Oxford Pharm Gp Share Discussion Threads

[pugugly] 22/6/2015 17:46

supernumery:> Thanks - Buried in the accounts - Interesting - Reason I was checking was I had been asked if I wanted to consider investing in his new outfit and was starting some DD.

[supernumerary] 22/6/2015 13:15

This seems to be what he's doing now:

[supernumerary] 22/6/2015 13:09

PUG - quite a while ago, doubt you can read much into it now:

[pugugly] 22/6/2015 11:03

Does anyone now offhand when Nigel Theabold (Former CEO) left OXP - I cannot find in Director changes but may have missed - Also any views on why he left ?

[supernumerary] 19/6/2015 20:13

timbo - I can't predict the share price movement, so it makes no real difference whether it goes up or down. Even after the event, you can only say 'presumably it's mainly down to' - no basis for investment is it? Don't you know any nice simple companies? ;¬)

[timbo003] 17/6/2015 22:01

>>> supernumerary

I don't know whether you spotted it, but Pozen shares have done quite well since the last mention on June 4th (up around 40%)





Presumably it’s mainly down to corporate action and proposed new domicile which was announced on June 8th:


It sounds very much like the problem with the FDA approval on Yosprala is with the Aspirin supplier. Failing two audits on the trot is unforgivable and I suspect Pozen will now go with another supplier. I’m not sure why they didn’t register an alternative Aspirin supplier in their NDA when they first submitted, the pharma companies I used to work for always used to register at least 2 suppliers for all their applications (and they probably still do).

I'm surprised Sanofi signed up with Pozen for Yosprala in the first place. Big pharma tend to go after much bigger deals ($1Bn plus). I cannot see that Yosprala sales are going to be anything like that, given the widespread availability of other “safer” enteric coated aspirin and buffered aspirin which sell for a few cents a tablet:


If Pozen do go with a partner for Yosprala, I suspect they will end up with a smaller niche player and perhaps have different partners in different jurisdictions, or maybe (post merger) they will decide to go it alone.




>>>>Cheshire man

If you like the idea of having Woodford on board on your healthcare investments, there are other (better) alternatives around and I suggest you take a look at these two:


Synairgen (SNG): Market cap just £34M, Woodford bought higher up than the current price, they already have a partner for their lead drug (Astra Zeneca), the AGM is on Monday when I suspect we will get an update on the pipeline


Sphere Medical (SPHR): Market cap just £22M, share price is at an all time low, Woodford bought in during the recent placing at the current share price (Chris Evans bought a large stake too), Ortho Clinical diagnostics own a sizable stake too. Their main product (Proxima 3) has just launched (no sales feedback yet). The shares are currently being held back by a large overhang (which cannot last forever).



Compare and contrast these two with OXP which has a market cap of £120M, no partner and the only clinical data they have is on on two different products, neither of which were bioequivalent to the reference products, which is a potential show stopper for both of them.

[cheshire man] 17/6/2015 10:57

Nice tick up this morming,Woodford taking 33% shouts confidence to me and happy to continue holding ,,,let's see if next weeks GM tells us something exciting :-) DYOR

[supernumerary] 04/6/2015 19:55

OK had a look at Pozen. Sanofi just pulled out of Yosprala; CEO, president and founder (1 person!) just quit; second rejection by the FDA... I think you'd need tungsten balls or inside knowledge to put money there, and I have neither so I think I'll give it a miss, thanks.

[supernumerary] 04/6/2015 11:29

I'm perhaps more sensitive about drug interactions than some. Once a long time ago I was on daily triludan, an antihistamine. I queried the need for (and implicitly the safety of) this, and was reassured by the eminent dermatologist (I quote his words exactly) - 'Don't worry, it's completely safe - this is the best-studied drug we have after aspirin.'

A couple of months later it was withdrawn from the market because of an interaction with, amongst other possibilities, grapefruit, which could and did sometimes prove fatal.

It's also interesting that as far as I can see, we still don't completely understand even aspirin!

Thanks for the Pozen link. I'll have a look, but of course it's a US stock, which is not quite the same.

[timbo003] 04/6/2015 10:23

Indeed supernumerary, there are potential drug interactions with omeprazole as there are with many other drugs, including antacids such as Aluminium/Magnesium Hydroxide, as used in the OXPzero formulations.

A few points worthy of note:

Magnesium and Aluminium hydroxide are widely used in antacid formulations (Maalox, Mylanta, Milk of Magnesia etc). They are active substances not just excipients:


There is a huge potential for drug interactions between such antacids and other drugs, especially drugs of an acidic nature, including Naproxen and Ibuprofen where OXP have now seen a reduction in the rate and extent of absorption from their combinations. This 1983 abstract provides a summary of some of the more important antacid/drug interactions (full text unfortunately not available) and there are likely to be many others identified since this publication.


Omeprazole (esomeprazole) is an exceedingly safe drug with few side effects and drug interactions, so much so, that MHRA has recently approved a switch from pharmacy only status to GSL status in the UK (so it can be sold in grocery stores and garage forecourts), the public assessment report following that decision can be found here:


There is a wealth of clinical data showing that omeprazole is effective in reducing GI damage associated with Aspririn. The American College of Cardiology along with the AHA issued a Clinical Expert Consensus in 2008 recommending PPIs (such as omeprazole) as the preferred agents for the therapy and prophylaxis of aspirin-associated gastrointestinal injury.

Prozen (mentioned several time before on this thread), have already developed both low dose and high dose Aspirin / omeprazole combinations. The Clinical development program is complete and until recently they were in partnership with Sanofi regarding a US product launch. The clinical data regarding GI safety looks extremely good


This really makes me wonder, why bother with OXPzero formulations for Aspirin when they are unlikely to offer any benefit over what is already available? OXP are well behind the curve on this IMO and using an inferior approach.

If investors really want exposure to the sort of area OXP are attempting to gain access to, Pozen look like a far better bet:



The market cap is not that dissimilar to OXP and Pozen are sitting on a pile of cash (circa £30m), so the enterprise values are more of less the same. Unlike OXP, Pozen has real products and real revenues, furthermore they have an interesting and viable pipeline which looks very low risk compared to that of OXP.

[supernumerary] 03/6/2015 10:12

timbo - wikipedia gives both adverse effects and drug interactions for esomeprazole. I don't know how serious these are (interactions with diazepam and warfarin might be an issue with the likely patients here?) but surely avoiding its use is a good thing if possible?

[timbo003] 03/6/2015 07:41

I'm really not sure why they want to look at low dose aspirin, the "problem" of GI side effects with low dose aspirin has already been adequately addressed with once a day Esomeprazole

[timbo003] 02/6/2015 23:32

It's certainly prudent of management to raise cash at this small discount before the results are out for the on-going endoscopy study. If that one fails (or has an ambivalent outcome) then they really are in trouble.

I suspect looking at Aspirin will be another wild goose chase, but for different reasons than ibuprofen and Naproxen. First of all there could be a stability issue. Aspirin breaks down readily to Salicylic acid and acetic acid in the presence of alkali (for example Magnesium/Aluminium Hydroxide), although they should be able to overcome this by using controlled humidity manufacturing and packaging conditions along with moisture resistant packaging (for example Aluminium foil lined sachets).

Aspirin is unlikely to have the same sort of affinity for the Magnesium/Aluminium Hydroxide compared to either ibuprofen or naproxen, which from a bioavailability perspective is good and I think there is a reasonable chance it will be bioequivalent to the controls for both Cmax and AUC, however the flip side is that it is unlikely to be significantly different to the appropriate controls on GI side effects.

The controls should include low dose buffered aspirin, not just low dose regular aspirin, for example these products:



Finally as explained in detail in previous posts, Safestat is just a pipe dream, they don't seem to have any data to support the hypothesis and as for a talk of combining Safestat with OXPzero Aspirin, pigs might fly.

[supernumerary] 02/6/2015 14:16

Obviously better to raise the money before the results come out, rather than after, just in case ;¬)

I always thought Woodford was a conservative stock-picker; an amazing bet to have placed just on a promise.

Let's hope timbo's wrong, or it's going to be one hell of a crash...

BTW if safety was really an issue, surely paracetamol would have been withdrawn years ago?

[gnnmartin] 02/6/2015 11:57

Very sensible to raise more money given the enthusiasm for the shares.

I recently read the following footnote in a book: "In the US, more than 16,500 people die each year from NSAIDs, which cause gastrointestinal bleeding - more than die from AIDS. M.M. Wolfe et al., “Gastrointestinal toxicity of Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs”, New England Journal of Medicine 340 no 24 (1999) 1889." Timbo believes that speed of response is the ne plus ultra of NSAIDs. Personally I believe that people buy what they are told to buy, and that speed of response is only pushed because it is currently the only differentiator. If safety and consistency of response can be demonstrated, I think that will take over as the USP for premium brands. There will of course always be a big market for the cheapest slot, 20p for a packet of paracetamol from Tesco.
Nigel Martin

[cheshire man] 02/6/2015 09:26

Placing this morning @10p, hard to get any on the small dip !

[cheshire man] 22/5/2015 12:38

Are we going to end the week on a break-out ? a bit more volume will do it !DYOR

[cheshire man] 21/5/2015 14:25

On the move again I see :-)

[del44] 18/5/2015 07:50

RNS...

Oxford Pharmascience Group announces the initiation of dosing in its pilot clinical study of 250mg OXPzeroTM Naproxen (OXP005).

OXP005 uses Oxford Pharmascience's patented OXPzero technology in an immediate release oral formulation and aims to provide a significantly reduced gastrointestinal (GI) side effect profile compared to standard naproxen tablets.

Following on from the recent announcement of the successful proof-of-concept pharmacokinetic (PK) study, the Company is pleased to announce that it has progressed to an endoscopic evaluation study to prove the reduced GI irritation of OXP005.

The purpose of this Phase I, randomised, controlled pilot study is to assess the severity of upper GI damage via endoscopic assessment following 7 days treatment of 1 g/day naproxen dosed as either OXP005 or Naprosyn.

Headline results are expected to be released in late Q2/early Q3 2015. Further details about the study can be found at www.ClinicalTrials.gov.

[timbo003] 15/5/2015 07:53

I was slightly surprised to see the announcement this morning

What's going on?

I had assumed that they were going to attempt to develop a conventional OXP001 tablet for adults and a taste masked OXP001 suspension for children, now there is a taste masked tablet for adults, with no mention of a conventional tablet for adults, or a paediatric suspension

The wording in the RNS seems a bit ambiguous to me, but it sounds like they are developing the OXP001 chewable tablet instead of the conventional OXP001 tablet, if that is the case, you have to ask why?

Are the company getting worried that their OXP001 conventional tablet would not show bioequivalence to the reference in the next study ? (many investors conveniently seem to forget that they failed to show bioequivalence in the first endoscopy study with OXP001, during the recent run up to 12p/share)

Perhaps the company think that the drug will release more rapidly and more completely from the chewable tablet compared to a conventional tablet format (for the record: I don't believe that would be the case)

Perhaps they now believe the conventional OXP001 tablet would be too big (as mentioned previously). A 400mg tablet which includes a substantial quantity of Aluminium/Magnesium hydroxide plus all the other conventional excipients is likely to give you quite a big gobstopper.

Interesting times.

[gnnmartin] 13/5/2015 13:10

You have posted before that uses of Ibuprofin etc want fast response, and being in the trade your opinion is worth more than mine. My use of Ibuprofin has been in cases where I have a pain I wish to control over the day, typically because I have pulled a muscle or similar. I don't want fast response, I want steady response. If someone wants a 'fast response' it suggests to me that they are reaching too readily for medication.

[timbo003] 13/5/2015 11:23

>>>Nigel

For acute use (most OTC applications) it would probably be a show stopper (same goes for ibuprofen). The OTC version of Naproxen is a rapidly absorbed sodium salt form anyway (faster than standard Naproxen used in the OXP005 study) and there is a good reason for that, consumers want fast!

For chronic use (i.e. OA), it poses less of an issue, apart from the onset of action may be very slow following the first dose, but thereafter it may be okay. I think they would need to run a steady state PK study to assess what going on after taking a few doses. Given that's Naproxen has a long half life (>12 hours), they would probably need to dose (and sample) over a period of around 4 days (5 x apparent half life).

[gnnmartin] 13/5/2015 11:06

Timbo, that was my first take, and early trading suggests that is the message that people take from these results. However, to quote from the RNS:

While naproxen has a somewhat higher risk of causing adverse GI effects as compared with ibuprofen2 it has some distinct advantages: Naproxen offers longer lasting relief and therefore requires less frequent dosing. Importantly, based on published analysis, naproxen is thought to have a reduced risk of cardiovascular events than all other NSAIDs3. It is therefore the preferred NSAID for long-term use in people with a high risk of cardiovascular complications4 and increasingly the preferred prescription option for patients with chronic conditions commonly treated with NSAIDs.

So given that the total amount of the drug absorbed was the same (100.5%) it might arguably be an advantage that the peak absorption rate is lower. For users with chronic conditions a steadier release is often preferable, and I infer as much from the quoted paragraph above.