Poolbeg Pharma PLC (AIM:POLB), the infectious diseases pharmaceutical company spun out of Open Orphan PLC (AIM:ORPH, FRA:CRO), was lifted on Monday by a weekend press tip.
The company floated on AIM last month at 10p and in the absence of news flow since had eased to 8.75p last week but it perked up on Monday morning after the Mail on Sunday’s Midas column said the stock, “could prove an exciting investment for the adventurous investor”. The shares were up 20% at 10.5p in early deals on Monday.
Poolbeg plans to develop a potential treatment for influenza and is aiming for a near-term partnership with big pharma.
According to the Midas column’s Joanne Hart, Tamiflu is the best-known drug on the market today and rakes in more than £700mln annually.
“Tamiflu can work wonders if taken early but the pills become less effective within a couple of days, which is when severe symptoms tend to develop and people are taken to hospital,” Hart said.
Poolbeg has a drug candidate, POLB 001, which it hopes will prove more efficacious than Tamiflu and could be used to treat other infectious diseases, including, Hart notes, “potentially even COVID-19”.
POLB 001 was previously owned and developed by the Spanish firm Palau Pharma, which is a division of Uriach. The product had previously been licensed to Schering-Plough, which conducted early clinical studies. Under its new owner, if POLB 001 reaches further development stages, Poolbeg will make payments to Palau totalling €1mln on development milestones with a further €5mln due on commercial events, as well as single-digit royalties on sales.