Hi SentimentRules
Many thanks for introducing an investment I would probably not look twice at. Of course this doesn’t mean it won’t make you money
Reunion (RENE)
ReNeuron Group plc is a UK-based global leader in the development of cell-based therapeutics.
It produces 'off the shelf' stem cell treatments, without the need for immunosuppressive drugs. The Company's lead clinical-stage candidates are in development for disability as a result of stroke and for the blindness-causing disease, retinitis pigmentosa. ReNeuron is also advancing its proprietary exosome technology platform as a potential delivery system for drugs that would otherwise be unable to reach their site of action.
Currently it is loss making.
MC 81m
Negative PE (Free cash flow is also negative)
No yield
PTBV around 2.2
Forecasts show it making a loss until after 2020 (-20m in 2020)
Preliminary results are out on 11th July in 2 days
However in 6 months the sp has risen 367% (Mostly in March/April this year)
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exc ... ml?lang=en They presented at the Global Life Sciences conference in London in April:
http://4965zs3ha2l125fk78zkozo3.wpengin ... -FINAL.pdf With retinitis pigmentosa as their main thrust.
And it had net cash of around 28m in June 2018 reducing to 25m at the interims in December.
The directors also appear, to some extent, to have their interests aligned with share holders:
https://www.investegate.co.uk/reneuron- ... 31129582V/ Though barely 1% of the shares between them.
In April they indicated:
Latest results show sustained and further improvement in vision at 60 and 120 days in first patient cohort of Phase 2a study of hRPC cell therapy in retinitis pigmentosa
https://www.investegate.co.uk/reneuron- ... 00102128X/ This appears to be based on 3 patients.
In September last year they announced:
‘ethics committee approval, the first clinical site has been initiated in the US Phase IIb study with our CTX cell therapy candidate for stroke disability’
‘We expect the PISCES III study to be one of two pivotal studies required to support a marketing authorisation for the therapy in this indication.’
‘A further announcement will be made when the first patient is treated in the PISCES III study.’
This happened in January this year.
https://www.investegate.co.uk/reneuron- ... 00054800A/ OK so this appears to be a biotech company valued at 81m on the basis of its research and development programme focussing on retinal pigmentosa (hRPC) and stroke treatment (CTX-derived exosomes) , that has yet to make any profit and is not predicted to do so until after 2020. It has more than trebled in value in the last 6 months.
Clinical trials are under-way with both its products in the US.
So what is the investment case here?
Well in March this year the sp was 72p it is now 255p so in March the MC was around 23m. With 28m in the bank and 2 programmes under clinical trial in the US this looked a reasonable investment to my mind. There was a solid safety net of cash and relatively slow burn (3m from June to December) so the programmes were in for free.
Now it looks less attractive with no foreseeable profit for at least 2 years and 60m pitted against the success of the clinical trials and eventual commercialisation of their therapies.
The market has also been a little more wary with a 3% drop in sp in the last month.
Great investment if you were in before March, less so now IMHO.
Regards
Iron