Well, one or several of the major shareholders have flexed their muscle and appointed 2 new Board members and asked Mr. Fox to resign. They are both biotech execs and board members and although they appear to be bona fide, increasing the size of this particular company's Board is nuts. The two new members don't give control, as the current members and executive members were all selected by Mr. Plumb.
Incidentally, Mr. Plumb sold a parcel of shares just before these changes were announced. And, he managed to sell them for 40 cents above the market price -lucky guy.
The lack of news on LANI becomes more noticeable. How it is possible to let this compound slip away is just beyond comprehension. Another northen hemisphere winter trial season passes, another year less patent life.
So, they pay 17 million for a antiviral gel Phase 1 tested on a couple of dozen patients in a deal done in a matter of months, while a compound like LANI has sat for over a year.
Yes, I agree. Just makes no sense to me either - and apparently it makes little more sense to the market in general. I don't understand why DS haven't made a move on Rest of World LANI unless of course they see it as a lost cause.
ReplyDeleteSo, R Plumb is selling shares? At these low prices? What a star act.
Not that I have any informed opinion, my guess is that LANI is regarded as unlikely to find any financial support to run a trial. I think that the Cochrane review has put sufficient doubt into the effectiveness of neuraminidase inhibitors that the future of government stockpiling in doubt.
ReplyDeleteFrom http://community.cochrane.org/features/tamiflu-and-relenza-getting-full-evidence-picture,
"This latest Cochrane Review has benefited from access to more complete reports of the original research, now made available by the manufacturers, Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. Along with documenting evidence of harms from use of NIs, the review raises the question of whether global stockpiling of the drugs is still justifiable given the lack of reliable evidence to support the original claims of its benefits."
I have been hanging on hoping that the $AU might asymptotically approach zero so that my considerable investment in Biota may be worth something.
I think you're probably correct Chris. The Cochrane review process seems to be a largely anti-big-pharma activist enterprise and it is a shame this has played into the hands of populist governments (particularly on the Democrat benches in the US). I noted that the review was heavily criticised by academics and pharmas for not including data from the 2009 pandemic which clearly showed that NAs saved lives.
DeleteThe Ph2 trial for LANI showed great results in quickly clearing virus from infected patients which ought to be the key outcome for a flu antiviral in terms of both subsequent disease transmission and patient infection control (as it is for HIV for example). Unfortunately, the trial end point for flu antivirals seems to be largely about time to symptom alleviation which seems to me misplaced in the context of pandemic planning.
If you haven't read Daniel Ward's coverage of Biota in several reports listed in the link below - worth taking a look. It's all we got to cling to right now, so hope his sentiment proves to be accurate...
http://seekingalpha.com/article/3537156-biotech-weekly-top-value-biotech-picks-starting-q4-2015