Catco Reinsurance Opport... Share Discussion Threads

[barberg] 02/3/2006 19:21

I think CAT has been due a re-pricing for some weeks and the entrance into the 250 prompted interest all round. However, where do we see the next ceiling - we are beyond 2004 so if we see some stability could we go on and see 2003 prices...?

[matthu] 01/3/2006 17:38

Possibly as a result of entering the FTSE 250?

[mtness] 01/3/2006 16:16

Well that was a weird day - spike triggering some program selling maybe sparked by a target being reached ? Hopefully tomorrow will see it heading back to today's highs and beyond.

[abcd1234] 01/3/2006 15:09

why the sudden spike?

can't find any info in any of the usual sources

any ideas??
ta

[matthu] 01/3/2006 12:57

Wednesday March 1, 2006
Corus also put in a resilient performance, easing just 0.25p to 72p. After the market closed, the index compiler said the Anglo-Dutch steel group would replace P&O, off 1p at 515.75p, in the FTSE 100 on Friday.

Corus's place in the FTSE 250 will be taken by Cambridge Antibody Technology, up 2.5p to 772.5p.

(Price currently hovering around 790p)

[matthu] 24/2/2006 23:05

Nice move up today: closed 2.5% higher at 732p.

This is from
International Biotechnology Trust
By Ellen Kelleher in London
Published: February 23 2006 02:00 | Last updated: February 23 2006 02:00

Unlisted biotechnology companies offer opportunities for investors simply because they might be acquired or go public, Andy Smith, manager of the International Biotechnology Trust, says.

His fund's exposure to unquoted companies distinguishes it from similar funds in the biotechnology sector. "One of the key drivers of performance is pharmaceutical companies buying smaller ones," Smith says. The fund targets undervalued companies with strong management, interest from investors and solid pipelines of products.

But Mr Smith shies away from investing in smaller private companies. "We won't do every investment. We'll only do later-stage investments," he says.

About 70 per cent of the trust, which has a portfolio of just 46 companies, is invested in public companies and about 30 per cent in private ones. About 60 per cent of its exposure is in US stocks.

In Mr Smith's opinion, it is more important to figure out how to avoid investing in losers than picking winners. "The failure or success of biotechnology companies rests on clinical trials or drugs in the pipeline," he says.

"If the company doesn't deliver a product, its fortunes suffer radically. Every time we make an investment, we have to look at where the pipeline is."

Though Mr Smith is willing to invest anywhere in the world, the trust's top quoted investments at present are US biotech groups: Solexa, Genosis, Progenics Pharmaceuticals, ANorMed, Cambridge Antibody Tech, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Sunesis, Barr Pharmaceuticals and the Austrian biotech group CSL.

Its 10 largest unquoted investments include Affibody in Switzerland, Aderis Pharmaceuticals, Archemix, Dynogen Pharmaceuticals, Spinal Kinetics, Trine Pharmaceuticals and GlycoFi in the US, KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, Oxagen and PowderMed in the UK and Micromet in Germany.

The trust's holding in Micromet, an unquoted German biotechnology company, paid off as the firm recently merged with a US firm. "That's an example of how an unquoted company can highlight performance," says Mr Smith.

At the end of last year, the trust's total net asset value was £61m with unquoted investments accounting for £16m.

The trust is up 22 per cent in the past six months while its biotechnology trust benchmark is up 21.5 per cent, according to data from Standard & Poor's. In the past year, the trust reported a 17.89 per cent return against a 29.86 per cent return by the fund's benchmark. In the past three years, the fund reported a 136.87 per cent return while the benchmark posted a 123.89 per cent return.

The part of the fund not invested in US stocks is in European, Australian, Canadian stocks or cash. About 75 per cent of the portfolio's holdings are biopharmaceutical groups, about 5 per cent are drug delivery groups and about 6 per cent are medical device groups. Of the 8 per cent of the fund that is in cash, just under half is still available for investment.

[sjgadvfn] 13/2/2006 18:13

Reasonable amount of buying today - at one stage tested the £7.00 barrier.

[barberg] 12/2/2006 00:47

I don't understand.... The legals are gone (?), the profits are up(?) , there is great cash(?), there is good management (?), there is ok pipeline (?)...

...or am I missing somethng....?

Advice please

G

[groats118] 08/2/2006 20:53

Is it just me or does this look pretty good value after recent statement?

[jonno1] 25/1/2006 21:22

ta, where do you see this going now?

[matthu] 25/1/2006 19:43

2005 Sales of Humira over $1.4 billion exceeding expectations. 2006 sales forecast to be $1.9 billion.

[jonno1] 25/1/2006 16:54

just got my buy order filled, forgot when I even placed it, whats stirred this sleeping giant?

[lh2375] 28/11/2005 11:54

Article from the Motley Fool

[crystalclear] 28/11/2005 09:32

Loss for the financial period (2,779) (1,577) (38,126)
Loss per share - basic and diluted 3.2p 93.3p
(pence)


On another thread I guessed last night that Cambridge Antinbody might be almost in profit in this period. I was pretty close in my estimate, 3.2p loss compared to 93.3p loss a year ago.

[matthu] 28/11/2005 09:18

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Biotech, Cambridge Antibody Technology, slashed annual losses after it settled legal action over royalties for its arthritis drug Humira.

For the year ended 30 September pre-tax losses were reduced to £530,000 from just over £38m the year before. Turnover, including royalties, licence fees and milestone payments increased to £194m this year from £15.9m in 2004.

CAT settled a royalty dispute from Humira with US partner Abbott Laboratories back in October. Abbott will pay CAT five annual payments of $9.375m starting January 2006. CAT will retain all of these royalties, the group said today.

Chief Executive Peter Chambre said, "This has been a year of significant achievement for CAT. Substantial headway has been made with the development of CAT-354 and GC-1008 and our proprietary pipeline has been strengthened further since the year-end with the acquisition of two promising oncology candidates from Genencor."

[adgd2] 14/11/2005 08:55

This is a very competitive field. The details below dont even include PI3-kinase / AKT / mTOR inhibitors which many companies have been looking at for some time as apoptosis candidates.


XIAP Burnham Institute (La Jolla, California) Small molecule Smac mimetics Preclinical
Idun Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, California) Small molecule Smac mimetics Preclinical
Joyant Pharmaceuticals (Dallas, Texas) Small molecule Smac mimetics Preclinical
Gentara (Malvern, Pennsylvania) Small molecule Smac mimetics Preclinical
Novartis (Basel) Small molecule Smac mimetics Undisclosed
Aegera (Montreal) Antisense XIAP inhibitor Phase 1
Avi BioPharma (Portland, Oregon) Antisense XIAP inhibitor Phase 1



TRAIL receptors Human Genome Sciences (Rockville, Maryland) Agonist monoclonal antibodies for TRAIL receptors Phase 1 and 2
Sankyo (Tokyo) Agonist monoclonal antibody for TRAIL receptor Preclinical
Novartis (Basel) Agonist monoclonal antibody for TRAIL receptor Undisclosed
Genentech (S. San Francisco, California) and Amgen (Thousand Oaks, California) Recombinant TRAIL ligand Phase 1



BCL-2 Abbott Labs (Abbott Park, Illinois) Small molecule BCL-2 inhibitor Preclinical
Genta (Berkeley Heights, New Jersey) Genasense, anti-BCL-2 antisense Phase 3
GeminX (Montreal) Small molecule BCL-2 inhibitor Phase 1
Ascenta (San Diego, California) Small molecule BCL-2 inhibitor Phase 1
Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Small molecule BCL-2 inhibitor Preclinical
Burnham Institute (La Jolla, California) Small molecule BCL-2 inhibitor Preclinical

[matthu] 10/11/2005 12:32

Apoptosis (programmed cell death) is the body's natural process for removing unwanted or harmful cells. This process is active during fetal development in shaping organs and tissues, and it is the body's natural mechanism for preventing cell accumulation. Since the mid 1990s, researchers have believed that disruptions in apoptosis are a key component in many cancers and autoimmune disorders.

Human Genome Sciences' mapatumumab (HGS-ETR1) (developed in partnership with Cambridge Antibody Technology) may become one of the first successful drug therapies to target a central protein in the apoptosis cascade.

"Because it is a well-targeted therapy and acts externally to the cell, we believe that this drug is likely to have a more favorable safety profile than other apoptosis modulators in development, although clinical data have not yet been released to support this assumption," said Jason LaBonte, director, Decision Resources, Inc.

"If trial data prove positive, the drug should reach the market in 2011. Mapatumumab's most important feature is that, unlike Herceptin, which is limited to use in breast cancer, mapatumumab could be effective in a wide variety of cancers. This fact is great news for cancer patients and for Human Genome Sciences." (and CAT)

[dunderheed] 02/11/2005 06:44

Matthu me old mucker - been looking for you for a long time!!
Everyone over on skp is waiting for your latest slant on Ashton!!
Please divulge what good you see from the latest debacle!

[matthu] 02/11/2005 06:32

The following from
makes the settlement with Abbott a little bit clearer.

CAT, Abbott Settle Humira Dispute: Abbott Pays $255M
By Karen Pihl-Carey

Staff Writer
Ending a 2-year-old dispute, Cambridge Antibody Technology plc and Abbott Laboratories reached an agreement concerning Humira royalties payable to CAT under a 1995 deal.

At issue was the royalty rate expected for sales of the rheumatoid arthritis drug approved in December 2002. In 2003, Cambridge, UK-based CAT received its first funds - well below the 5.1 percent rate it was anticipating, stirring a legal controversy.

"There were certain circumstances under which Abbott might have been able to offset royalties paid to third parties down to a minimum of 2 percent," said Peter Chambré, CAT's CEO. "In 2003, Abbott told us they were only going to pay us 2 percent."

But CAT's interpretation of "third parties" differed from Abbott's. The Abbott Park, Ill.-based company believed that it could reduce payments to CAT in order to pay other companies that have technology featured in Humira. CAT argued that the royalty-sharing provision referred only to third-party rights covering CAT's antibody libraries and phage display technology. A UK court sided with CAT last December, with the justice saying that Abbott's view "makes little or no commercial sense."

Abbott logged an appeal, dragging the litigation out, but this week the matter was settled. The deal includes a $255 million payment from Abbott to CAT, and CAT will use the money to buy out all future royalties owed to its licensors: the Medical Research Council, Scripps Institute and Stratagene Corp., of La Jolla, Calif. The third parties shared in the royalties because they hold the patent for CAT's technology, which was used to develop Humira. Stratagene said it expects to receive $14.6 million, after taxes, from that $255 million, and will recognize it in the fourth quarter.

CAT also will receive a reduced royalty of nearly 2.7 percent on sales of Humira made from Jan. 1, 2005, onward - slightly less than it would have received under the previous agreement. Its original 5.1 percent royalty was split with MRC, Scripps and Stratagene, leaving CAT with a royalty stream of about 3.1 percent. But for sales made after Jan. 1, 2005, due to the buyout of the patent holders, CAT will receive the 2.7 percent royalty.

The reduced royalty, however, will be offset somewhat by payments of about $9.4 million made every January by Abbott to CAT for the next five years. From each of those payments, CAT will pay its licensors $2 million, leaving it with about $7.4 million.

"We're very pleased to have a settlement with Abbott," Chambré said. "It allows us to put behind us the uncertainty of litigation, and provides certainty on our royalty rates going forward."

The relationship between CAT and Abbott began in early 2001 when Abbott acquired the pharmaceuticals business of BASF, which included the global operations of Knoll Pharmaceuticals Co. Inc., of Mount Olive, N.J. CAT had an agreement with Knoll, started in 1993 and updated in 1995, which gave it royalty rights to Humira sales. The agreement called for CAT to receive 6 percent royalties on the first £100 million (US$177.4 million) in sales, 5.5 percent on the next £50 million, and 5 percent royalties thereafter. When blended, the rate comes to about 5.1 percent.

Humira had sales of about $959 million worldwide for the first nine months of this year. Abbott is expecting sales of $1.3 billion for the full year. The product is marketed throughout the U.S. and Europe, and recently gained approval as a first-line treatment of moderate to severe early rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. The company also has submitted regulatory applications in the U.S. and Europe for Humira to treat ankylosing spondylitis.

While the settlement between CAT and Abbott takes care of all royalties from the beginning of 2005 onward, it does not account for the disputed 2 percent rate paid to CAT in 2003 and 2004. That issue was taken care of last year, Chambré said, when the UK court found in favor of CAT.

"After the high court trial, Abbott paid us the full royalties back to the date of the first sale," he said, "so we have received 5.1 percent through to the end of 2004. And under this agreement, we are retaining all of those royalties."

Another component of the settlement involves ABT-874, a second Abbott compound that CAT has isolated and optimized with its technology. Abbott is developing it in Phase II trials for multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and psoriasis. Under the settlement terms, CAT will receive a 4.75 percent royalty on future sales of ABT-874, but it will share that royalty with MRC, Scripps and Stratagene, leaving it with about 3 percent.

"There is no buyout of our licensors" for that compound, Chambré said.

CAT's stock (NASDAQ:CATG) rose 25 cents Wednesday to close at $12.54.

Published November 2, 2005

[crystalclear] 28/10/2005 11:37

The accounts are made up to the end of September, and the agreement has taken place in October. So will the accounts be made up count royalties to CAT at 2% or 2.688%?

I would guess that there is no problem using the new royalty rate no that an agreement is in place. I guess the royalty rate might be applied not just to income in the period, but earlier income, where CAT has received 5% due to past court agreements, but where CAT has only accounted the money at 2% due to (what was) ongoing legal dispute over the remaining 3%.

Backdating the new royalty rate could make the results look quite impressive.

It will be interesting to see how the accounting is done.

[jaafar1] 28/10/2005 07:58

long at 671p