Ekf Diagnostics Share Discussion Threads

[pldazzle] 26/11/2020 20:17

?? I don't have a problem with the numbers. 1.675m shares @£4.60 = £7.705m gross proceeds which is what was announced. The profit of "over £5.6m" is £7.705m, less costs of sale, less the original cost; that looks reasonable enough to me.

[chris16041] 26/11/2020 20:05

I am a tad puzzled at the sales figures produced for the recent share sale
The difference between the gross and net figures quoted appears significant and i find it difficult to accept this difference can be explained as dealing costs
Am I missing something here

[tongosti] 26/11/2020 16:56

Does our Joe deserve a reply when he has been using foul language recently? No - he doesn't. Only thing I will tell him is that during bull markets our dear pal Joe confuses luck with brains...

[mg1982] 26/11/2020 16:48

tong,

I'm sure all of us are curious to know this, how old are you?

I'm guessing by the type of messages you put on various BB's that you can't be older than 20?

Grow up.

[tongosti] 26/11/2020 16:42

One of the timeless pieces of wisdom in this business: watch out when it's all blue sky and Mr Market stops responding. Another one: markets top on good news. Always and without fail. The reverse is true at market bottoms. Buona fortuna

[btgman] 26/11/2020 15:25

Market reaction about right for the profits raised on Renalytix disposal look about right. Reaction to new testing kit is mooted but lets wait and see what the numbers this adds to profit. Market seems happy to ignore underlying upgrades but the results and next trading update should address this.

absolute steel at current levels

AIMHO
GLA
BTG

[wan] 26/11/2020 14:44

Now available on EKF's website, inquire now -

Precise and reliable measurement of COVID-19 IgG antibodies

The Kantaro COVID-SeroKlir kit is a direct ELISA for the quantitative detection of human IgG antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in serum and plasma (K2-EDTA/Li-Heparin) samples. COVID-SeroKlir is both FDA and CE-IVD cleared.

The SeroKlir ELISA kit was developed by clinicians at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System, New York(1). The test has been trialled on a cohort of more than 70,000 patients including over 30,000 who were diagnosed with COVID-19(2).

The SeroKlir ELISA kit contains components to test 630 patient samples and uses standard ELISA protocols and equipment. The test comprises a two-phase ELISA, the initial plate screens for RBD positive or negative samples and the second plate provides a quantitative result of the antibody titre (concentration) using full length Spike protein.

Specificity 99.6%

Sensitivity 97.8%

[tongosti] 26/11/2020 14:15

Mr Market hardly excited isn't he?

[wan] 26/11/2020 09:56

Charlieej....Clearly it's quite a task/achievement to get authorisation on the 'scaled version' i.e. the results can be achieved routinely with a high degree of agreement across millions of tests per month (compared to relative low volume product). So, I think that's the reason for the tweak.

As I said before, it potentially provides for a second wind in light of the increased interest from vaccine developers (for those starting out and those now no longer locked into phase 3 studies) and indeed to gain a much needed understanding of immunity generally. So, I am sticking with my view that demand is likely be very high.

[wan] 26/11/2020 09:00

Put another way, the Siemens test can only be performed on the installed base of Siemens equipment.

[wan] 26/11/2020 08:58

Yes it's possibly an adjustment based on the 'scaled' version (millions of available tests!). Fwiw, my interpretation has always been that a semi-quantitative test 'estimates' the level of antibodies and a quantitative test directly measures the level of antibodies.

Also to put things into perspective, in the US at least -

As of Tuesday, the FDA had authorised 291 coronavirus diagnostic tests, which include 225 molecular tests (predominantly PCR), 59 antibody tests, and 7 antigen tests during 2020. Of those antibody tests only two are semi-quantitative, Siemens and Kantaro.

The important differences though is that Mount Sinai has successfully used the antibody testing technology now found in the Kantaro kit over 75,000 times across a highly diverse population.

And the test can be performed 'without' the need for costly proprietary equipment or special environments, making it attractive to a wide audience.

[hastings] 26/11/2020 08:46

Agree, good coverage on CNN yesterday.Https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/11/25/health/covid-19-antibody-test-kantaro-fda-authorization-bn/index.html

[btgman] 26/11/2020 08:24

Markets perception recently is that vaccine is negative for EKF whereas it is the exact opposite today's news adds a very significant string to our bow. I suspect we will see another near term investment with the Renalytix money cash held at year end is going to be looking like a big number.

AIMHO
GLA
BTG

[tongosti] 26/11/2020 08:00

Let's see what the ref will make of it - Mr Market himself!

[hastings] 26/11/2020 07:56

My understanding is that unless it's 100% accurate it can only be deemed as semi quantitative.

[charlieej] 26/11/2020 07:53

Wan do you have any insight as to why the FDA seem to only have authorised it as semi-quantitative?

[wan] 26/11/2020 07:32

The highlighting of Kantaro's EUA for a semi-quantitative antibody test is interesting.

I also note that in the UK and Europe (according to the release) the antibody test is categorised/authorised as quantitative.

It will thus be interesting to see if the market remains underwhelmed.

The strong institutional demand for EKF's Renalytix holding is encouraging for both Renalytix and indeed EKF. Whilst we await the next Renalytix/Verici!

[btgman] 26/11/2020 07:32

The sale has resulted in gross proceeds of GBP7.705m to EKF and generated a profit of over GBP5.6m after dealing expenses. That's a chunk of money.

AIMHO
GLA
BTG

[rivaldo] 26/11/2020 07:11

Great to see confirmation this morning of Kantaro's antibody test FDA approval. The market might get somewhat excited about this once the realisation sinks in that EKF have exclusive rights to market and distribute it "in the UK and Germany and non-exclusive rights in Europe".

And also we have news that EKF are £7.7m better off after selling shares in Renalytix - and still hold another £4.6m's worth. Proof of the value EKF can generate from very little to start with.

[wan] 25/11/2020 18:47

I should have added to the above that Renalytix is entitled to 10% of the proceeds from antibody tests, with revenues slated in for both 2021 and 2020. As I alluded to above though, I think that EKF's commercial arrangement is based on/enables healthy margins.

[wan] 25/11/2020 18:17

From the November Trading Update -

A significantly improved trading in the core business in the final quarter, along with continued orders for the PrimeStore MTM COVID-19 sample collection device underpins the Board’s confidence of a strong full year performance.
(END)

Given that antibody testing is not part of the core business (and was only announced 28th October), and with PrimeStore separated out for specific mention, it is unlikely in my view, that the reference to "expected orders for the remainder of the year", contained anything for Kantaro antibody test orders.

I had been monitoring recent Bio-Techne commentary (amongst others and other related things), hence my previous comments on here regarding the antibody test. The market may be underestimating the revenues from antibody testing, as up until now interest in and use of some of the competitors EUA antibody tests (the accuracy of which has been called into question) has be relatively low to non-existent. Perhaps why the market is not expecting much from EKF in this regard?

So, it looks as though there is currently only two players in the market with an 'effective' antibody test offering, and one of those is Kantaro! Previous commentary from Bio-Techne implied that the margin for distributers/end users look set to be very healthy, particularly in the US. But until we hear something further from EKF, I am inclined to not say a lot more on the subject!

[james188] 25/11/2020 17:24

The FDA EUA announcement today is clearly positive news, but we do not know how much of the product that Bio-Techne manufactures is going to be allocated to the UK/European markets and so available for marketing and distribution (and so revenue generation) by EKF. We also do not know the commercial deal under the agreement between EKF and Kantaro. My assumption is that most of the kits now being produced will be targeted at the US market. As far as I am aware, Bio-Techne are the sole manufacturer of the test kits.

If the Kantaro/EKF marketing and distribution agreement generates material revenues for EKF, it will issue an RNS, sooner or later. So, I can see why the Renalytix share price spiked today (after being subdued), but also why it had no immediate impact on the EKF share price, given its relatively small holding in Renalytix.

Some of the other developments hold more immediate promise, in my view, PrimeStore products being an obvious example.

[wan] 25/11/2020 13:54

So, given the commentary from Bio-Techne stating that "manufacturing will begin with a capacity of 10 million tests per month", does that mean availability here and in Europe was limited/not available i.e. manufacturing at scale commences with FDA EUA?