Oxford BioDynamics shares rise 19.83% to 17.98p on up to £12m placing to fund commercialisation of cancer test
Oxford BioDynamics said it has conditionally raised c. £9.1m via a placing of 45m shares at 20p/share. The price represents a premium of 33% to the company's closing price on 6 October 2022.
Additionally, Oxford BioDynamics has proposed an open offer to qualifying shareholders to subscribe for a further 14.7m shares at 20p/open offer share, to raise up to another £2.9m.
Oxford BioDynamics said the proceeds would provide working capital to accelerate the commercialisation of its EpiSwitch product line, initially focusing on the EpiSwitch CiRT cancer test. The latter is the company's flagship product launched in February 2022 and currently available for clinical utilisation in the US and to private physicians in the UK.
Poolbeg Pharma shares jump another 11.86% to 6.6p as it strengthens IP position around POLB 001 severe influenza candidate
Poolbeg said on Tuesday the US Patent and Trademarks Office had deemed allowable its claim directed to the use of POLB 001 for the treatment of hypercytokinemia aka cytokine storm. Poolbeg expects a formal patent grant "in due course".
Poolbeg currently has a worldwide license for POLB 001 for all uses in humans and is developing an IP portfolio with patent protections covering p38 MAP kinase (mitogen-activated protein kinase) inhibitors for the treatment of severe influenza and hypercytokinaemia. Poolbeg is exploring further IP around POLB 001 to cover new disease areas.
Poolbeg already has US and European patents for POLB 001 with claims to the treatment of severe influenza. These patents will offer protection until at least 2037.
Jeremy Skillington, PhD, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma said:
"We are continuing to expand our global patent protection for our growing pipeline of infectious disease products. We are delighted to receive confirmation from the US Patent and Trademarks office that the main claim is allowable, and we look forward to updating the market when we receive the formal patent grant in due course. Enhanced IP protection of our assets across key markets, such as the US, increases the overall value of these products to potential partners. This is particularly important as we move closer to the completion of our POLB 001 LPS human challenge trial, with initial results expected by year end 2022."
Shares jumped 7.1% on the announcement on Tuesday, another 25.53% yesterday, and again 11.86% today. Shares are up 42% since the announcement.
Abingdon Health shares jump 38.46% to 9p on favourable outcome of trial against Department of Health and Social Care
Abingdon Health said a court ruled in favour of the UK's Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in a lawsuit brought to it by Good Law Project Limited (GLP) questioning the legality of contracts for the development and manufacture of lateral flow test kits for COVID-19 antibodies awarded to Abingdon Health by the DHSC.
Abingdon said the judgement by Mr Justice Waksman confirmed that contract award decisions by the DHSC for the development and manufacture of the kits by Abingdon Health were lawful and complied with the principles of public law. All grounds brought by the GLP in the case were dismissed.
The monies received under the contracts totalled £10.3m. This does not include a final £1.5m cash payment from the DHSC, currently held under charge until the outcome of the judicial review, that is now expected to be released, bringing the total amount paid to Abingdon by the DHSC to £11.8m.
N4 Pharma shares rise another 25% to 3.25p on double siRNA testing update for Nuvec
N4 Pharma announced on Tuesday successful in vitro testing of Nuvec loaded with two small interfering RNA (siRNA) probes. Nuvec is N4's proprietary silica nanoparticle delivery system for cancer and vaccine treatments.
On 14 September 2022, N4 delivered an update highlighting its intention to focus further development work on multiple loaded siRNA on Nuvec. The company has now completed initial in vitro testing of Nuvec loaded with two generic siRNA probes, GFP (Green Fluorescent protein), and EHMT-2 (Euchromatic Histone Lysine Methyltransferase 2) at the same time.
The siRNA probes were loaded onto Nuvec in equal amounts. Testing demonstrated that both siRNA probes were able to significantly silence their respective targets.
Nigel Theobald, CEO, commented:
"Showing that Nuvec® loaded with two generic siRNA probes still achieves significant silencing of their respective genes is validation for us to now begin the further work that we announced on 14 September with EGFR and BCl-2 in a PC9 lung cancer model."
Shares jumped 22.73% on the announcement on Tuesday, and another 25% today. Shares are up 70% since the announcement.