identification of patients most likely to benefit from treatment led to 62% of projects progressing to the next phase of development compared with 46% without prospective patient selection. Today, >90% of projects in the IMED Biotech Unit pipeline have a patient selection approach.
70% of projects where proof-of-mechanism (POM) was demonstrated were associated with increased clinical success compared with 26% where POM was not demonstrated.

A Christmas stocking: Brexit, border security, trump, deals with the rest of the world, Gatwick drones, Iranian migrant crisis I am sure wsg is in there somewhere

My view is that if the the Iran contract was ‘imminent’ then PF would have said so. He knows how to get us all jizzed up. Last year he gave us a promised update after one month which got most of us into an anticipatory lather Regarding Africa- they are drafting the contracts- not sure what the timescale for that is in PF speak Agree that the numbers should be better by months end and the tech contracts are an area of positivity

Thanks for the heads up that Namibia has come to end of the line. I agree that wsg should have informed us of this By the way how will plans to expand into Africa impact on non US dollar transactions- this will presumably play out over the next year? Sir Tony has excellent links in Somalia- they have terrible airport security

Check out Star pharma, a company which owns a dendrimer platform.(Mcap approx 500m ASD).
Lead product is a denrimer based microcidal vaginal gel. Hence initial main partners were with condom manufacturers. The AZ collaboration relates to delivery of chemetherapeutic drugs- deal began 2015 with milestone paymeny since

http://www.pharmatimes.com/news/az_licences_starpharmas_dendrimer_nanotechnology_971852

https://starpharma.com/news/310

Also a cautionary tale, from Bind therapeutics, which went bankrupt- accurins did not work

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2013/astrazeneca-bind-therapeutics-cancer-nanomedicine-accurin-22042013.html#

Happy xmas all! I believe 2019 will be very good for N4p and hopefully we will regain former highs and move on from there. Medimmune could be the just the beginning

AZ deal deal with cytimmune was announced 27th Dec (2012). Gold nanoparticles They work over xmas period

It means that the university of Queensland can still do research on the particle on aspects that N4p (or in fact medimmune) are not interested in at present. They are a university dept with lots of ideas but they are not into product development and they are leaving commercialisation, manufacture, finding collaborators up to N4p. The Australian institute of bioengineering and nanotechnology (AIBN) are well respected- we are lucky to have linked up with them before another much bigger biotech got in there

This is why mesoporous SIlica nps have the potential to enter and gain market share in the growing nanotechnology space. They are easily tunable and able to deliver more than one product at a time eg rna and a peptide or drug, or include an antibody fragment to allow targeting to cancer cells or a polymer to allow endosomal escape etc the Cornell c dots developed with medi have 5 elements. I do not think modernas liposomes are as adaptable- you have the change the lipid constituents each time It’s still early stage but it will attract more potential collaborators

Medi have updated their nanotechnology blog (yes- they have one).
They have added a paper on how nanoparticles (polymer or liposome) enhance the action, and reduce side effects of the chemotherapy PBD in mice. PBD is produced by Spirogen- Medi acquired them in 2013.

https://www.medimmune.com/about-us/media/2018/growing-our-understanding-of-nanotech03122018.html

or bit.ly/2rhppJB

Also in papers recently AZ are investing in cancer genomics in cambridge, in collaboration with CRUK
https://www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/business/astrazeneca-and-cruk-launch-cambridge-centre-to-accelerate-cancer-drug-development-9056478/

Also apologies- I recently posted nuvec has shown superior immune response over lipofectamine and a polymer.

Not true for lipofectamine- it showed improved in vitro cell transfection in the presence of DNase1- which is different

Apple you are cunning Deramper, the ilk of which I have not faced before

Overall this has been going up since end of sept 2018. Good return if bought at 4-6p, though as hairy hat mentions the risks then were v high- less so now, at least for a while. Hence not a recovery but hopefully the early stages of a growth story. Lots of potential over the next 12 months, with big players moving the main focus from enhancing rna/dna to focusing on the delivery vehicle. If you include sildenafil it’s a recovery story Main risks in short/ medium term: macro economic. Also if medimmune decide not pursue a codevelopment/collaboration agreement- unlikely given their commitment to develop a non liposome np, 10 month collab to date and relatively small monetary risk for them vs the bigger research/commercial agenda We are a long way off becoming the industry standard yet though Study efficacy failure unlikely for at least 6 -24months. The problem is not a good enough immune response for any given vaccineimmunotherapy product, to allow progression to human trials. Safety is a risk but not highlighted to date. The results of the first SNP human trials due after feb 2019 will give some indication of systemic safety (see clinical trials.org) What do others think?

The patent relating to the rambutan spikes produced by varying manaufacturing parameters predates the medimmune studies- filing date Oct 2017 The medimmune collaboration project was expected to last 9 months but there are some studies ongoing Medimmune’s option to gain exclusivity on use of the results lasts 3 months from the end of the project The 29/10 rns refers to additional studies to optimise the loading properties of nuvec and to characterise the immune response. The last rns updated us on the latter- the IR was antigen specific and superior to an industry standard polymer. We are awaiting an update on the ‘optimising loading’ aspect, and also clarification on the end date of the initial project. The terms of an appropriate collaborative agreement may come in the same rns or at least be signposted N4p will continue euncl characterisation. A major focus of 2019 will be transferring from the cheap lab making a few mls to an expensive manaufacturing plant making kgs to GMP standards. They have made a test pilot batch- a first step- it took Oct to Dec 2018- this was not a delay, but could have been communicated better Medimmune will lead codevelopment of the product- notice how they have worked with Cornell/ elucida to improve their ultra small SNPs and their potential uses- they attached an antibody fragment to help targeting of cancer cells- see Oct 18 study summary on google/eureka