I choose to back the ' Brainstrust ' on this one. And why not as if this were a ' spec ' mining company and it had on it's BOD or recently appointed a KEY person Geologist or mining Engineer on its BOD ....who in turn had a track record of building companies from exploration right through to plant design and producer status - the SP would reflect this almost immediately with a significant premium.
So having followed and invested in many successful Biotechs over the years including CST , BTA , Fuldings and many many more , I can definitely see this success unfolding significantly now with PAA. Especially with it's connection to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute , and this is why I am also interested in ATX as a Biotech ' Double ' Stock Plays of the Week .....
And here's a little bit of background as to my reasonings :-
So everyone who has been interested in the Biotech arena these last few years would know that in the particular area of immunology , it's been all about Focal adhesion kinase or FAK's as they are otherwise known as . And this area has attracted much interest over the years including very very BIG takeovers from the like of MERCK's acquisition of Viralytics for $502 million back in early 2018 to the more interesting Play for former Australian Biotech Cytopia who was acquire by the Canadian YM Biosciences in 2010 .....only to be then taken over by none other than Gilead Sciences for US $510 million in 2013. ( re: below background )
And ALL of this homegrown Australian Biotech Talent .....and ALL tied back to one particular Individual , and one particular Institute ....being Dr Chirs Burns and Walter and Eliza Hall Institute .....
Here's a summary of Dr. Burns involvement in the area of FAK research taken from a seminar excerpt which back in March 2020 which unfortunately AND IRONICALLY was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Startup Q & A: In conversation with Chris Burns
Entrepreneurship seminar series hosted by Dr Clare Morgan
Dr Burns has a PhD in Organic Chemistry (1990) from the University of Melbourne and then undertook postdoctoral research at Pennsylvania State University USA. In 1991 Burns joined Pfizer Research UK where he worked for five years as a medicinal chemist before returning to Australia as a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney where he worked with the CRC for Molecular Engineering and Technology. After two years he was recruited to Ambri Ltd, the commercializing company of this CRC as a Group Leader. In 2001 Burns joined Melbourne drug discovery company Cytopia as Head of Chemistry and became Research Director in 2006. Here Burns led a $20m collaboration with Novartis on selective inhibitors of JAK3 and also discovered two drugs that entered clinical trial: the orally bioavailable vascular disrupting agent CYT997 (lexibulin) for use in solid tumours; and CYT387 (momelotinib) a JAK1/2 inhibitor for treatment of myelofibrosis. In 2010 Cytopia was acquired by Canadian company YM BioSciences for these assets and in 2013, they were in turn acquired by Gilead Sciences solely to access the rights to the momelotinib program for US$510m. Recently momelotinib successfully completed Phase III trials, the second-only drug discovered in Australia to achieve this. In mid-2010 Burns was actively recruited to the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research as a Laboratory Head, where he initiated a number of programs exploring the discovery of small molecule inhibitors of novel kinase and epigenetic protein targets. In 2016 Burns stepped down as Laboratory Head and took up a part-time role with WEHI’s Business Development Office. At the same time,he founded Amplia Therapeuticsto develop the FAK assets AMP-886 and AMP-945, and remains a director of the company. In July 2016 he became CEO and Research Director at MetabloQ Pharmaceuticals and now holds senior executive roles with the VC-funded biotechnology companies Certa Therapeutics, OccuRx and MecRx. Burns is a Visiting Scientist at WEHI and Principal Fellow (Honorary Staff) at Bio21, University of Melbourne.
So I guess you can all see where I'm going next with my linkages ......and that is when we evaluate these connections to thec omments and updates from recent Pharmaust company announcements as follows :-
The results from this work investigating the effects of monepantel and monepantelsulfone on cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 in tissue culture have been very positive.Repeat cell culture work has confirmed the initial promising data, which showed that:
• Monepantel and monepantel sulfone treatment both reduce SARS-CoV-2(COVID-19) cell-to-cell infectivity in cell culture;• Virus infectivity was supressed by approximately 95% in cell culture; and
• The quantities of monepantel required to inhibit virus infectivity were in theclinically acceptable range
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researcher Professor Marc Pellegrini (MBBS BScFRACP PhD FAHMS), joint head of the Institute’s Infectious Diseases and ImmuneDefence division and an infectious disease clinician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital,stated “These exciting repeat results validate the results of the initial test and formstrong grounds for progressing the drug to the next step. Demonstrating twice, thatinfectivity of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles can be suppressed by up to approximately95% in cell cultures is a remarkable outcome.”
PharmAust, together with the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, will now conduct acomparative analysis with MPL and other mTOR inhibitors, such as rapamycin andcurrent anti-viral drugs authorised by the FDA for emergency use to treat COVID-19,such as remdesivir.
As regards next steps, PharmAust will prepare an Executive Summary and anInvestigator's Brochure to permit discussions with clinicians about a Phase I trial in asmall number of human patients to treat COVID-19. Monepantel has already beenevaluated in human patients with cancer (ASX announcement 21 October 2015), sohuman safety data is already available to facilitate the next steps.
My conclusion would simply be that if this Company is not worth at least double what is reflected by it's current Market Capitalisation is in 6 months - I would be very very surprised indeed. That's if it hasn't been taken over........
Best of success to ALL holders.
(20min delay)