InvestorsHub Logo

Join the InvestorsHub Community

Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.

Live Updating
profile icon
Jwit56 Terminated
02/26/20 3:37 AM
profile icon
dwh Free
05/06/16 8:18 PM
profile icon
Renee PremiumMember
05/05/16 9:18 AM
profile icon
Mako my Day Free
04/29/16 8:41 AM
profile icon
dwh Free
04/28/16 11:17 AM
profile icon
UHD Free
04/08/16 1:19 PM
profile icon
UHD Free
03/28/16 1:35 PM
profile icon
serious38 Free
03/28/16 1:15 PM
profile icon
UHD Free
03/25/16 6:07 PM
profile icon
thought013 Free
03/17/16 5:32 PM
profile icon
UHD Free
03/17/16 11:17 AM
profile icon
thought013 Free
02/19/16 5:41 PM
profile icon
Mako my Day Free
02/18/16 8:29 AM
profile icon
UHD Free
12/10/15 4:30 PM
profile icon
serious38 Free
12/10/15 4:29 PM
profile icon
UHD Free
12/07/15 10:42 AM
profile icon
RealGenius Free
12/02/15 1:34 PM
profile icon
UHD Free
11/12/15 1:49 AM
profile icon
serious38 Free
11/11/15 4:08 PM
profile icon
Driv818 Terminated
11/11/15 9:40 AM
profile icon
thought013 Free
11/09/15 7:55 PM
profile icon
serious38 Free
11/07/15 7:12 AM
profile icon
game7alcs Free
11/06/15 7:39 PM
profile icon
Quokkie Free
11/06/15 6:25 PM
profile icon
serious38 Free
11/06/15 2:05 PM
profile icon
game7alcs Free
11/06/15 12:55 PM
profile icon
serious38 Free
11/06/15 11:16 AM
profile icon
serious38 Free
11/06/15 10:53 AM
profile icon
Quokkie Free
11/06/15 8:25 AM
profile icon
Quokkie Free
11/06/15 7:32 AM
profile icon
thought013 Free
11/05/15 6:50 PM
profile icon
JoSquared Free
11/05/15 12:00 PM
profile icon
thought013 Free
11/04/15 6:53 PM
profile icon
Quokkie Free
11/04/15 5:50 PM
profile icon
BooDog Free
10/29/15 3:16 PM
profile icon
Citrati Free
10/29/15 2:46 PM
profile icon
UHD Free
10/28/15 12:58 PM
profile icon
serious38 Free
10/28/15 9:23 AM
profile icon
riotmaker Free
10/27/15 10:40 PM
profile icon
BooDog Free
10/27/15 11:35 AM
profile icon
BooDog Free
10/27/15 11:09 AM
profile icon
UHD Free
10/26/15 10:52 PM
profile icon
riotmaker Free
10/26/15 9:47 PM
profile icon
jfk Free
10/26/15 9:56 AM
profile icon
ItipsDaily Terminated
10/26/15 9:25 AM
profile icon
JordieSands Terminated
10/23/15 3:35 PM

VBI Vaccines Inc (VBIV) RSS Feed

Followers
6
Posters
35
Posts (Today)
0
Posts (Total)
243
Created
06/04/15
Type
Free
Moderators
http://www.levon.com/s/Home.asp

 

Opko's Frost Inks Levon Deal with Israel's SciVac, a Hint for the Next Merger?

Accesswire 
March 20, 2015 11:35 AM
 

 

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 20, 2015 / On September 11 last year, a little-known Israeli financial magazine called Globes came out with a report that Dr. Phillip Frost, Chairman and CEO of Opko Health (NYSE:OPK), and then Chairman of Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:TEVA), was interested in moving a private Israeli biotech called SciVac, 45% owned by Opko, into a corporate shell and making it public.

Today, Frost accomplished his goal, as SciVac has been officially acquired by Levon Resources (OTCMKTS:LVNVF), with 68.4% of the new company going to the former private SciVac shareholders and 31.6% going to former Levon shareholders. Since Opko already has a 45% stake in SciVac, that brings its total take in SciVac to 30.8%.

The deal still has to be voted on by current Levon shareholders in April, but is expected to pass.

Opko has had some success taking stakes in biotech companies so far this year. Its recent 8% stake in Cocrystal Pharma (OTCBB:COCP) has jumped 100% since February. Cocrystal is its second largest investment behind private Russian biotech Pharmsynthez.

SciVac's Hepatitis B Vaccine

SciVac is the developer of a third generation hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) called Sci-B-Vac . It is approved in several countries including SciVac's home country of Israel, where it is administered to hundreds of thousands of newborns each year. While first generation HBV vaccines are mostly effective, their effectiveness is still only 90%. In a clinical trial of over 5,000 people, Sci-B-Vac was shown to have an effectiveness of greater than 98% with higher immunogenicity, or immune response in terms of antibodies produced.

The difference between Sci-B-Vac and the current standard-of-care HBV vaccine is that Sci-B-Vac is derived from mammalian cells instead of yeast cells, and carries on it the three main HBV surface antigens instead of just one. It is believed that the 10% of people who do not respond to first generation HBV vaccines are infected with mutant versions of HBV that escape the single antigen vaccine. It is much harder for HBV to mutate all three surface antigens simultaneously to escape Sci-B-Vac.

Despite vaccines available, HBV is still a huge pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, one third of the world's population is infected with HBV, with up to 400M people suffering chronic infections leading to chronic liver disease. 250M of those people are in the Asia-Pacific region alone.

SciVac's next regulatory goal is approval in the United States, where 12M people are infected every year despite the current first generation vaccine available. What regulatory hurdles have to be overcome remains to be seen, given that Sci-B-Vac is already clinically tested and approved in several countries. SciVac will be aiming at the immunocompromised as well as end stage renal disease and HIV patients, as these are patient populations who have special difficulties responding to current HBV vaccines.

Context of Frost's Latest Move Hints at Possible Future Moves

Dr. Frost's latest move comes in the context of several other interesting stock movements that may tip off future deals in the making. In October last year, only one month after Globes reported Frost's interest in taking SciVac public, Levon acquired 35M shares, or 10% of Pershing Gold Corporation, another one of Frost's pet projects of which he has a 15% stake translating to 53.7M shares. Those 35M shares of PGLC will be moving to new entity Spinco, so speculators looking out for the next Frost-related deal should keep an eye on a possible merger between Spinco and Pershing. A similar deal was inked bewteen Pershing and Continental Resources Group in February 2013 where the latter was acquired by Pershing. Continental had a substantial stake in Pershing at the time.

Cocrystal, which is fairly similar to SciVac in that it is focusing on molecularly tailored vaccines, primarily hepatitis C. Cocrystal is also 22% owned by Frost through his investment trust as well as an 8% stake through Opko. Cocrystal has skyrocketed over 100% since February but lacking any obvious catalyst for doing so. Another possible move to watch then is for a deal between Levon, now SciVac, and Cocrystal, which itself was once BioZone, also an Opko investment that was merged into Cocrystal.

With Frost's myriad of moves and deals over the last few years things can get admittedly confusing and make your head spin. The structure of these mergers, however, repeatedly seems to start with Opko at the base and then moves out from there. Opko itself has been on a nearly 100% tear since December. As for Cocrystal's recent 100% move, it may have investors scratching their heads but connecting the dots here could point to the beginning stages of a Frost deal at some point between Cocrystal and SciVac as both specialize in hepatitis vaccines, as well as one between Spinco and Pershing.

Call it equity consolidation with synergies in mind, it certainly is a fascinating chess game.

News

Jun 03, 2015

Levon Shareholders and Optionholders Vote in Favour of the Plan of Arrangement Involving Scivac Ltd. and 1027949 B.C. Ltd.

Levon Resources Ltd. ("Levon" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Levon's shareholders (the "Shareholders") and optionholders (together with the Shareholders, the "Securityholders") have voted today at the special meeting of Securityholders (the "Meeting") to approve the previously announced plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") involving SciVac Ltd. ("SciVac"), Levon and 1027949 B.C. Ltd. The Arrangement was approved by 97.64% of the votes cast by Shareholders and 98.06% of the votes cast by Securityholders, voting together as a single class, at the Meeting.

Ron Tremblay, President and Chief Executive Officer of Levon, said "We are pleased that Levon's Securityholders have overwhelmingly approved the Arrangement, helping to create tremendous shareholder value. In a difficult market for resource issuers, Levon has given Shareholders the opportunity to diversify their holdings by spinning out its mining assets and allowing Shareholders to also participate in the pharmaceutical industry through this transaction with SciVac".

For details of the Arrangement, please see Levon's management information circular dated May 1, 2015 and Levon's press release dated March 20, 2015, both of which have been filed on Levon's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Levon's application to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to obtain the final order approving the Arrangement is scheduled for Thursday, June 4, 2015. The Company looks forward to satisfying the remaining conditions and successfully completing the Arrangement.

Shareholders with questions regarding the deposit of Levon shares to the Arrangement can contact Valiant Trust Company at 1-866-313-1872 or by email at inquiries@valianttrust.com.

About Levon Resources Ltd.

Levon is a gold and precious metals exploration Company, exploring the Company's 100% owned flagship Cordero bulk tonnage silver, gold, zinc, and lead project near Hidalgo Del Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.

For further information, contact Levon's Investor Relations directly at 604-682-2991 or the main office number at 778-379-0040.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
"Ron Tremblay"
Ron Tremblay
President and Chief Executive Officer
http://www.levon.com/s/Home.asp
 
 
Volume:
Day Range:
Last Trade Time:
  • 1D
  • 1M
  • 3M
  • 6M
  • 1Y
  • 5Y
New Post