Astrazeneca Announcement

[idpickering]

FDA accepts Tagrisso submission for 1st-line nsclc

AstraZeneca today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for the use of Tagrisso (osimertinib), a third-generation, irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) with clinical activity against central nervous system (CNS) metastases, in the 1st-line treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumours have EGFR mutations (exon 19 deletions or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutations). The FDA has granted Tagrisso Priority Review status and previously granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation in the 1st-line treatment of patients with metastatic EGFR mutation-positive (EGFRm) NSCLC.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/astrazene ... 00045765Z/

[TUK020]

Am I alone in not understanding a word of this?

[idpickering]

Am I alone in not understanding a word of this?

If you read further down you get this;

About AstraZeneca in Lung Cancer

AstraZeneca is committed to developing medicines to help every patient with lung cancer. We have two approved medicines and a growing pipeline that targets genetic changes in tumour cells and boosts the power of the immune response against cancer. Our unrelenting pursuit of science aims to deliver more breakthrough therapies with the goal of extending and improving the lives of patients across all stages of disease and lines of therapy.

The bottom line is that this is a positive for AstraZeneca, and it's shareholders. of whom I am one.

Ian.

[TUK020]

Ah, good news! Excellent. I hold. Time for another coffee

[Wizard]

All a bit 'in the weeds' for 'devout' HYP holders I would have thought.

Still not sure I fully understand the price premium / yield discount for AstraZeneca vs GlaxoSmithKline.

Terry.

[idpickering]

All a bit 'in the weeds' for 'devout' HYP holders I would have thought.

That's your opinion. I am one, (devout HYPer) but I still like to keep up to date with any announcements from any of my holdings, as I'm sure others here are too.

Ian.

[feinmann]

Yes Ian, I appreciate your efforts here at least. Thank you. In fact, you are my 7am wake-up call every week-day morning!

[idpickering]

Yes Ian, I appreciate your efforts here at least. Thank you. In fact, you are my 7am wake-up call every week-day morning!

Thank you for your kind comment feinmann. You're very welcome. I read them every mon - fri, so if they're relevant I like to make my pals here aware of the items.

Ian.

[Darka]

I very much appreciate your updates too, thank you for continuing to do them.

regards,

[idpickering]

I very much appreciate your updates too, thank you for continuing to do them.

regards,

Thanks Darka. I have stopped linking Fool items here though, as although I found some of them interesting, they were causing to much grief, and some what I found to be offensive comments. So no more of them.

Anyway, to get back on topic, AstraZeneca form 4.8% in capital value of my HYP, and held alongside GlaxoSmithKline, they form 8.6% in capital value, of my 29 share HYP.

Ian.

[Wizard]

Not withstanding the positive news, which I am afraid I still find rather impenetrable, I still wonder if anyone has a view on the gap in yield between AZN and GSK. Is it down to drug pipeline such as this item highlights one element?

Terry.

[monabri]

Terry, yield has increased due to sp fall - reason being a possible cut to the Divi to help fund acquisitions and growth.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gsk- ... SKBN1CU1HF

Perhaps more significant and pressing is their stake in a JV with Novartis as that will require more debt if Novartis exercise a put option to make GSK buy their ( Novartis') share of the JV.

https://us.gsk.com/en-us/media/press-re ... reholders/

"Novartis has the right to exit its investment in the joint venture company via a put option to GSK at an expert-determined market valuation"



https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/gsk ... r-jv-stake

From SimplyWallStreet
- GSK has more debt than AZN relative to their individual net worth ..(and they would need to add more debt going forward)
- GSK Divi cover is poor - AZN is a bit better but neither are what we would like to see!
- neither company is predicted to have high growth potential over the next 3 years ( both do have a positive % growth forecast though).

( Comments in brackets are my thoughts)

[Dod101]

Just sit tight and enjoy the dividend. Do not try to second guess the management unless that is you know a fair bit about the business/industry. (Which I do not)

Dod

[monabri]

And perhaps the share price of AZN is supported by the comment made in para 2.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/gsk ... r-jv-stake

"The British drugmaker is getting its ducks in a row for an £8 billion ($10.3 billion) offer for its partner’s 36.5% share, top shareholders told The Sunday Times. Industry watchers say Novartis could use the extra dough to help fund a megatakeover—and word is, the potential target is AstraZeneca."

[idpickering]

Just sit tight and enjoy the dividend. Do not try to second guess the management unless that is you know a fair bit about the business/industry. (Which I do not)

Dod

Well said Dod. It surprises me that certain quarters still don't get it. I hold both pharmas in roughly equal value, and am happy to just let them do their thing, and pay me juicy dividends while they do.

Ian.

[monabri]

Terry asked for a view...I provided one. I thought the purpose of this board was to discuss things, especially when there is a potential Divi threat? If we don't do this and merely " lie back and do a Doris" then what's the purpose of TLF? Yes, we can never know the workings of a management team but we can provide a viewpoint.

[idpickering]

Terry asked for a view...I provided one. I thought the purpose of this board was to discuss things, especially when there is a potential Divi threat? If we don't do this and merely " lie back and do a Doris" then what's the purpose of TLF? Yes, we can never know the workings of a management team but we can provide a viewpoint.

You're absolutely right monabri, and long may such discussions continue. I just wish the doubters would take it elsewhere, and just let us do what we do.

Ian.

[tjh290633]

Terry asked for a view...I provided one. I thought the purpose of this board was to discuss things, especially when there is a potential Divi threat? If we don't do this and merely " lie back and do a Doris" then what's the purpose of TLF? Yes, we can never know the workings of a management team but we can provide a viewpoint.

I think the problem is that the market moves in mysterious ways and share prices often react to suspicion, rumour and even news. Not always in the way which might be expected. The word "challenging" is often enough to make a share drop like a stone.

For this reason, I tend to ignore market movement and concentrate on the dividend announced. You never know for sure that a cut in dividend is coming until it is announced. Evenso the fall after a dividend cut (or rebasing) may mean that the yield remains acceptable at the lower level of dividend. If you now wish to switch to another share, can you do so at the same or better yield, bearing in mind that the rebased dividend may be set to increase from that level.

So my suggestion is that Wizard ignores rumours, random price movements and speculation, either in the press or on gossip boards.

TJH

[Julian]

Personally I’ve found this thread to be extremely useful as it meandered away from the initial subject of third-generation, irreversible epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

The golden nugget for me in the ensuing posts was a quote Monabri posted (thanks Monabri)...

"The British drugmaker is getting its ducks in a row for an £8 billion ($10.3 billion) offer for its partner’s 36.5% share, top shareholders told The Sunday Times. Industry watchers say Novartis could use the extra dough to help fund a megatakeover—and word is, the potential target is AstraZeneca."

Am I going to do anything as a result of the above? No, it’s total speculation at the moment and might well never happen but I was completely unaware of any such rumours until today. Such major takeovers, depending on how they are structured, have the potential to be awkward for me since the majority of my HYP is not tax sheltered (not by design, it is too big to all fit in my ISA and SIPP accounts) and any capital gains or other tax liability that might arise from a corporate action that returns some capital for one of my big holdings has the potential to erode the returned capital to be redeployed into other income generating shares. As I say, there is nothing I can or will do about this now even on a what-if planning basis because it might never happen and we have no idea how such a deal might be structured but I for one am grateful that, were it to happen at some point in the near to medium term future, Monabri has placed that little marker in my brain today such that it wouldn’t be a total bolt out of the blue at the point when rumours and corporate clues might become sufficiently credible to make it look like a very high probability event.

Thanks also Ian for starting the thread. If people don’t find the news interesting or relevant they can always ignore it and how discussions in these sort of threads can evolve and grow and uncover other interesting things I find valuable & it was Ian who planted the seed in this case

- Julian

[Dod101]

I am not saying the news is not interesting and different views are of course to be welcomed otherwise as has been said there is not much point in a discussion board. Unless there are obvious signs of stress though, there is not a lot of point in taking action. We must not try to second guess the Directors or if we do and have serious doubts consider getting out.

It is important to try to keep up with what may happen though but I certainly do not worry about debt levels for instance because I think long before debt levels become a concern there are usually other straws in the wind.

Dod