A treatment for a rare form of haemophilia developed with the help of Abzena’s (LON:ABZA) screening technology has been granted orphan status by the US regulatory authorities.
It was one of a number of pharma stories to come out today.
Elsewhere, OptiBiotix Health (LON:OPTI) and Venture Life (LON:VLG) are teaming up to create products for the ageing population based around the former’s technology.
Venture will develop food supplements and over the counter products from existing OptiBiotix developments.
Meanwhile, a treatment for a rare form of haemophilia developed with the help of Abzena’s (LON:ABZA) screening technology has been granted orphan status by the US regulatory authorities.
Motif BioSciences (LON:MTFB) highlighted the rapid progress it has made since listing on Aim. Tuesday’s 2014 results statement covered the period before the company floated at the beginning of April and the loss before tax held steady at £1.19mln.
Away from pharma news, Mariana Resources’ (LON:MARL) chief executive Glen Parsons said he was delighted with the latest round of drill results from the Hot Maden copper project in Turkey.
In other mining news, Pan African Resources (LON:PAF) expects its performance to improve in 2016 as it moves into a new high grade zone at its Evander gold mine.
In addition, Pan African has agreed the ZAR200mln (£10.4mln) acquisition of a thermal coal mine from Shanduka Resources.
Speaking of acquisitions, Noricum Gold (LON:NMG) is looking at more takeovers following its recent purchase of the Walchen VMS prospect.
Away from gold, Arian Silver (LON:AGQ) revealed that high grade silver had been found in its latest drilling in Mexico, which will mean it can update its resource estimate this summer for the San José project.
The results confirmed that the silver, lead and zinc mineralisation on the vein extends beneath the township of Guanajuatillo over 1km, it added.
Elsewhere, Kibo Mining (LON:KIBO) expects both parts of a definitive feasibility study for the Mbeya coal-to-power project in Tanzania to be completed by October.
ZincOx Resources' (LON:ZOX) Korean recycling plant continues to improve and the project generated a record US$1 million (mln) in underlying earnings (EBITDA) last month (May).
Meanwhile, Gemfields (LON:GEM) shares were lifted as the importance of its Montepuez deposit in Mozambique was underlined - with the discovery of what the miner called an "exceptionally rare" pair of matching rubies.
It follows the unearthing of the 40 carat ‘Rhino Ruby’ last year at the 340 sq km Montepuez deposit.
In other news, Low-cost African airline fastjet’s (LON:FJET) Tanzanian operations carried one-and-a-half times as many passengers in May 2015 as they did the year before.
Elsewhere, Porta Communications’ (LON:PTCM) chairman Bob Morton upped his stake in the company.
The non-executive director purchased 6.3mln shares at 7p a pop, costing him a cool 441,000 and raising his stake to 15.36%.
To energy - and Primeline Energy (CVE:PEH) shares jumped around 45% after revealing plans to merger with Singapore listed Loyz Energy (SGX:594) in a deal that values the Toronto listed firm at a big premium.
Elsewhere, energy storage specialist ITM Power (LON:ITM) expects pre-tax results this year will be in line with market forecasts.
The company currently has £12.9mln of projects under contract and a further £2.8mln of contracts in the final stages of negotiation.
Finally, Forte Energy (LON:FTE) said Darwin has opted to convert part of its loan issues last year into shares in the company.
The company has issued shares to Darwin in respect of £175,000 of the £550,000 convertible loan announced in December last year, at 0.072324 pence per share - a discount to last night's closing Forte share price of 0.085p.
It means the Darwin convertible loan announced in December is now settled, said Forte. However, those issued in March 2015 for £1mln remain outstanding.