Member Info for Wigster77

After years of waiting for actual oil production and a solid fundamental reason for the SP to rise, don't you think it'd be a bit jarring to see the Chinese manage to manipulate the shareprice upwards in multiples of 100x +?

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...no, me neither!!

"It seems like now we are in a completely different phase of the price action - I'm hoping that this is a protracted accumulation phase, and that it will eventually have the effect of a coiled spring."

Lets hope this "eventually" is sometime before we're all 6 feet under...

Doc83:

“and invitees also include the Provincial and District Governors”

The provincial governor who refused to sign off on the previously needed construction permit. Interesting. I bet he’s rather pis5ed at MIMR changing the rules just to get around his blocking.

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Hopefully they'll get him to stand underneath the "nodding donkey" just before they switch it on to full blast.

"100 bag potential" :-D Almost makes WOS look sane!!

Wigster…are you drunK already?

Not quite...was just doing my best Hamm impression!! I'll be happy to see if over 3p today. With any good news RNS there's always some bleeding uncertain or negative comment. Annoying.

This will definitely spike to 15p before settling back to 13p.

Definitely. 100%. No doubt.

Get buying folks.

"More selling?"

A guy on the TG group says the 609,564/£14k "sell" on here is actually his buy.

So do we think there's going to be an after-hours RNS announcing a takeover? What we thinking?...25p?

....and yes, I'm only kidding. Hopefully a positive RNS early part of next week though, and some - any - upward movement on the SP would be nice.

Our patience really does deserve a spike to 15p on the next positive RNS!!

Just catching up on recent posts. Thank you all for your kind words about the notes - it's never a quick, easy task, but it's always really worthwhile, as evidenced by the great debate and information on the board today. It's also a real team effort from a lot of people who attend the AGM. On that point, many thanks to Jint for filling in some of the gaps and many others for their useful titbits of info.

Finally, I echo what Doc said: "a quick shout out to some members I met for the first time this year, the likes of Dippfs, Brand and others. All great people and we deserve this to be successful". I hope to be able to meet more of you at the EGM, where we can hopefully toast some great news and a brighter future ahead...at long last.

QUESTION: Are the company going to issue more options?

SS: The company does issue them from time to time to incentivise the people in the business to work on your behalf. I can’t say any more than that.

SS then wrapped up the rest of the resolutions and we voted.

SS then said thank you and goodbye.

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Following the meeting some of us were chatting and we had Sir Steven Holgate pop over to us. He thanked us for coming, said it was nice to see us all etc. Someone asked if he was excited about the new plans and he said he was 78 years old, had been in the industry for a very long time and has had a reasonably decent career and would he be here if he wasn’t excited about the future? Said he was absolutely, fully, committed to the plan. Said he understands shareholders frustrations on the time things take but said that a hell of a lot had been learnt over the last year or two. Also mentioned that the market we’re aiming at isn’t trivial and we’re learning all the time how to best target the drug.

We then shook hands with him and various members of the Synairgen team and left for the pub.

Another group of investors had a chat with RM, so if anything useful was gleaned from this then please feel free to add. I do seem to remember it being said that the 6-8 weeks wait for news sounded like it was a “safe” timescale and in reality news could be a bit quicker coming, but I guess we’ll see. It would certainly be novel for Synairgen to exceed expectations on a time-line!!

NEXT WAS THE VOTING ON THE RESOLUTIONS

A few comments/questions were made during Simon Shaws run-through of each resolution:

QUESTION (Ref Resolution 2, voting RM back in): With Simon Shaw resigning (SS swiftly corrected this to “retiring”) and Philip Monk moving on, you are the only one remaining of what I would call the three key people. Richard, quite simply, why should we vote you back in?

RM: I’ve probably covered some of this previously, but I believe in the drug, believe in the plan and the team. Also, doing this trial is the only way that I believe we will add value for shareholders going forward.

FOLLOW UP: Do you think you’ve communicated adequately to shareholders.

RM: I would have loved to have done more. I didn’t want to create that yo-yo of information mentioned earlier. Not sure what I could’ve communicated which wouldn’t have just been unhelpful.

FOLLOW UP: Sometimes saying “there is no update” is an update. We have been in the dark. Then we have the AGM being late, people leaving etc and this gives concern…is Synairgen still going to be with us? AGMs are there for investors to make informed decisions.

SS: We take on board your comments.

FOLLOW UP FROM ANOTHER INVESTOR: One other reason to communicate to investors is to stop the SP dropping. It’s now at 3.5p…

QUESTION: Richard, given that your main role is to do what’s best for shareholders, do you think you’ve been successful in that regard over the last 12 months, given where the share price has dropped to?

RM: Ask your question again at the EGM. Judge me then.

FOLLOW UP: I will

QUESTION: If members of the board leave the company what happens to the options they’ve invested in? Are they relinquished?

SS: In general business, bad leavers usually relinquish, good leavers often retain. As chairman I don’t have options I’ve bought all the shares I’ve got.

FOLLOW UP: We haven’t had any discussion on why Philip Monk is leaving, can you comment on this?

RM: I don’t want to comment on an individual, but rest assured it won’t affect us going forward with the planned trials. We have Marcin, who is very knowledgeable and experienced. He is a really good person to help take us forward. We are basically very flush with scientific knowledge.

SS: PM did say to me a couple of years ago that his strength was more in the pre-clinical arena. He did help us with all sorts of stuff, but in the clinic is not where his skills or interest lie, so this was a logical time for him to move on.

QUESTION: Is Mark “Executive or Non-Executive”

SS: Non-Executive…although technically speaking there is no such thing as Non-Executive for a chairman.

QUESTION: Was Philip Monk supportive of the new plan you have?

SS: Very much so.

QUESTION: Are the company going to issue more options?

SS: The company does issue them from time to time to incentivise the people in the business to work on your behalf. I

FOLLOW UP: You’ve had the fully funded ACTIV trial, there’s BARDA etc and people in government who say they’re interested in new drugs and helping biotech companies. So in terms of getting that £50M are you going for part governmental funding? I also note that TFG can’t put in much as they would go above 30% holding and would therefore have to put an offer in for the company so they’re limited etc. If anyone from TFG is in the room today it’d be great to hear their thoughts…

SS: I completely understand your thought process, but just to confirm, it’s you saying £50M…we have not said that so please don’t spread that as lore on the chat boards. We are understanding of what you’ve said and all will be revealed in the package we will announce shortly. Rest assured we have explored all options for funding.

QUESTION: Will any member of the board be contributing?

SS: Really can’t say at this time. Can we leave it there for the funding questions as we’re going round in circles. Any other questions?

QUESTION: For the roadmap of where you are going with SNG001, how far does this go? Have you planned the Phase 3 trial design for example? Do you have ideas of funding for this? We have been very patient. Very patient. The last thing we would want, on the successful complete of a Phase 2, would be large delays and indecision before starting the Phase 3.

RM: Absolutely. That’s why we’ve put such a detailed and robust plan together. We needed to know exactly where we wanted to go. We’ve consulted various partners and regulators and are confident we’ve got the right route forward, we know exactly where we’re going and how to get there and we’re going to be fully in control of it.

QUESTION: Given that there’s lots of details that you can’t give us today after we’ve all made the effort to come here, would you commit to a face-to-face EGM in the near future so that we can ask the questions that we should have been able to ask today?

SS: Yes, that’s reasonable.

QUESTION: The next question was very technical, around various bio-markers etc. My memory and scientific knowledge aren’t sufficient to do it justice, so apologies to the person who asked it. RM gave an equally technical response and advised that they all discuss it further with SSH after the formal meeting.

SS: Wrapped up the Q&A session at this point and apologised again for not being able to give any further trial or finance package information.

QUESTION: Back in April, there was a presentation by Amanda Holdon ref SNG001 being trialled at Porton Down. Can you give us any more information as we never heard anything from you about this?

RM: That was in-vitro testing and focussing on one virus only. We’re now looking at multiple viruses so focus on that.

FOLLOW UP: The UK Government was involved and they presented on SNG001, is that in anyway linked with what’s to come with our P2 trial?

RM: We’ve kind of left a marker for the event there’s another Global Pandemic. This is the same with the US government. ACTIV was very important for this etc. So although certain things have seemingly come to an end, or not acted on, they might prove very useful in the future.

QUESTION: I believe our stock of the drug is on the balance sheet as nett zero cost?

JC: Yes

FOLLOW UP: Ok, what is the gross value of the drug

JC: That’s not something we’d disclose

FOLLOW UP: The reason I’m asking goes back to what us shareholders are putting into the future of the company. On the balance sheet there’s £118M of retained losses. That’s £118M of shareholder’s money that has developed IP etc. There’s £8M or so of assets gained from shareholders and the gross value of the inventory too. Therefore please consider this when you determine this financial package you’re going to announce as shareholders have already contributed a huge amount to the company and its future.

SS: Of course we will. We want shareholders to be able to make decisions on a risk vs reward basis at all times based on the status of our product at the time. So when we ask you to contribute again we want to give you the information to be able to make an informed decision.

FOLLOW UP: I just wish you’d come out and say “we acknowledge what you as shareholders have already put into the company to get us to where we’re going”

SS: That should be self-evident

FOLLOW UP: It’s not I’m afraid

SS: I hear your point.

QUESTION: Just on that, I think we’d all be grateful not to hear “warrants further investigation” as that’s happened every time so far…

Also, if we have a large P2 trial of say 300 patients, that’s £30M based on £100k per patient. Plus a fair few million to keep the company going in the 3 years or so it will take. Therefore you’re looking at £50M required. That’s a massive dilution for current shareholders – 200M shares to 1 billion? If you’re selling at 4p then you can see that current long-term shareholders, who have put in over £100M of assets to the company already, have been put at a significant disadvantage over new shareholders which may come in.

SS: I understand the observation but cannot comment on it.

RM: You’ll get that answer within the next 6 to 8 weeks.

QUESTION: If you still can’t tell us about the upcoming trial, why are we sat here in October, when the AGM was due in June? Why the delay?

SS: I wanted to make sure that one of my retirement criteria were met. Also, we hoped to have more information to give, but things have taken a longer time than expected. Apologies it’s late.

QUESTION: Will the high viral load diagnostic tool which you’re developing be available to people around the world?

RM: We’re not actually inventing something brand new and quirky, it’s an “off the shelf” thing

QUESTION: Do you have enough drug?

RM: Yes, plenty to cover the trial. More information will follow in 6 to 8 weeks.

QUESTION: Is the LOXL2 Inhibitor dead and buried now?

RM: You’d need to check the Pharmaxis website, but they haven’t licensed it out yet. If they did we’d still benefit from it.

QUESTION: Communication has been very poor. Can it please improve?

RM: Yes. Lots going on the world, makes it difficult, we don’t want to be one of those companies who disappear from AIM. When we get the trial going the updates will be more regular.

FOLLOW UP FROM ANOTHER INVESTOR: I said the same reference communication to you last year and also said that there may be a time when you have to call on investors to help, so you need to treat investors with respect. The communication since has been absolutely dire. You are well remunerated and I’m sure you’ve been very busy, is that a fair comment?

RM: Yes, very busy

INVESTOR: …so there should be something to tell us throughout the year!! There has been nothing. I am worried that you have alienated investors and we have a cash-call coming. It is a concern that investors just won’t want to take part.

SS: Point taken; we will endeavour to keep shareholder informed going forward.

RM: We didn’t want to “yo-yo” with various pieces of news, which may quickly become obsolete as the plan developed. We have a firm plan now, which you will hear more about soon. The important thing is that this is a plan which give the best chance to uplift value for shareholders.

QUESTION: For us long term investors, we are facing a dilution of 100%, 200% plus. Some investors may not be able to afford or have no desire to take part in the raise. Do you see any value in their current shareholdings going forward?

SS: I understand where you’re coming from. I can’t comment on the details of the finance package, but we want to give all investors a choice going forward. I can’t say any more.

QUESTION: Can you give us an idea of timelines for when you will announce more information?

SS: Should be quite imminent. Certainly within 6 to 8 weeks.

QUESTION: Simon, you just said “you will all have the opportunity to choose whether you want to participate in this trial or not”. That sounded a lot like a fundraise is coming. Can you confirm that?

SS: It’s probably fairly obvious by now that a capital raise will be required, but I can’t tell you the exact structure

QUESTION: If so, how would you protect existing shareholders?

SS: Firstly we need to get the cash to cover a trial that will sufficiently prove that our drug works, which will obviously be good for all involved. Secondly, we have just said that existing shareholders will be able to participate in any raise

QUESTION: It really is like “Broken Record Bingo” …” At Haste”, “Arrows in the Air”, “Soon”, “Imminent”. You say 6 to 8 weeks. What happens if that comes and goes? Are you going to forfeit options? It’s always down to shareholders to wait and to fund things. You’ve all just got your noses in the trough. Every year we come back and you’ve had a year of great salaries and options. I’m still waiting for one of Richards arrows to hit!! Every year we come here it’s a different plan while you lot just enjoy those salaries.

SS: I didn’t really hear a question, but I take your point.

FOLLOW UP FROM ANOTHER INVESTOR: I’ll ask a question to follow on from the gentleman’s point: how confident are you that this financial plan that you can’t tell us about is going to be successful?

SS: I’m confident we’ll have a plan which makes sense to investors within the timescale I’ve given. I can’t say any more than that really.

FOLLOW UP FROM YET ANOTHER INVESTOR: It’s very much reliant on TFG isn’t it?

SS: I really can’t comment.

QUESTION: Do you have rough timescales for the Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials.

RM: Will be disclosed shortly. (Groans from some)

FOLLOW UP FROM QUESTIONER: Mentioned concerns about patents expiring etc.

RM: Plenty of things which protect this drug in the marketplace other than patents. The technology, complexity of the data etc. Hard/would take a long time to try and replicate.

FOLLOW UP FROM QUESTIONER: Are you confident though that within 5 years this will be authorised?

RM: That’s not an unreasonable timeline, but you need to look at the value uplift on the journey as well. An interim analysis for example would give an uplift if good.

FOLLOW UP FROM ANOTHER INVESTOR: So you’re going to publicly announce interim analysis this time?

RM: We can’t announce the data but would say “we’ve passed the interim analysis” for example.

FOLLOW UP: That’s what happened with Sprinter but it wasn’t very meaningful based on the final result being negative. How can we make the interim analysis more meaningful this time?

RM: You’ll get that answer wi

SS then proposed to go to the Q & A section of the meeting:

QUESTION: CAN YOU DISCLOSE ANYTHING ABOUT THE COMMERCIAL MODEL?

RM: No, as giving the detail would go into forecasts and certain sensitive information. Said that the previously mentioned costs of treating the average patient and the benefit of reducing mortality make the drug attractive.

SS: Did that answer your question?

QUESTIONER: No! To put it another way, previously you’ve spoken about smaller trials, now it’s a “Large” P2 trial. For me as an investor, is it not better to have smaller trials, since larger ones would inevitably cost more and dilute my shareholding?

SS: We have determined that the next trial must be the one which gives this drug the best possible chance of proving it works. Whether targeting the correct patients or powering the trial sufficiently.

QUESTIONER: Why did you propose the smaller trials last year then?

RM: With further investigations and conversations it became clear that if we were going to do a trial we needed to do it properly and also inside our control rather than it being investigator lead, Synairgen sponsored trials. Basically we need solid clinical data to move forward to a P3. The better the P2, the more de-risked a P3 is and more attractive to people. It may cost more, but well worth doing and much better for us to be in control of it.

QUESTION: How many patients? 300? Is it £100K per patient cost?

RM: Excellent question, but I can’t answer as the information isn’t in the interims so I can’t disclose any more details.

QUESTIONER then pushed for more “ball-park” or “general industry” figures.

RM: Sorry to sound like a broken record, but I really can’t say any more about the trial or the financing at this stage.

** Silence for a few seconds **

One investor near the front then turned around to everyone and said “It kind of makes this meeting a waste of time then as the two things we need to know about are the trials and the financing and you say you can’t give us that information.” Then turned to the board and highlighted that we’ve heard the same promises of “something imminent” or “trials starting very soon” for the last few AGMs and here we are today with yet another brand new “plan”, where we’re not allowed to know the details we need.

SS: To be fair it’s not a brand-new plan, but a natural progression of last year’s plan. We’d love to have been able to announce all the details to you by now, but we are close to it.

Rest assured what we present to you in due course will give you the opportunity to choose whether you want to participate in this trial and give you confidence that this trial is the correct route forward.

Back to SS, who noted that the AGM was “slightly late” (!), due to these board changes and also the matter of additional funding required for the new trials. Said that they couldn’t say much more about this, but that they would be in a position “relatively imminently” to disclose more details on the trial and the funding package which will come with it. Said that he appreciated that those two things would be what people in the room would be most interested in…

Then handed over to Richard Marsden to go into a bit more detail into what’s been going on since the last AGM.

RM firstly thanked SS for his 20+ years of Chairmanship and welcomed MPB etc.

Then went on to say that the Interims were recently announced and that he would try and “colour in the gaps” (I think that was the phrase) …but that he couldn’t say anything that wasn’t in the interims as they weren’t ready to announce more info ref the trials or funding.

Went into the rationale of targeting Mechanically Ventilated Patients. High unmet need, commercial attractiveness etc. These are patients with urgent needs. Mentioned the various viruses and that if you were at the Mechanically Ventilation stage you have an urgent need and that mortality rate is very high and the expense of treatment is high (average cost $60000 per patient).

Said the driver for going to a “Large Phase 2” trial was to give adequate preparation for the P3 trial and commercialisation. Primary end point would be reduction in mortality.

Mentioned that they’d worked with diagnostic apparatus companies to improve the targeting of patients, both before and during the trials, and showed us a couple of examples of the aerosol delivery devices that they been working on with Aerogen to improve efficiency etc.

Said they have been working with third party vendors to design the trails, looked at the commercials etc. all of which has kept them very busy.

Spoke a bit about Universal and that it’s not their project but is going well to identify the markers which identify the highest risk patients.

Said that they were confident in the data they’ve obtained over the last few years, the team and the plan that they’ve got going forward. Delighted that they’ve got MPB on board.

Synairgen AGM – London 10th October 2024

By Wigster77 and Doc83

As per last year, we arrived, got booked in, received our voting cards and were escorted up to floor 9 of the building (apparently they don’t hold the meeting on the lower floors in case MrCosts or Tattyhead61 throw rotten eggs at the windows from outside). Unlike last year we didn’t see any of the Synairgen team in the waiting area, but we arrived close to the 2pm start, so possibly missed the usual “meet and greet”. Was good to see a lot of familiar faces from previous years though.

Into the main room. Same posh room as last year. We counted around 25 investors.

ATTENDEES FROM SYNAIRGEN: On the tables, from left to right as we looked at them were: Dr Bruce Campbell, Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, Simon Shaw (Chairman), Richard Marsden, Joseph Colliver and Flic Gabbay. Apologies from Amanda Radford (family illness).

Simon Holden and a few other members of the Synairgen team were sat alongside the investors as was the new Chairman, Mark Parry-Billings.

Meeting Starts 14:00 prompt.

Simon Shaw welcomed us to the meeting, went through the usual housekeeping and introductions to the team.

He then did a little talk about his retirement, saying that he’d mentioned his intention to retire to his colleagues about 18 months ago…once 2 things had happened: firstly that they’d developed a really clear and robust plan for SNG001 and secondly that Synairgen had attracted someone better placed than him to continue the journey. Said both of these criteria have been achieved and he was delighted about this. Then went through a bit of Mark Parry-Billings background and asked us to respect that he’s not formally on the board / fully up to speed yet so not to give him too much grief. Handed over to MPB to give a quick intro to himself.

MPB said he was delighted to take on the role, said that Synairgen was not new to him and he’d watched from the sidelines for some years. Mentioned the things which attracted him to Synairgen, basically: the asset, the new plan going forward and “the execution model” (the team’s expertise). Went through a bit of his background and how he’d worked all over the world with respiratory therapeutics. Also, how he’d got lots of experience of bringing drugs to market. Said he was looking forward to really driving SNG001 to market “with some urgency”.

Was very slow, deliberate and measured with how he spoke, in contrast to Simon Shaw’s more “flamboyant” style.

Are we still on for 35p per share as promised by Hamm?