Advanced Oncotherapy Share Discussion Threads

[daijavu] 27/10/2016 21:52

This is the current statement that has been posted on the AVO website about the progess of the LIGHT system:

"The Advanced Oncotherapy team has produced the first stages of our LIGHT accelerator and is currently completing the development of the final required 230 MeV output to meet clinical requirements. The team is currently progressing with FDA and CE Mark regulatory applications."

[twirl] 27/10/2016 16:12

An alternative view on the change in Directorate is that Sinclair took on Exec role because not satisfied that Pandya was keeping focus when AVO scientists were raising numerous posssibilities.
The fact that he has taken one of his hands off the tiller shows he is confident that things are moving well and that Derandour can manage. After all he has a hell of a lot at stake.

[twirl] 27/10/2016 16:09

Only the share price is dismal. Prospects are the same and progress made on Thales and testing and successful fund raising incl £5m from Miky.

[jpuff] 27/10/2016 16:00

As a long term holder it's looking pretty abysmal here I must say but holding on in hope with fingers crossed as ever with AIM !

[twirl] 27/10/2016 14:17

there won't be a bid until the tech is working.

[daijavu] 27/10/2016 12:41

I suspect that the industry is keeping a eye on AVO so if someone does put in a bid it might be quickly trumped by bids from others. That could push the share price up a tad.

[twirl] 27/10/2016 11:56

Not really.

[someuwin] 27/10/2016 09:04

New CEO. Introducing 'New Initiatives'. Sounds like a tacit admission that things are not going as planned and changes are needed.

[daijavu] 26/10/2016 20:49

Almost all current radiotherapy uses photons. The major problem with photon beam therapy is that it damages the healthy tissue around the cancer. Depending on where in the body the cancer is situated, it can cause brain damage, damage to the heart and/or lungs or any other organs in the vicinity of the tumour. That invariably results in a long recovery period and the affected organs might never fully recover even after the cancer has been killed. That is particularly an issue with cancer in children. In 20% of cases the previously healthy tissue that is damaged in photon therapy becomes cancerous because of the damage caused by photon therapy. Proton beam therapy causes little or no damage to surrounding tissue so patients recover for more quickly, do not usually suffer any long term side effects and rarely experience cancer in tissue around the original cancer.

That means that it is essential that photon beam therapy is discontinued and is replaced by proton beam therapy as soon as possible. According to AVO, their LIGHT system is the only small and cheap proton beam therapy system in existence that is anywhere near ready to replace photon beam therapy. It is not a case of waiting until proton beam therapy is proven to work. According to AVO, it has already been established that it does work and the only thing that prevents its widespread use is cost. That is where AVO comes in.

Not only is the LIGHT system smaller and cheaper than its competitors but AVO have plans to make LIGHT even smaller and cheaper than it is now.

If you explore the field of proton therapy companies you will see that they all have teams of highly qualified doctors and scientists working on improving and minaturising their cyclotrons and making them cheaper and better but it seems that they still have to work with cyclotrons with all the problems of radiation, the need for bulky shielding, high maintenance costs and high decommissioning costs. All drawbacks that the AVO LIGHT machine does not have. According to AVO and accepted by the Environment Agency, the radiation from LIGHT is lower than that from a dentist's Xray machine. Tereare very many of those in dentist's surgeries in little terraced houses in residential streets throughout the whole of the UK.

There soon won't be any reason to keep the old style proton therapy machines and photon therapy machines, except for the limits on the availability of proton therapy machines like AVO's LIGHT system.

Finally, AVO says that not all cancers can be treated with proton therapy. They say that there are other types of radiation therapies waiting to be developed that will treat other cancers and that they have the expertise to develop them. They say that they are waiting until LIGHT is firmly established before developing some of the other forms of radiation therapy to treat cancers that proton therapy cannot treat.

[vatnabrekk] 26/10/2016 17:13

Of course it's good news that they have been able to raise the funds, but nevertheless Directors shouldn't be able to go around blatently breaching the AIM rules, without any action taken against them. Happens all the time in AIM, though.

[twirl] 26/10/2016 16:00

A great deal of focus on Evans flogging 130k or so but v little from certain posters on Directors and a new shareholder stumping up £10m. Strange...........

[waterloo01] 26/10/2016 15:52

Well his Wiki page says he WAS deputy chairman, but is not now. So another regulation rule broken, and it's down to AVO not him to inform. Maybe you can ask that one along with the question re sales tied to Harley Street. You won't get a straight answer I suspect.

[daijavu] 26/10/2016 15:44

I agree tia. We can do without the wrong sort of RNS but as I see it the problem over Lord Evans could be down to him not telling AVO. While he is officially deputy chairman, he hasn't exactly had a high profile in recent years. All he seems to have done is lend his name, title and reputation to the BoD. I cannot recall him being involved in anything very much. I suspect he might be leaving because of his age and he might be getting past it. It could explain a lapse if that is so.

I've known BoDs that have only issued RNSs when they absolutely had to but done reasonably well for their shareholders. I've also known a few that have made a point of announcing the smallest event as proof of fantastic progress even as they took the shareholders for a ride. AVO seems generally ok to me. If I've had concerns I've asked for answers and got them.

I'll wait for my jam.

[waterloo01] 26/10/2016 15:42

The product might (potentially) be the best of breed, but unlike rivals (such as the Dutch firm highlighted recently) they are not yet commercial. The issue is clarity. The company stated that all 'orders' taken to date are reliant on Harley Street being open as a demo site. All fine if that was 2017, not if it's 2019/20.

If that has changed (ie they will gain sales on the back of instillation elsewhere) that is speculation not based on company statements. If they have a back up plan, then they should say, if not they need to be clear about the implications on funds/orders etc and do so before shareholders are ask to partake in the OO.

You may love CERN and or Proton light therapy but they are very capable of messing it up commercially and recent RNS's have just made matters worse.

[tia1617] 26/10/2016 15:03

I agree with you entirely dejavu. It's the long game we're all interested in and things do appear to be progressing well. However a lack of transparency on the Lord Evans issue yet again undermines what appears to be good work by AVO. This is an AIM share and still very much at the 'jam tomorrow' stage. We need RNSs that clarify not raise more Questions

[daijavu] 26/10/2016 14:28

On the other hand there is the small matter that CERN physicists have spent many years developing a groundbreaking technology that CERN has licenced to AVO who have put a lot of time and effort into developing the first useable machine and a production capability. AVO has stuck to the development and testing schedule that they published in 2014 and have told us that construction and testing is on target to be completed by the end of this year. They have also informed us that the first production model of a planned series of eight a year should be completed a year later - by the end of 2017.

The delay in Harley Street is a disappointment but not something AVO has any control over. Harley Street was intended to house the first machine as the showcase for the system but that honour is now likely to go to a hospital in China. It should not matter because AVO is a manufacturer of proton therapy systems not an operator of proton therapy clinics.

In my personal opinion, the delay in Harley Street and the doings of Lord Evans are unfortunate but irrelevant as long as AVO can churn out machines and sell them.

If AVO can do that, a discounted cash flow calculation indicates that if AVO starts off installing just the one machine in the Chinese hospital that they are contracted to supply and manages to do no more than double that each year until they peak at Thales annual output of eight machines and sell at that rate each year from then on, the share price could reach around £17 in eight years.

AVO has much bigger plans than that.

If, on the strength of Howard de Walden's failure to provide Harley Street on time and the doings of one old man who appears to be leaving, you believe that AVO are not up to the job of producing and selling a world beating proton therapy treatment created for them by CERN then AVO is not for you.

[fission453] 26/10/2016 11:14

TW is a big fat useless Kent!

[daijavu] 26/10/2016 10:45

TW has his uses

[igbertsponk] 26/10/2016 10:03

I'm not a shareholder daijavu. If I was I'd be straight on the phone ranting.

[daijavu] 26/10/2016 09:29

Igbert. Why don't you take it up with the company or make a formal complaint? You seem to be the one with the greatest knowledge of these matters so the best person to handle it.

[igbertsponk] 26/10/2016 09:17

So the Director was selling from 19th August ? 11 days before the half year results were issued ? Is that not insider dealing ? AiM rules normally suggest no dealing by Directors and PDMRs in the 30 days before results issued.
Suggest their corporate governance is pants too - Directors are normally expected to get the permission of the Chairman before any dealings are undertaken.

Company rapidly becoming a bargepole.