Vernalis Share Discussion Threads

[fhmktg] 31/1/2010 13:35

Volumes too low to bew significant IMHO - however shows what could happen on some positive news!
Anything in the offing?

[dpeach] 29/1/2010 16:36

very fishy, tried to weedle out weak holders?, something going on? imho

[ffp] 09/1/2010 21:26

Ian Duncan Smith>>>> Interesting, thank you, good post..

[in despair sybil] 09/1/2010 21:20

and an interesting little article from the wall street journal



By Jacob Plieth
It's time to bring together the bosses of biotech minnows GW Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis and Phytopharm and force them to hammer out a merger deal.

This is because there's a strong case for combining several of the U.K.'s small biotech firms to create stronger entities capable of developing their products to a later, and more lucrative, stage.

Combining, say, GW Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis and Phytopharm would be a good start, especially now that market sentiment seems to be slowly returning.

At a time when U.K. biotech still suffers from lack of scale and chronic underinvestment, the rationale for such a move is clear. For advisers, the key barrier to structuring a deal would center on persuading executives to scale back the size of the combined management team and devote their relatively lavish pay toward investments in R&D.

The three companies have a common therapy focus of central nervous system diseases. A combined market cap of more than £200 million and cash of about £60 million would be by no means huge, but should provide a much stronger base from which to grow and seek added investment, be it from fresh equity, licensing deals or even debt issues.

None of the three on its own has all the ingredients of long-term success, and all risk selling themselves short in licensing deals because of a need to partner drug projects relatively early in their development. The companies' combined pipeline would span several stages of drug development and include a marketed product.

GW is currently the largest player in this theoretical meeting of minds. Its first product, Sativex, is expected shortly to be approved by European regulators for treating multiple sclerosis-associated spasticity, and once commercialised should provide the company with its first significant revenue stream.

But, so far, the company has been practically a one-product bet on Sativex (although important additional indications in markets such as the U.S. should strongly grow sales). Its R&D pipeline is at a very early stage, and could do with the addition of some clinical projects in whose development some of that Sativex revenue could be invested.

Vernalis faces the opposite problem; it has a mid-stage R&D pipeline and partnership deals with Novartis and Biogen Idec, but does not have enough cash to fund in-house projects, such as indantadol for neuropathic pain, beyond relatively early-stage Phase II trials. So it's at the mercy of bigger partners, with which it needs to tie up to fund advanced studies.

Meanwhile, Phytopharm would bring to the table Cogane, a potential Parkinson's disease treatment due to enter Phase IIb trials this year. Although reasonably funded by U.K. standards, the £24 million raised recently would not fund Cogane beyond this trial, which if successful would also necessitate a partner to take it further.

Another benefit of a U.K. biotech merger would be that a larger entity would be more able to avoid an opportunistic takeover. One historic reason for the U.K. sector's failure to impress is that its most promising companies, such as Cambridge Antibody Technology and Acambis, were snapped up by "Big Pharma" at low valuations.

There's also the threat of being taken out by another minnow, such as Proximagen Neuroscience, which has hardly any R&D portfolio to speak of but raised £50 million last summer specifically for acquisitions. It has yet to make a major takeover, but undervalued businesses like Vernalis must surely have come up on its radar, as well as that of private equity vulture funds.

A desire to avoid the attention of the likes of Proximagen, or the larger drug makers, could yet provide the necessary impetus for biotech consolidation.


IDS

[dpeach] 17/12/2009 21:02

and again, 15k sold today and still seems to have support

[dpeach] 14/12/2009 16:40

nice kick up at the end.........

[dpeach] 14/12/2009 08:29

Vernalis like a bus, nothing - then more good news

IDS - looks good at present, was a pretty strong move out of the channel



Vernalis announces clinical update on partnered compounds AUY922 and HSP990


Vernalis plc (LSE: VER) today announces that at its 9 December 2009 Oncology and
Pipeline Update, Novartis provided an update on the clinical status of two Hsp90
inhibitors (AUY922 and HSP990), which are partnered with Vernalis.


In a presentation, Novartis indicated that it expects that several compounds may
reach proof of concept in 2010, including AUY922, and that HSP990 is in Phase I
dose escalation studies.

[in despair sybil] 13/12/2009 17:41

jumped through the 50 day MA on friday. if we can stay above it over the next 2 or 3 sessions, then hopefully should be retesting the 100 -110 area sooner rather than later.

IDS

[dpeach] 11/12/2009 15:58

like it........ the new management seem to have a grasp on things

[dpeach] 11/12/2009 12:26

11 December 2009


Vernalis Earns Milestone Payment in connection with its 2008 sale of Apokyn and
its US commercial operations


Vernalis plc (LSE: VER) today announces it will receive US$700,000 as further
consideration for the sale to Ipsen of Apokyn and its US Commercial
Operations announced in June 2008.


Under the terms of the sale, as well as an initial cash consideration of US$6.5
million and a US$5.0 million share subscription, Vernalis was also eligible to
receive up to a further US$6.0 million based upon certain milestones being
achieved.


To-date milestones of $1.7 million, including that announced today, have been
earned. An additional US$2.5 million milestone can still be earned if Ipsen's
future US net sales of Apokyn and Dysport exceed a certain threshold.


"The sale of Apokyn and the US Commercial Operations was a key component of the
Company's 2008 restructuring. We are pleased to have earned a further milestone
from that sale." said Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis.

[dpeach] 11/12/2009 09:47

excellent - extra milestone cash of around £450,000 coming into the coffers

11 December 2009


Vernalis Earns Milestone Payment in connection with its 2008 sale of Apokyn and
its US commercial operations


Vernalis plc (LSE: VER) today announces it will receive US$700,000 as further
consideration for the sale to Ipsen of Apokyn and its US Commercial
Operations announced in June 2008.


Under the terms of the sale, as well as an initial cash consideration of US$6.5
million and a US$5.0 million share subscription, Vernalis was also eligible to
receive up to a further US$6.0 million based upon certain milestones being
achieved.


To-date milestones of $1.7 million, including that announced today, have been
earned. An additional US$2.5 million milestone can still be earned if Ipsen's
future US net sales of Apokyn and Dysport exceed a certain threshold.


"The sale of Apokyn and the US Commercial Operations was a key component of the
Company's 2008 restructuring. We are pleased to have earned a further milestone
from that sale." said Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis.

[dpeach] 23/11/2009 13:06

seems to have broken one of the down lines, now needs some momentum just to get through the 87.5p one, or go sideways..

[dpeach] 23/11/2009 11:49

looking better..

[ihavenoclue] 14/11/2009 09:59

VERNALIS - 50p by December 2009?

[dpeach] 12/11/2009 09:40

IMS

The Group remains on target to achieve its key value driving goals. We
anticipate having Phase IIb data from V3381 in neuropathic pain around the end
of Q1 2010. V158866, our novel pain compound targeting FAAH and V158411 our
Chk1 oncology drug candidate, are both progressing in pre-clinical development
and are both targeted to commence Phase 1 studies in 2010.Partnering remains
focussed on V85546 for inflammatory disease and we continue to pursue
opportunities to extract value from our Parkinson's disease programme V1512.

[dpeach] 12/11/2009 08:58

IMS

The Group remains on target to achieve its key value driving goals. We
anticipate having Phase IIb data from V3381 in neuropathic pain around the end
of Q1 2010. V158866, our novel pain compound targeting FAAH and V158411 our
Chk1 oncology drug candidate, are both progressing in pre-clinical development
and are both targeted to commence Phase 1 studies in 2010.Partnering remains
focussed on V85546 for inflammatory disease and we continue to pursue
opportunities to extract value from our Parkinson's disease programme V1512.

[ihavenoclue] 08/11/2009 12:00

SHAID1 - 18 Aug'09 - 19:53 - 6 of 344


hopefully we'll be in before the herd arrives. i hope they arrive at 300p plus. lol

=======================================

yeah that herd really rushed in .. didn't it ? LOL

[in despair sybil] 08/11/2009 11:56

unless the market tanks over the next week or two, we should see some sort of bounce here - the daily candles have given a buy signal, as has the CCI/MA crossover (from a nice lowish level) - and many of the indicators on the weekly charts are now well oversold ( as is shown with the williams% on the 1st chart)

i'm looking for us to retest the recent 110 area, and if we clear that (maybe some fresh news with the interim statement) then i'm looking at 125-135. some resistance at around 135 so if we can get past that with added volume and momentum then we could get a nice little spike coming our way.

don't normally follow that many other bios, especially outside UK - but the following link leads to an article which probably explains the recent underperformance of VER



bestest

IDS

[dpeach] 06/11/2009 10:49

25000 bought at mid price this morning 82.5p, IMS due soon (end Nov I believe)

[in despair sybil] 01/11/2009 17:09

75.75 close on 01/07

IDS

[dpeach] 30/10/2009 09:06

Thanks IDS, had picked out the 82-82.50 gap but can't see the 75.75 - 77 when was that one?, cheers dp