Risers
On 20 May, the natural micro-encapsulation company signed an agreement with a
Sumitomo-related company and Sipcam (Italy and Iberia) to evaluate two new
products targeting additional important crop diseases. This follows Sipcam taking an
exclusive licence to Eden's first product (3AEY) in 2014, for the treatment of botrytis.
This product will be launched following the completion of the EU product registration
allowing the sale and use of 3AEY on grapes against botrytis, initially, across the
Southern EU zone. This authorisation was granted on 26 May.
Botrytis is a widespread fungal disease that causes grey mould on most fruits and
vegetables often leading to the rapid loss of commercially viable crops. The average
losses from affected crops account for around 20% of the total harvest, costing in
the region of 10-100 billion euros worldwide. The market size for Botryticides is
around $300m per annum. Eden received a further regulatory boost on 25 June
receiving notice that geraniol and thymol are now exempt from the maximum residue
level under European regulations.
MotifBio (LON:MTFB)
On 28 May, the clinical stage biopharmaceutical company specialising in developing
novel antibiotics, announced it had received notification that the FDA was in
agreement with Motif's Phase III clinical development programme for iclaprim, a
broad-spectrum antibiotic designed to be effective against multi-drug resistant
bacteria. On 15th July, Motif announced an addition to its scientific advisory board:
Dr. Thomas M. File a renowned expert in infectious diseases, Chairs the Division of
Infectious Diseases at Summa Health System, Akron, Ohio, is Professor of Internal
Medicine and Master Teacher, and the Chair of the Infectious Disease Section of
Northeast Ohio Medical University. On 22 July, Motif announced that it had received
Qualified Infectious Diseases Product designation for acute bacterial skin and skin
structure infections, and also for hospital acquired bacterial pneumonia, thereby
satisfying the final condition of the £22 million placing which was announced on 23
June 2015 .
Tiziana Lifesciences (LON:TILS)
On 7 May the clinical stage biotechnology company focused on targeted drugs to
treat diseases in oncology and immunology, announced that it had exclusively
licensed a novel anti-cancer stem cell agent, capable of targeting aggressive tumour
forming cells originating from the breast, pancreas, colon and prostate, from Cardiff
University scientists. Under the terms of the agreement, Tiziana will fund £50,000
per year for a research project at the University focused on building the structure
activity relationships around OH14 and to improve the activity of this series of
compounds. Additionally, Tiziana will pay to the University milestone payments up to
c.£2 million and pay royalties on sales of any licensed products developed as a result
of the project. If certain milestones are achieved Tiziana will also pay one per cent
of its enterprise value to the University in the event of a trade sale of Tiziana to a
third party. This agreement is Tiziana's second with the University following the Bcl3
licensing agreement in January 2014. The company announced FY2014 results on 5
June showing a loss of £3.6m and rounded off with the below outlook.
“All of the Company's programmes address areas of significant unmet medical need;
either as a potential new approach to metastatic cancer with Bcl-3 or stratification of
patients to provide more personalised treatment with the "TOP 20", to new molecules
to help sufferers of thymic and other cancers (milciclib), or a fully human monoclonal
antibody with potential application in a number of autoimmune and inflammatory
diseases (foralumab). Now with the latest in-licensing of anti-cancer stem cell
technology from the University of Cardiff (c-FLIP) the Company has an innovative
research portfolio with two clinical assets. These programmes will use the funds
raised in the March and April 2015 fundraisings to reach the individual programme's
inflection points.”
On 18 May, the global provider of proprietary diagnostic tools, consumables and
reagents for life sciences, announced that it had entered into a collaboration,
licensing and option agreement with Moderna Therapeutics. Under the terms of the
agreement, Moderna will make an upfront payment of $500,000 which provides
Moderna exclusive access to Affimers against certain targets which may be extended
to include additional targets by a further payment. Moderna will also make certain
payments to Avacta for research services to deliver pre-clinical development
milestones. Moderna has the option to enter into exclusive license agreements for
selected therapeutic Affimer candidates for clinical development and in each case
Avacta will be entitled to milestone payments. The total value of these payments
could reach several tens of millions of dollars. Avacta is also entitled to royalties in
connection with future product sales. The pre-close trading update of 7 July included
an update on product development suggesting that Affimers could become a leading
bio-therapeutic platform with key competitive advantages over both antibodies, and
also over other non-antibody protein scaffolds.
On 15 July, Avacta announced a conditional placing at 1.25p raising £22m, in order
to initiate several more in-house pre-clinical drug development programmes and to
develop a small range of platform technologies for half-life extension, targeting and
combination therapies.
Scientific Digital Imaging (LON:SDI)
On 14 May, the Group focused on the application of digital imaging technology for
use in life sciences, healthcare, astronomy, and art conservation, announced an
update on trading for the 12 month period ended 30 April 2015. All product lines and
sales territories contributed to growth in turnover in the second half of the financial
year. As previously announced at the half year, the Company actively controlled costs
throughout the year. The Board expects reported profit before tax to be in line with
management expectations, with earnings adjusted for reorganisation costs ahead of
previous management expectations. The full year Apr 2015 results showed revenue
flat at £7m and adjusted operating profit move from a loss to £393k in the black.
Having raised over £500k during the year, the Board anticipates that Opus
Instruments and Artemis CCD will continue to make positive contributions to SDI and
the new Synoptics products released in 2015, together with a more focused sales
strategy, will result in continued growth.
Fallers
Epistem (LON:EHP)
In May, the personalised medicine and biotechnology company announced that the
National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases had completed its evaluation of the University of Maryland Baltimore
response to its request for proposals for Radiation/Nuclear Medical Countermeasure,
for which Epistem’s Preclinical Research Services division acts as a sub-contractor,
and this proposal had not been selected for an award. These activities had typically
generated revenues of circa £1m per annum. Epistem fully expects to continue to
tender and work on other Nuclear Medical countermeasure developments. In June
Epistem announced the issue of 492k shares in respect of an earnout to Visible
Genomics relating to the receipt by the Company of regulatory approval in India for
its Genedrive® TB molecular diagnostic test.
Advanced Oncotherapy (LON:AVO)
The developer of next generation proton therapy systems for cancer treatment
announced results for the year ending December 2014 with losses nearly doubling
to £7.5m reflecting the acceleration of its development activities. In July Advanced
Oncotherapy announced that the second Coupled Cavity Linac unit had been
manufactured and delivered to the Company's testing facility in Geneva. As well as
this, the company announced that Howard de Walden Estates Limited, which in
January 2015 granted a 50 year lease to the Company for the Harley Street site, had
agreed to expand the agreement beyond the 8,000 sq ft space agreed in the original
lease. This would allow the company to develop a Proton Therapy Centre on the
same site but with an extended footprint, offering potential operators a larger overall
facility to manage.
Immupharma (LON:IMM)
In June, the specialist drug discovery and development company announced that Dr
Sylviane Muller the key inventor of Lupuzor™ and Research Director at Centre
National de la Recherche Scientifique had received "The CNRS Medal of Innovation"
for her discoveries made on the mechanism of action of Lupuzor™ and its
applications to other autoimmune diseases. The following month it was announced
that Immupharma had announced that details for the drug’s Phase III trial had ‘gone
live’ on Clinicaltrials.org. Key European and US sites have now been identified and it
is anticipated that about 15 sites in the US and 20 sites in Europe will be enrolled.
Recruitment could be completed during the summer of 2016. Patient dosing is
expected to commence this autumn. ImmuPharma has also signed a Term Sheet
with a US investor for a proposed private placement to fund the clinical trial. The
initial instalment of funding consists of a convertible loan of US$2,000,000 plus
additional capital of up to $12,000,000, at the Company's discretion, subject to
certain criteria, over a two year period.
On 29 July Immupharma disclosed the sad news that Richard Warr, Chairman, had
passed away. An interim Chairman, Dr Franco Di Muzio had been in place since 6
May due to Richard Warr’s poor health.
Synergy Health (LON:SYR)
The global provider of specialist outsourced support services to health-related
markets announced on 29 May that the recommended combination of Synergy with
STERIS was to be blocked by the US Federal Trade Commission, and that the parties
would be contesting this decision. A proposed Court Meeting to seek approval for
modification of the Scheme to extend the long-stop date to 31 December 2015, was
later postponed from 11 June to 24 September. The company also posted final results
on 2 June (FY March 2015). Revenue was up 7.5% to £408.8m, adjusted PBT 6% to
£58m and operating cash flow 1.6% to £99.6m. As a result of the proposed
combination with STERIS Corporation, the Board chose not to pay an interim
dividend, and is not proposing to pay a final dividend (2014: 14.20p). The Board will
continue to keep its dividend policy under review.
Benchmark Holdings (LON:BMK)
On 23 June, the international aquaculture genetics, animal health, technical
publishing and sustainability science business, announced its Interim Results for the
six months ended 31 March 2015. Revenue increased by 30% to £19.8m but EBITDA
from Trading Activities fell by £1.4m to £1.2m. The trading period included a
successful secondary capital raise in December 2014 raising £70m (gross) of new
equity at 85p. The outlook stated that despite the adverse financial impact from
aggressive generic competition to the Salmosan product line, mitigation measures
have been successfully established, and the Group has become strategically more
robust through the creation of the new Breeding & Genetics division which is
performing well. The Technical Publishing division is now moving into profitability.
Continued and significant investment in R&D and a pipeline of new animal health
products bodes well for the future growth and stability of the business.