Bionex Share Discussion Threads

[blackbear] 14/1/2004 17:42

What's biovex got to do with bionex??

[rivaldo] 14/1/2004 14:10

Today's trading is worth a mention - steady (small-scale buying) and a drift upwards. No idea why.

[rivaldo] 09/1/2004 14:34

BioVex is looking more and more interesting...from their web site:



"BIOVEX ANNOUNCES AGREEMENT WITH JOHNSON & JOHNSON PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

9 January 2004 - BioVex Limited announced today that it has signed an agreement with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, a division of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (J&JPRD) located in Beerse, Belgium. Under the terms of the agreement BioVex will supply its proprietary NeuroVEX vectors carrying selected gene constructs for the analysis of gene function in neuronal tissue. This agreement follows an initial evaluation of the potential of NeuroVEX by the J&J research group (announced October 17, 2003).

NeuroVEX can be used to establish long-term foreign gene expression in nerve cells and may be useful in the identification of new gene targets for small molecule drugs to treat diseases and disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems."

[colonel a] 29/12/2003 17:44

Fraid not,

Two simultaneous trades of same size at 1.19 and 1.20 is a matched pair with 1% commission for the MM.

At this time of year probably somebody realising a tax loss and shuffling the shares.
Normally these go through towards the low end of the spread (maximise taxable loss) but perhaps somebody has a conscience.

But one day, hopefully ...

[sagem] 29/12/2003 16:02

Something is about to happen.......at last

[bstratto] 29/12/2003 15:14

2 1,500000 Trades just gone through

[russianlinesman] 19/12/2003 21:22

Rivaldo, agree that you can't specifically provision a company unless there is something obvious like a down-round, though you could do what Prelude has done and reduce holdings to cost (if you had ever re-valued them upwards).

With Bionex, it's not that they don't tell you what they've provided against, a general provisions pool would work to some extent, but that they don't list their holdings at all (hence all the debates here about what their stake in Ark actually is). There is no reason at all for them not to reveal that information and it makes valuing the company extraordinarily difficult.

[rivaldo] 19/12/2003 10:52

Agreed, though I can see the reasons for lack of disclosure. As already stated, positive progress would be on the respective companies web sites, whilst full disclosure of which company or companies the provision was against would not be good for that company in the marketplace - if you were a supplier/partner you might get a bit jumpy. Also, this seems to be a provision, not a write-off - if the latter, I'm sure we'd be told who against(this is in common with other investment vehicles).

A brief mention for Morphochem in a positive light in a pretty bleak article in the FT today (the CFO's name is not a good omen!):



"One factor working in the small biotechnology companies' favour is an acute shortage of potential new medicines in development by the world's largest pharmaceuticals companies.

"The pharma industry is looking for molecules," says Thomas Löser, chief financial officer of Morphochem."

[russianlinesman] 19/12/2003 10:16

lack of investor info, as cited earlier, is a general reason not to hold this stock. Only if Ark (or a.n.other) does float, will value begin to crystallise. That said, not much downside on current price.

[blackbear] 19/12/2003 08:21

No info on investment's , not even mentioning the names.

[hugepants] 18/12/2003 16:20

One good thing is the low operating expenses. Some other similar companies really rip off shareholders by charging a relatively huge management fee. ie. Arlington.

300K+ write-off, without any explanation, must be annoying though

[rivaldo] 18/12/2003 14:35

Results announced earlier:



No revelations, no progress reports on the investee companies - disappointing in that respect, though I suppose anything meaningful, particularly re Ark/flotation prospects, is confidential anyway and can't be announced until the relevant company makes its own announcement.

There's also a fresh provision that wasn't there at the interim stage - it's ambiguous as to whether it's against one or a number of companies. Certain investments are quieter than others judging from the web sites - say Ecosmart or Photo Therapeutics, so could be these.

But generally it seems like good news to me:

- Net assets at £3.36m are 2.1p per share, against a 1.05p share price
- There's still £1m cash
- Provisioning against investments is "conservative" - no more write-downs?
- Total expenses for the year were, net of everything, around £75,000. Not a lot!
- Trading activities generated a handy £73k profit.

So it's as before - wait for news on Ark, with a 100% discount to NAV as a safety net.

[russianlinesman] 17/12/2003 17:35

Hi Rivaldo et al,

I see we are now where we were (if not slightly lower) before the Ark flotation came up again a few weeks ago.

Maybe I'll stick a few in my xmas stocking after all?

[optimist at large] 17/12/2003 09:10

Ark - the news flow continues:

How long to the floatation announcement?

[rivaldo] 15/12/2003 16:04

Thanks Optimist - on the ball as usual. This looks very encouraging:

"London, UK, 15th December 2003 - Ark Therapeutics Ltd today announces that the FDA have formally listed Kerraboot®, a novel dressing system for the management of leg and foot ulcers, as a medical device, allowing the product to be marketed in the US.

Following completion of the product registration process, which is anticipated shortly, Kerraboot® is expected to be available for use in the US during 2004 for patients with moderate to heavily exudating foot and leg ulcers."

And also some very good news from Morphochem:



December 05, 2003

Morphochem enters into research collaboration with Novartis

Looking forward to the New Year. It sounds like there's lots of IPO's on the blocks if the markets are OK - let's hope Ark is one of them.


for use of its MOREsystem™ in lead discovery

[optimist at large] 15/12/2003 09:55

More Ark news:

[a harris] 07/12/2003 12:28

LONDON (SHARECAST) - British biotechnology minnow Xenova joined the rush of small biotech companies raising money with a £21m placing to fund its development programme.

source :



Sir Chris Evans, chairman of Merlin Biosciences, the venture capitalist, said the recent fundraisings were “extremely encouraging” for the prospects of IPOs. “You would not have had a hope of raising anything in the secondary market six to seven months ago,” he said.

source :

[a harris] 06/12/2003 12:04

Rivaldo
I think my thread title was Ark will float question mark ??? and its a valid question.
It didnt. Maybe ADVFN will edit and add the question mark. No intention to mislead meant. I have written a rider on the thread. I agree with your comments at posting 74.

[rivaldo] 04/12/2003 12:58

AH, I think you're leaving yourself open to a lot of stick with that thread (ramping/making claims which might not happen etc). Can I be a bit pompous and ask that we carry on with this thread - the title hints as per the press reports that Ark might float, plus all the info on the investee companies is already here for anyone new who comes along?

[a harris] 04/12/2003 12:46

new thread created

"ark will float"

[rivaldo] 03/12/2003 15:44

Nice post ah. Welcome, and you could be right, lets hope Ark catches the wave. And thanks rl, yes I saw Chris Evans' quotes - it seems pretty clear that Arl will either boom or bust over the next year or so.

For those interested, I've trawled through web sites and come up with some bits and pieces which look encouraging for Biovex and Morphochem.

It seems that 2 of the 3 Oxford Tecnology VCT's are investors in Avidex. Have a look at their recent PDF newsletters (the site dates them April'03, but they actually seem to be Oct'03), and the most recent Biovex investment is valued at cost and comes with a good report:



On Morphochem's site there's these:

Morphochem names Alfred E. Seidel as CEO
November 7, 2003

New apointments prepare Morphochem for cancer product development
October 16, 2003

I like the latter announcement - this guy was 27 years at Novartis. Why would he have joined Morphochem unless he thought there was something to work with?

So the price is back where we started. Who knows whether this will pay off short (via an Ark float) or long term, but thanx for the results info unionhall - I'm hoping they've still got their £1m cash and will update us further re Ark in particular.

[unionhall] 03/12/2003 11:17

Folks,

Great thread for a newcomer looking at investing.

FYI a call to BIONEX on the timing of the Annual Results got the response "I think the end of this month".