janssen ponders phylogica peptide options

In crafting his latest Investor Presentation, Phylogica CEO, Dr Richard Hopkins (pic) needed to be subtle and discreet.

For BIg Pharma Janssen needs time to fully study data from its PYC peptide collaboration before deciding to enter license discussions.

Hopkins may have been wanting to make a big announcement but he evidently couldn't. The timing was not right.

The importance of the peptide research is such as the ramifications will need to be studied at board level by Janssen and it's US parent, pharma goliath, Johnson & Johnson.

This will take time.

Right now, observers assess the probability of Janssen entering a license deal at 60pc.

If Janssen doesn't, PYC has a series of back-up plans B.

As Sharesontoast suggests, slide #19 in today's comprehensive presentation is instructive.

The slide lists achievements of the Janssen collaboration.

There are four boxes. They're all ticked.

The last tick is the key tick.

Essentially, this tick means that Janssen has confirmed that functional penetrating peptides (FPP) can deliver therapeutic drugs. QED.

But there's more.

As I understand it, Janssen and Phylogica can demonstrate that RPP can improve the delivery efficiency of the receptor binding domain (RBD) scaffold.

By how much? Not by 25pc. Not by 50pc. But by between 25 and 50 times.

This finding may have boggling implications.

Meantime, IPYC has noted the importance of Benetic Biopharma's move to introduce American and local institutions to the stock.

The $32m issue announced last week was organized through Melbourne broker Lodge Partners.

As I understand it, Lodge Partners has been helping PYC.

Further, I gather that Edison Investment Research, London will soon release a conservative yet bullish report on PYC prospects.

Edison is close to many pharmas including Strasbourg-based Transgene.

Transgene is awaiting Novartis to decide on whether it will take up an option to commercialize a potential blockbuster lung cancer drug sourced from Virax Holdings (VHL) and inventors ANU and CSIRO.

As Transgene awaits Novartis, Phylogica awaits Janssen.

CEO Hopkins is conducting a multi-capital roadshow aimed at encouraging institutions to enter the register.

One, Navigator Australia, has recently done so.

Navigator is controlled by UK-based Aviva Group with $A593b under management.

It has a 10th ranking stake of 16 million shares.

Otherwise, the register is dominated by family holders, foremost among them the family of Perth cardiologist Dr Bernard Hocking with a stake topping 22pc.

Many of these family holders subscribed to the recent rights issue at $0.015.

As PYC shares trade around $0.030, they've doubled their investment in three months - leading some to consider taking profits.