emperor of wyoming
09 Aug 2016
Breakthrough Biotech Alert From: Breakthrough Biotech AlertSubject: “high reward”This week I am going to sell out of SILENCE THERAPEUTICS (SLN) and add a new, speculative, holding - SALVARX (AIM: SAL).Your capital is at risk when you invest, never risk more than you can afford to lose.Seek independent personal advice if necessary.Monday, 8 August 2016111111111111111111111BBA Issue #223A "high risk, high reward" playon the hottest area in biotechDear Tom Bulford,This week I am going to sell out of SILENCE THERAPEUTICS (SLN) and add a new, speculative, holding - SALVARX (AIM: SAL). Before I tell you about the latter let me explain my thinking. So far we have made great returns from some of the larger companies in the portfolio – e.g. LONZA (+177%), PERKINELMER (+114%) and NOVOZYMES (+114%). But where we have ventured into more speculative counters the experience has been, with a few exceptions, disappointing. This does not altogether surprise me and I certainly have not given up hope of companies such as RENEURON and ANGLE, where just one good trial result or deal could transform the share price overnight.Silence: a good idea, but too soonI want to make sure that where we are taking a gamble (indicated by the 'High' Risk rating in the portfolio table) that it is at least in a broadly promising area. The biotechnology industry has limited resources. It cannot pursue every promising avenue, but packs form around the most promising and in that category today we have things like cancer immunotherapy, regenerative medicine and non-invasive diagnostics. Small companies in these 'hot' areas are more likely to receive funding and attract the interest of larger partners, which is usually the ultimate aim.Silence Therapeutics is interested in RNA silencing. In other words it seeks to intervene not at the DNA level of the cell but at the subsequent RNA level. This is a reasonable approach but I do not believe that it is attracting widespread support at present. More specific to Silence its latest drug trial result was disappointing, its R&D head has resigned and the company has fallen out with Quark Pharmaceuticals from which it is claiming a milestone payment of $3m. So Silence has not given us much reason for encouragement over the last year and, since I do not want to lengthen the list of speculations in the portfolio, I am going to sell out of it to make room for SalvaRx.The hottest area in biotechOne thing we can say quite categorically about SalvaRx is that it operates in a very hot area – cancer immunotherapy. Indeed it is the success of harnessing the power of the immune system that has led SalvaRx to be established in the first place. It is a vehicle for Jim Mellon, a renowned investor who, like me, has homed in upon biotechnology as 'the next big thing'. He is currently the main shareholder in SalvaRx alongside Dr Greg Bailey, a 60 year old American who has long experience of both biotechnology and finance. The purpose of SalvaRx is to invest in promising immunotherapy projects and as these emerge SalvaRx is likely to raise capital and progress from its current size of just £18m.In fact SalvaRx wants to do more than just invest in promising ventures. It will also provide expertise and hands-on management, led by Dr Ian Walters and Dr Rob Kramer. The former spent seven years at Bristol-Myers Squibb, while the latter was Head of Oncology Research at both Bristol-Myers and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Crucially they were both closely involved in the development of Ipilimumab and Nivolumab, the two market leading cancer immunotherapies now sold by Bristol-Myers. So they have an outstanding grasp of the science and of the industry and they know the sort of things that will attract the attention of the major players.This is the nub of the story. As I explained last week cancer immunotherapy drugs work in a variety of ways that helps the body's natural immune system to find and overcome cancer cells. S
Simbrad
27 Jun 2016
Northland note out this morning, taken from research tree "SalvaRx announced Final Results for the year ended 31 December 2015. On 22 March 2016, SalvaRx began trading on AIM following completion of the reverse takeover of 3Legs Resources plc and concurrent name change to SalvaRx Group plc. SalvaRx now has exposure to three cancer immunotherapy programmes which are funded through early clinical trials... The market for cancer immunotherapies is forecast to expand to over $80bn by 2020."
newguy4
29 Mar 2016
Re: Impressive org structure I saw this on a pre launch notice and thought, given it's line of business that it must be worth a punt and low and behold up over 14% today, I shall keep my fingers crossed!
