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It has been a long, long time coming.Early into a groundbreaking area, PRM has been on a learning experience.With the success of the Human Genome Project, optimism ran high.However, reality has been different and it has taken years for PRM to start getting income from its IP and expertise.The delays:Biomarkers need to be properly validated. The benefits for pharmas have been unclear in the past and nobody has wanted to commit money to doing so.But with healthcare budgets stretched and with adequate, cheap generic drugs increasingly available for major diseases, pharma and govts have had to think differently. Until recently, there has been no real driver pushing personalised medicine. In fact, there have been forces against it. 1. it costs money initially 2. it reduces the patients applicable to a drug. Much more profitable if you can just give a drug to everyone!The new healthcare system:In order to capture healthcare spending, pharma is having to change. a) 'untreatable' diseasesPharmas are looking to tap diseases such as Alzheimer's disease for which there are currently no disease-modifying treatments. It is no easy task. Disease progression is slow. To see limited improvements you need large patient groups. That costs money. Markers such as PRM's are being validated and the assays are now ready to be used in trials, to enrich patient populations with those predisposed to develop the disease and also, to monitor disease progression.Look around and you'll now see that many pharmas are stating an aim to focus on AD. There is a lot of money coming into the area. Furthermore, aware of an AD care time bomb, government agencies are also channeling funds in - GMEC and PRM stand to benefit. Alzheimer's is just one example. b) getting cleverer with adequately treated diseasesGeneric drugs are cheap. As more brands go off patent, it becomes harder to demonstrate some advantage worth paying a lot more for. Although adequate, responder rates with many gold standard treatments are often poor. Biomarkers allow responders to be identified. This has implications in terms of patient outcome (often critical) and cost effectiveness. Payers are slow to accept this and want to see proof before agreeing to pay for new, expensive brands and the diagnostic tests they're associated with, but things are moving in the right direction. Companion diagnostics are now the hot area of cancer treatment and momentum is building in other areas. The FDA's Critical Path and other initiatives are helping.www.gmecuk.comThe role of GMEC is to remove the blocks that have slowed personalised medicine from becoming a reality. PRM is a core part of that.PRM's outlook certainly doesnt all hang on GMEC, but it is a very nice addition and could make a significant direct/indirect contribution.Most of the value from PRM's work in GMEC and other projects will be long-term, but a PS Biomarker contract signed this year, would bring revenue this year (whereas diagnostic tests have to build up unless upfront payments are paid).A look around shows that multi-year contracts proteomics of over $10m are being signed.Near-term, PRM has a terrible balance sheet and the company is entirely reliant upon the loan facility from Mr Pearce. He has indicated that he will provide funds until profitability is reached and that is targeted for 2010, but there are no guarantees.A successful judge's verdict re the warranty claim against Sanofi would help to ensure a settlement, which could go some or all of the way towards restoring healthy finances. The verdict and settlement may be announced together. Sanofi doesnt have to settle and it could all take much longer, but there are reasons to suggest it will this year - just as Life settled the TMT patent infringement before the November patent opposition hearing.Aside from the balance sheet, it now looks like a case of waiting....oncology: Oncimmune's test(s) building up and others likely to followstroke: research suggests PRM has some of the key markers and commercialisation of elaborate brain damage tests seems likely in time.AD: PRM has clear leadership in this space. Assays/tests WILL be needed to develop AD treatments and to gain reimbursement/usage of expensive treatmentsProteoShop: there is a trend of pharma outsourcing. Similarly, personalised medicine is finally taking off. Started with Takeda, contracts are now starting to flow.Isobaric mass label revenue:TMT has delivered only a minor level of revenue to dateIt is important to note that it has captured only a share of the isobaric mass label market, which is currently dominated by iTRAQFrom Q409, PRM has been getting royalties from iTRAQ and therefore virtually the whole of the market.if TMT royalties in 2010 will be £100k and TMT has only 10% of the market, then it stands that iTRAQ would add around £900k.We dont know what share of the market TMT has had, or what the market size is. However, in December 2006 PRM stated that it estimated isobaric mass label sales to be around half of $10-20m. ie $5-10mThe market has been growing and could be $7-15m by now.20% royalties would be $1.4m to $3m. The rate could be higher still, but equally, the market size estimates could have been too high. We dont know at present.Expect to see a jump in revenue and PRM have given guidance towards that by saying 'look at annual revenue trends'.PRM is not there yet, but loans permitting, it is finally on its way to profitability.Disclaimer: these are the opinions of the author only and do not represent any form of investment advice.