Ekf Diagnostics Share Discussion Threads

[wan] 25/5/2021 10:09

I wrote the following a few weeks ago for the EKF thread (for obvious reasons), but I never got around to posting it. However, I posted it on the Renalytix thread this morning as I thought it had at least some relevance there. And seeing as it was intended for here and it mentions EKF, I thought I would post it here too -

Maybe the following personal story is of relevance?

Many years ago, when I was a relatively naive investor (and I am still learning today!), I learnt what I later believed to be an important lesson.

I owned a share that had risen circa 7-fold to circa £6, which at the time I still saw no reason to sell as the prospects still appeared to be very good to me. However, the CEO sold a relatively large chunk of stock at around the same price (but still held shares), which at the time effectively undermined my rationale to continue to hold and subsequently it shook me (and quite a few other private investors) out the stock entirely, as naively I couldn't understand why he would sell if the prospects were so good? Anyway, I banked a substantial profit.

Post the CEO's sale (and mine) the shares continued to perform quite strongly and eventually the company was bought out at £18 per share. The lesson was that the CEO had sold into strong investor and institutional investor demand, as well as there being the usual personal and regulatory timing matters etc. So, certain insider selling at certain times e.g. when the prospects are good (and guided), and demand is high, can be instructive in perhaps more ways than first impressions imply.

Some would say that it's never wrong to take a profit, and that I should have sold only part of my holding, yes may be, and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I believe I did learn from that experience.

My main thrust is that taking a profit can be wrong, just as taking a loss can be right, and there is probably no absolute catch-all practice that is guaranteed to work. But I would suggest that the managements track record in delivering value to shareholders is as good as anything, and EKF and Renalytix investors have had that delivered in spades! Importantly, there are strong indications to suggest that there is more growth and value creation to come. Readers will get my drift, but investors should of course make up the own minds and arrive at their own conclusions when making investment decisions.

[wan] 25/5/2021 08:53

I note the following press release from Mount Sinai -

Press Release
AMSURG and Mount Sinai Health System Release New Research on Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer

Findings Support Recommendations to Lower Average Screening Age to 45

NEW YORK, NY & NASHVILLE, TN (May 24, 2021) AMSURG, a division of Envision Healthcare and a national leader in outpatient care, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, world-renowned for its groundbreaking research, released new findings on colorectal cancer (CRC), which support several recommendations to lower the screening age from 50 to 45 for people who are at average risk for CRC. The findings were presented at the Digestive Disease Week® 2021 virtual scientific meeting on May 23.

“This study can inform additional research directed at CRC screening in younger populations. More importantly, it helps physicians inform patients about the importance of early screening several years before they reach screening age; we believe that this will encourage younger patients to get routine screenings on time, at the appropriate age, and with close attention to the individual’s risk factors and symptoms,” said primary investigator, Steven Itzkowitz, MD, Professor of Medicine, Oncological Sciences and Medical Education, and Director of the GI Fellowship Program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Full release -

In the US, EKF already supplies a CLIA waived screening test, Hema-Screen, for the early detection of colorectal cancer, which could eventually be in greater demand given the lowering of the screening age. And it is also interesting regarding the possibilities and potential of EKF being involved with screening for IBD, which also gets mentioned in the above Mount Sinai press release as presenting a risk factor.

Obviously, the above is only food for thought at this stage.

[pldazzle] 24/5/2021 21:40

The company was Trellus Health Ltd, but was re-registered as a PLC on 12 May, just under two weeks ago:


Trellus Health Inc will no doubt be the operating subsidiary in the USA.

[wan] 22/5/2021 08:21

I have been monitoring the following news item with interest for some time (very large contracts have been awarded). The story effectively demonstrates two things, surveillance will continue beyond the pandemic (for COVID and other pathogens) and not just via waste water sampling, and it is yet another area of testing that has risen in importance due to the pandemic, which will significantly improve preparedness, reaction and deployment etc.

And even if EKF is not currently involved with waste water sampling, new tenders will be forthcoming for it to be maintained, but in any regard I am still expecting preparedness to include large stocks of readily deployable sample collection products, as well as appropriate manufacturing capacity to serve the vastly increased laboratory testing capacity and surveillance requirements etc.

Covid-19: Sewage testing ramped up in England
By Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC News

Published 7 hours ago

The government has ramped up its programme to analyse wastewater for early signs of coronavirus.

The sewage-testing programme now covers two-thirds of England's population.

Samples are now being are taken at wastewater treatment plants and sent to a new lab in Exeter that is dedicated to analysing wastewater.

Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency, described it as "an additional detection system" for Covid-19. "It is enabling us to respond more effectively to outbreaks and better protect citizens."

Prof Andrew Singer, from the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, played a key role in the scientific effort to establish this wastewater-based epidemiology effort in the UK.

"The scale of the programme that has been created in the past year is truly remarkable," he told BBC News.

"Well over 500 locations are being monitored for coronavirus, and many of them sampled at least four days a week, thereby generating an enormous amount of data on the prevalence of the virus across the UK.

"And this will live on in a post-Covid world by searching for other pathogens in wastewater, like influenza, so that makes this programme one of the few silver linings from the pandemic."

Full story -

[wan] 22/5/2021 06:42

So that we don't get too cluttered on here, I have created an initial Trellus Health thread which I will add further to, including editing and populate the header further in due course -

[wan] 22/5/2021 04:38

Oh, and btw I will now own share certificates for good measure. So, no doubt that will involve more work/considerations etc!

[wan] 22/5/2021 04:34

Soon after posting my tribulations on here, the document from Barclays arrived, and after intense interrogation regarding the bank transfer, I was able to complete the application process (perhaps they read this thread).

I too had interaction with corporate actions at Barclays yesterday. As Boadicea implies, from what I can tell and from past experience, one of the main issues is differentiating which clients are not US citizens (regulation S from memory) and therefore enabling a UK citizen/investor to take part. However, Barclays Smart Investor are apparently not able to do this, which is almost unbelievable given what information they hold on their clients.

After my interaction yesterday, it will get discussed internally 'again' at Smart Investor, but that is exactly what they said last time regarding my Renalytix and Verici fiasco's!

With other brokers clearly able to enable investors to take part, apparently seamlessly, and given Barclays lack of effort and commitment in implementing/updating their systems and procedures etc, 'Smart Investors' might look to consider transferring to those platforms that delivered and/or responded effectively to their clients requests.

[ppmm] 22/5/2021 03:49

Well I’ll be more prepared for any future offer of this kind, you put us all to shane Bscuit :)

[bscuit] 22/5/2021 00:43

I had CSD organised by Thursday late afternoon.

[ppmm] 21/5/2021 23:01

Re Barclays, the customer service staff were charming but Barclays muddled and indecisive, I was informing the technical support team of where to look via chat yesterday morning. Their apparent solution was this letter confirming holding and entitlement but mine arrived at 17:28 and the password to open the email not until after 17:00. I placed no reliance on this and required detailed interrogation to confirm my identity. I placed reliance on the statements of the EKF directors at the trading announcements where he said if anyone had an issue with buying, get in touch and I did, via Walbrook a pragmatic solution that fully documented entitlement and smoothed the process. Fingers crossed now.

[boadicea] 21/5/2021 20:19

They were not the first in the field but in the end the process at HL was simplicity itself. Job done! I can understand their need to put it through the legal department having read the restrictions myself. They are in effect responsible for certifying that all their clients are 'clean' and have particularly to watch the US dimension.

I had given up hope of an application until I read their email. Given the short notice (and I was out until after the market had closed) it could have been difficult to free up the necessary funds to meet a 7am Monday deadline. Fortunately, spare funds had arrived fortuitously on Wednesday, available via debit card and there was leeway in the ISA subscription. In overall terms it's little more than a dabble - but oaks and acorns and all that.

[james188] 21/5/2021 17:53

I would encourage as many applicants as possible who have had problems applying for Trellus shares to give specific feedback directly to EKF.The company has a very good track record of engaging constructively with PIs and I am sure that it will want to know what problems have occurred and then look to effect improvements for the next offering.

Few of the platforms have performed well, but I also think that EKF needs to look at the guidance and procedures that its advisors put in place. With the honourable exception of Interactive Investor, all of the brokers I know were caught on the back foot.

[wan] 21/5/2021 17:27

Having a nightmare with Barclays (both the bank and Smart Investor/corporate actions!), the payment from 'cleared funds' has been paused due to their system flagging it up as potential fraud (the bank processed it manually with all security passed etc) and it won't be released/completed until it has been reviewed by their fraud department. Plus, the wrong documents were emailed to me regarding proof of EKF share ownership, which they have acknowledged over three hours ago, but with no replacements yet received.

It has taken me many hours to get even this far, and I still can't complete the transaction!

[red171] 21/5/2021 17:00

Just applied through HL, it was straightforward. Not sure when cash will be deducted.

Thanks to all for the advanced warning

GLA

[wan] 21/5/2021 16:57

Credit ultimately due to Homebrewruss on the Renalytix thread, but I also note that Trellus Health are presenting here too -

Becker's Healthcare

All eyes are on the life sciences sector as digital transformation and innovation booms. Biopharma and medtech companies reacted quickly during the pandemic to accelerate clinical trials and drug development focused on COVID-19 while also advancing important gene therapies and precision medicine initiatives. These companies also made strides in data management and are poised to create extreme value for healthcare over the next few years.

On May 21st, life science experts will come together for a robust 90-minute program to debate the biggest issues and exciting technologies in the industry today. Join us for this unique, focused event and gain an edge on the competition.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN MEDTECH AND THE EVOLUTION OF DATA MANAGEMENT

1:45 PM CT | PANEL DISCUSSION

Vlado Bosanac, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Human Imaging (AHI)

Rick Anderson, president and general manager, North America, DarioHealth

Monique Fayad, CEO, Trellus Health

[scorpio51] 21/5/2021 16:27

Better late than never,but not impressed with HL. They are always slow on the uptake....not good enough for the biggest UK broker!

[jane deer] 21/5/2021 15:49

I am also a client of HL and I see they now have the option to subscribe for the Trellus Restricted Offer (as my millie mentions above). Well done to all those who pressed HL on this issue and well done to HL for reacting (even if it took them a bit longer than we might have liked).

[senseibull] 21/5/2021 15:30

Thanks for responding, appreciate the debate.

Thanks for correcting me as it was my understanding and I can agree with some of what you said. Although I just re-read the March end of year and it said 2020 core revenue was -14% compared to 2019. Their diabetes’s diagnostic products were down significantly more. Seems primestore and all the infrastructure and lab work around that is what carried the business in 2020 hence appearing to be a COVID play (I also guess COVID play means differently to different people) BUT that doesn’t mean they cannot grow out of that, their business is likely to be more recognisable in the market because of the pandemic.

I believe in the business but did initially invest on the antibody tests speculative demand. Ultimately I’m here to make money so the share price needs to move upwards.

[mymillie] 21/5/2021 15:26

I have just received this message from HL

Thank you for your message and my apologies for the delay in responding.

Our compliance team needed to review the Trellus Health plc Restricted Offer to confirm whether we are able to offer it to our clients. The have now confirmed our clients can participate in the offer and we will send a message this afternoon on how to take part.

There is a very short turnaround time on this action, the deadline to submit your instruction will be 7am Monday 24 May 2021.

[faz] 21/5/2021 13:46

TO briefly answer Sensnsibull's points above: At the AGM they did not state that were not a Covid play, they stated that they see demand for their 'white-label' testing kits lasting for a long time to come and indeed are investing to meet demand."Our largest contract is for a minimum of two years. In addition, we continue to win new clients who may add to our current production." The big customer cannot be named because of the PR dept only, but they felt that will soon change. And finally I will correct you because you are wrong : the core business is flying, that was made crystal clear at the AGM. If you read the AGM statement .... "the Board is now confident that trading for the full year will be comfortably ahead of already upgraded management expectations." If you find another company with this amount of potential please to put your money into please let us know.

[adobbing] 21/5/2021 13:37

Mine are in an ISA share dealing account with Interactive Investor and it was a simple process of populating a box with my preference of amount to invest

[james188] 21/5/2021 13:01

For anyone who happens to hold their qualifying shares in a CREST sponsored account, you have to apply direct to the company. It is a painful and long winded process.

[srichardson8] 21/5/2021 12:37

I hold my shares in a SIPP with Interactive Investor. They now have a very simple application notice in the corporate actions folder under the portfolio tab.