Xenetic Biosciences, African Medical Investments and e-Therapeutics to appear at Proactive Investors One2One Forum

We have an exciting line-up of companies at the Proactive Investors One2One Forum in London on Tuesday (November 8), which has attracted an incredible amount of interest. So this is a call to arms. If you haven't signed up now do so soon to avoid disappointment. Appearing are Xenetic Biosciences, African Medical Investments and e-Therapeutics.

Xenetic Biosciences (LON:XEN) has undergone a fundamental shake up of late, starting with a change of name from Lipoxen.

The company is acquiring German firm SymbioTec for £8.8 million, which is developing a platform technology around highly alkaline proteins called histones to treat a broad spectrum of cancers.

It has brought on board a new cornerstone investor with a very similar name in SynBio.

It has acquired 110.8 million shares at 11 pence each and has also been granted just over 11 million warrants with an exercise price of 33 pence.

Chief executive Scott Maguire will walk us through what has been a very busy few months.

The changes at African Medical Investments (LON:AMEI) have also been of a root and branch nature.

New chief executive Peter Botha is attempting to simultaneously cut costs at the hospital operator while increasing revenues by around a quarter.

If he can successfully pull this off then the finances of the company will be transformed.

Botha has backed himself to succeed by taking a $2 million stake in the group.

He initially considered establishing a hospital investment fund after his departure from South African insurer Liberty Health, where he was also CEO.

But he was introduced to AMI and immediately saw it as an attractive proposal, both from an investment and an operational standpoint. 

“This is why I was in a position to invest as I was ready to invest in a hospital fund anyway,” he reveals.

“What we have (in African Medical Investments) is a business that is fundamentally sound and benefits from a strong balance sheet.”

Finally, a £16.7 million fundraising means e-Therapeutics (LON:ETX) can pursue a quite aggressive research and development strategy.

ETX is looking forward with confidence to the next two years, when it expects to see the first data from its new programme of clinical trials.  A key strength of e-Therapeutics is its network pharmacology system, according to chief financial officer Daniel Elger.

“That’s the discovery engine that underpins the business,” he said recently, explaining that the computer-based system first looks at the network of proteins that make up a disease and then sets about identifying the key points among those proteins. 

E-Therapeutics then uses a drug database to find the right combinations of drugs that can be used to attack those key points and at the same time.

This approach has led to some counterintuitive results. For example, the ETS2101 drug was originally conceived as an anti-trauma drug that would be useful in treating head injuries, but “it was only through our platform that it was discovered it had potential as an anti-cancer treatment,” Elger told us.

ETS2101 and ETX1153c are to begin Phase I trials early next year. Meanwhile, the firm also has a drug aimed at depression that is already in Phase I trials and due to start Phase II trials soon.

The upshot of this is that investors in e-Therapeutics can expect a “whole flow of data” to come out of these trials in 2012 and 2013.

By the end of 2013, Phase I data will be available on two of the firm’s drugs while Phase II data is expected on the other two drugs, which should mean the firm will be in a good position to achieve partnering deals with third parties.

Walking us through this news flow and other developments at ETX will be CFO Elger.