NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[rrflyboy]

Financing Source Build Out for Sawston?
The mayor of London has been floating the idea, for over a year now, of creating a superfund to finance biotech development in the UK "Golden Triangle" between Oxford, Cambridge and London. Looks like the proposal is getting more traction. Several stories today talking it up. NWBO's site in Sawston, as we all know, is in the Golden Triangle and could be a candidate if this superfund becomes reality. The mayor is in his last year in office, has aspirations to the Parliament and seems to be motivated to make it happen. Here is the text to a story today in Fiercebiotech:
Published on FierceBiotech (http://www.fiercebiotech.com)

"London's mayor suggests quick $15B fix for financially ailing biotech sector

June 25, 2015 | By John Carroll

The general consensus about the U.K.'s place in the biotech world can be summed up in a few words: Great science, world-class academic centers and way too little cash to finance promising new companies. But London Mayor Boris Johnson has come up with a radical idea to fix the funding gap virtually overnight, suggesting that the country leverage its place as a leading global financial center to create a $15.7 billion (£10 billion) megafund that could finance a fast biotech revolution.

That proposal--not the first of its kind--puts a bright spotlight on the mayor's meetings today to highlight the role of the new MedCity to act as a catalyst for the Golden Triangle, knitting together an R&D infrastructure that spreads from London and connects to Oxford and Cambridge.

"If we want to develop another GSK or AstraZeneca, if we want to get a full return on the investment we put into our research base, and if we want better therapies more quickly, this is an issue we have to address," says Eliot Forster, executive chair of MedCity, according to a report from the Financial Times' Andrew Ward.

How would it work? The fund would patiently invest in drugs at various stages of development in exchange for a royalty stream from any money generated by new treatments. And by spreading its bets it would attract cautious investors like pension funds.

The proposal highlights an awkward phase of development for the country's biotech industry. A few years ago a string of high-profile R&D failures chilled the U.K.'s investment community. As a result, the U.S. biotech boom over the last two years made Wall Street a more likely place for Europeans to find the kind of money needed to grow a company--a lesson that wasn't lost on up-and-coming companies like Oxford-based Adaptimmune, which completed its IPO on Nasdaq.

In the meantime, Invesco vet Neil Woodford has set up his own new publicly-traded trust to invest in a blend of biopharma companies, while some venture groups--such as New Enterprise Associates--have been more willing to make the transatlantic trek to connect with a few of the more promising companies in the region.

The MedCity initiative and today's radical plan, though, underscores the considerable frustration that biotech centers in Boston/Cambridge and the Bay Area around San Francisco are booming while the Golden Triangle still languishes far behind."

I'm wondering about the curious use of the phrase (bolded by me above) "patiently invest" and how that may relate to Woodford's Patient Capital Trust and/or Woodford's influence on the formation of this superfund. Also of interest, at least to me, is another recent story discussing how Woodford loaded up the Patient Capital Trust Board with veterans of the "Golden Triangle." Could there be a confluence of events forming up here?

Here are some links to several of the stories -
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