NEU - Neuren Pharmaceuticals

[tech/a]

Any fundies have any info on NEU.
I'm testing some technical stuff and they came up.
Appreciate anything you have.

 

[J.B.Nimble]

I guess they have probably popped up again then... For the second time in a month this is trying hard to break out. The good news is starting to flow - the Glypromate first phase 3 trial is going to wrap up much faster due to better quality of data (doesn't necessarily mean better result, just more statistical precision) but then the latest announcement is a beauty

"Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) announced today that Glypromate and NNZ-2566 for neuro-protection in cardio-pulmonary bypass and traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been selected as one of the Top 10 most promising neuroscience projects available for partnering by an independent committee assembled by Windhover Information, a leading provider of business information products and services to senior executives in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries."

Background on this is that guys behind NEU wrote the book on how brain cells die. Interestingly enough, it is not an instantaneous deal - it happens in about three phases over many hours after the event. And they have been working on ways to interfere with the dying process.

The compounds likely to star are those mentioned above. Glypromate is first cab off the rank with possible commercialisation just a trial away... It is being applied to heart bypass surgery because (dirty litttle medical secret here) so many patients come out of surgery with... ahemm... impaired faculties and it is quite some time before they recover. No doubt there will be other applications to follow - this is simply the easiest to prove and not to hard to sell - "Now sir, before we operate, would you like to take the little pill that stops your brain from aging 30 years in the next 30 hours?" I don't imagine there would be too many refusals to that pitch...

The other star compound is NN2566 - interesting enough for the US Department of Defence to get in on the act and contribute funds and trial support. It appears it could find some use in treating shell shocked troopers and any other poor soul who takes a nasty blow to the head.

Potential market size looks appealing, but even more appealing is the lack of competition. There doesn't seem to be anyone else working this territory. Comparison to the "gold standard of treatment" is somewhat easier when there is no other treatment...

They have a bunch of other compounds at various stages of development. None of this sounds as sexy as a cure for HIV or for cancer (although they have some good stuff going on there), but the odds of getting compounds to market feel a lot higher than for companies in those crowded fields.

Confession time - I love the potential of this company but I may be biased... this is the only biotech I hold, and I only got in to them on account of a news story I saw on their cancer work (at a time when my nearest and dearest was fighting the good fight) Thereafter I considered them as great if it comes off, but otherwise I was happy to write off my investment as a donation to a worthy cause... Anyway, now it is happy days for my N&D and all I see is blue sky... Doesn't really rate as a sound investment strategy but I'm happy

 

[pointr]

Yes JB Nimble , I'm a bit like you NEU is the only biotech we own. We also coughed up for their last capital raising. The fact one of their compounds are being promoted in the top 10 neuroscience prospects has to be a good sign. It is a long road from trial drug to profits, but it would be great if they get there for the patients and hopefully the investors as well. We are about minus 75% on our 'investment', but not a big amount of dollars fortunately.

 

[Plissken47]

Glad to see somebody else invested in this. It's a little hard to believe that the company is only worth about $20-30 million with this kind of a pipeline. I suppose it would have been better if there was some phase IIb data showing efficacy.

The market is huge for Glypromate. CABG is only a first step.

If Glypromate shows good efficacy, then this stock ought to rocket.

I bought at 0.42, so I feel your pain with respect to losing ~75% of one's investment.

 

[J.B.Nimble]

We must have all jumped in together - I first got in at 0.39 but have returned for more on several occasions. I'm red but not badly so... I should have picked up more in the sub 0.10 range but I had already found alternative ways to lose money.

The capital raisings are predictable enough, but the extent to which the sp got whacked down on the last raise seemed a bit excessive... Hopefully we don't see too many more capital raises. I was interested to see in the annual report that they had got to the stage of writing term sheets with potential out licencing partners for their pre-clinical compounds. I'm quietly hoping for a positive announcement with some cash involved - maybe even enough to get us through to commercialisation of Glypromate? Probably too much to hope but at least they seem as interested as we are in finding a way to stop the bleeding...

Whatever the outcome of out-licencing, I intend to stay the distance. The potential returns on this are real blue sky stuff... The red ink may hurt now but I'm comfortable that this will reward the patient investor.

 

[Plissken47]

Great! Another share dilution

To make matters worse, I don't live in NZ or Australia

This company has a good pipeline. I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the year to see if the wait has been worth it.

 

[J.B.Nimble]

We're in the same boat Plissken. I would happily buy in the SPP but I'm not eligible. I'll have to do some topping up after the sp takes the inevitable battering. I'm just glad that they could secure the funding to carry them through to the announcement of top level Glypromate efficay results. This one is going to turn the corner soon and future funding rounds will be much less painful...

 

[pointr]

Some quite significant % movements in the share price of this over the last 2 days, albeit off a very low base???

 

[J.B.Nimble]

Some quite significant % movements in the share price of this over the last 2 days, albeit off a very low base???

Something is up. Big volume spike today and prices up as high as 2.5 cents from recent average of 0.5 cents. And now we are in trading halt. Overdue for good news on this one - still a sentimental investor in this one rather than a savvy trader

 

[gone2thepack]

Something is up. Big volume spike today and prices up as high as 2.5 cents from recent average of 0.5 cents. And now we are in trading halt. Overdue for good news on this one - still a sentimental investor in this one rather than a savvy trader

Something is stiring in the wind.....not sure if its good news or not,but the delayed trading halt,may have given the game away and caused the large volumes of share trading eh?
Was watching with intrest,but might have a punt,given the share price is still low compared to what it was at one stage or another.Would have been nicer to show some intrest earlier,however nothing ventured nothing,nothing lost(was that it?)

 

[YOUNG_TRADER]

Simply amazing, this Bio tech/drug medical stock has gone from 0.003 to 7.3c in little over a month, thats a 2430%+ return amazing!!!!!!!!

And from what I can see its not the only bio tech/drug medical stock running up, reminds me of the days of MUL for those that were around back then

 

[flambouya]

I know....i bought in at 0.042 and now it is 0.071. Wish I had bought it last week at 0.019!

What do you all think about todays trading halt? You think when it starts on tomorrow or thursday, the price will have positive growth?

 

[J.B.Nimble]

I hope that as the starter of this thread Tech/A was all over this run. For anyone that bought in at less than half a cent this has been an absolute stunner....

As for the forthcoming announcment, it is impossible to read. They are very conservative in the their tone as always. Even if this announcement doesn't bring the hoped for good news, there is a great little company behind this story with some great development going on. Going to be a big story one day...

 

[joeyjoejoe]

I was looking very very closley at this market mover on friday when it hit 0.02 and retracted back to 0.019 i said to myself.. ill check back in on mondays open and i completely forgot until i had a look this morning saw the pre open @ 0.045 ...left it alone thinking id missing the boat and then checked again in the afternoon

doh!!!

 

[UPKA]

From their annual report:

The Group has also completed its detailed proposal with the US Army for the previously announced funding for the planned Phase 2 clinical trial of NNZ-2256, and this proposal has been accepted by the US Army. The agreement between the Group and the US Army is currently being finalised and the Directors have a reasonable expectation that this will be completed by the end of April 2009.

 

[johannlo]

I jumped in at 4.3, was laughing as the trading halt hit at 7.1, now back to 4.6

I'm no good with these penny biotech stocks lol.

Does anyone have any insight as to what the latest announcement means (both short and long term POV)?

 

[UPKA]

I jumped in at 4.3, was laughing as the trading halt hit at 7.1, now back to 4.6

I'm no good with these penny biotech stocks lol.

Does anyone have any insight as to what the latest announcement means (both short and long term POV)?

only 1 of the expected 2 announcements are released, and NNZ-2256 is the bigger of the two. some ppl are probably disappointed not seeing it coming out with today's ann. This is high risk play, with ~1m left in the bank, the company needs all the fundings it can get to keep the wheels turning. And US Army isn't short of money

 

[johannlo]

Aah that explains why the announcement bears no relation to my newbie eyes to the questions they outlined in the trading halt thanks!

 

[J.B.Nimble]

I jumped in at 4.3, was laughing as the trading halt hit at 7.1, now back to 4.6

I'm no good with these penny biotech stocks lol.

Does anyone have any insight as to what the latest announcement means (both short and long term POV)?

Don't stress too much over the funding. US DOD won't let the research on NNZ-2256 stop for lack of funding. That funding story will come too light soon enough.

This announcement makes me pretty happy as it was a TV news story on their anti-cancer program that initially got me interested in this company. This is early stage development but exciting stuff. I'm glad they have kept it in house rather than flogging it off for a quick buck as it appeared likely a few months ago.

Short term trading fun aside this is a long termer for the very patient.

 

[johannlo]

Damn and I had this in my 'speculative' pile, might have to give your comments some thought, thanks for your advice.