General Meeting - Shareholder No.1's Account:
I have decided to post the accounts written by shareholders who attended Scancell's General Meeting held in London at 10 a.m. on Thursday August 1st 2013. These accounts were first posted to London South East Scancell Chat and give a flavor of what went down at the meeting itself which was a darn sight more interesting than the bald Regulatory News issued by the London Stock Exchange later. For clarity I have supplied annotations where necessary in square brackets.
Shareholder No.1 (username, ciaskin) posted the following account on LSE Scancell Chat at 15:01 on Thursday.
MEETING OUTCOME
I will post this only once and will not get into any protracted debates with anyone. I am also neither a ramper nor a deramper: this is simply an accurate report of this morning's meeting from my handwritten notes.
Meeting was in four parts: formal resolution stuff (c 15 mins); presentation from RG & LD [Dr. Richard Goodfellow & Prof. Lindy Durrant, Joint CEO's of Scancell Holdings] (c 25 mins); Q & A from the floor (25 mins) and then another 20 minutes or so of informal, post-meeting chat.
Resolutions all passed; RG presentation reinforced the potential size of the immunotherapy market - $35 billion per annum within 10 years, making it the biggest drug class in history. Immunobody recap - SCIB1 Phase 2 still on course for results in Q4 2014. [This should read "results in Q4 2013" see below] Deadline for final tweaks to Moditope patent submissions is August 7th. They are planning Investor day (tentative date October 1st) for IIs, PIs et al to update on both platforms - but especially Moditope. The £6.5m raised (£6,2M after expenses) will be used for preclinical work on Moditope and to put Immunobody platform "to a good place". As importantly, it gives them "greater firepower to enter into negotiations". More cash in bank means they are less likely "to get screwed".
LD then turned to the science: 4 out of the 6 patients on the 2mg and 4mg doses of SCIB1have shown immune repose and remain alive.In part 2, 13 patients in total are recruited for the 4mg dose and results are on track for Q4 2013. She also mentioned that she expected the immune response of SCIB1 in combination with existing products like Yervoy, to be very strong.
Questions
When asked about potential sale of the asset(s), DE [David Evans, Scancell's Chairman] said that they saw a situation "where 1+1=3", from which I inferred that Immunobody and Moditope would ultimately be sold together - the sum being greater than the parts - at a time when SCIB1 is proven, (meaning that SCIB 2, and potentially 3,4 and 5 are significantly de-risked) and Moditope has full patent protection and pre-clinical work largely done. A much more attractive proposition to pharma, and with more cash in bank, a much better negotiating position.
Question also about EIS shares [shares bought through the Firm Placing by Calculus Capital on behalf of investors in an EIS scheme which carries tax benefits if held for 3 years] hampering the potential sale date. Dismissed by DE as he believes "the tax tail should never wag the dog" and if the right deal comes along which crystalises shareholder value then they would go for it. (So let's bury that one, once and for all).
Question/observation also (from Inanaco, I think [another LSE poster attending the meeting]) about whether there would be licensing opportunities for Moditope (a la ARM Holdings). Awkward silence from BOD - possible but no commitment. So nothing ruled out, and nothing ruled in.
My first meeting of this kind and very glad I went; confidence in BOD restored, money in bank, science progressing well and on time, clear plan & exit strategy. There will probably be SP volatility over the next week or so, but good news flow, investor meeting, RNS etc should keep this rising, methinks. Remains a very...strong hold for me, with buying on the dips .
DYOR etc...
C
AI
