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AVO – More LIGHT at the end of the tunnel – Wall Street Wires
by Spekulator at Wall Street Wires
Quick reminder. I am an active investor into smaller companies where I see (a) genuine value (b) good management (c) an unusual or groundbreaking product. Mostly a,b and c have to be present and correct, but I will make exceptions. I am invested into companies listed on Nasdaq, London main market, AIM and some NEX stocks (formerly ISDX or PLUS Markets).
Just over a month ago I published a small communique about Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO.L), a London AIM listed company developing a groundbreaking proton beam therapy machine to treat cancer. Before I bring you up to date on the latest moves, a quick reminder about what AVO (what most call them) do.
The AVO technology has been developed by ADAM, a spin-off company that AVO bought from CERN, the Hadron Collider people. The most advanced, atom-splitting, Higgs-Bosun particle busting company around has a medical spin-off owned completely by AVO. Clearly as before, both ‘a’ and ‘c’ receive a resounding tick.
Proton therapy for cancer has been around for a few years. It can be summed up as follows. If conventional radiotherapy is likened to throwing a blanket of radioactive beams over a patient to treat a tumour, then proton therapy is a needle of beams going directly to the tumour without affecting the tissue around it. Particularly important for growing children. Several well publicised cases have seen young lives saved and improved through this treatment.
The problem though is the size of the machine and housing required to insulate and treat safely. AVO is developing a LIGHT machine, which in comparison is the size of a bus versus a soccer field. In a March update, the AVO CEO Nicholas Serandour said the first LIGHT system “is expected to be capable of treating superficial tumours in Q3 2018.” That’s just over a year away. AVO is developing its own exclusive treatment centre in Harley Street, London to be completed by Q1 2019. That’s less than 2 years away.
Now we come to financing, where there have been problems: the company has had to go cap in hand to institutions to borrow money, sometimes at a punitive rate. This is due to delays in developing the LIGHT machine, something that as a technology investor I am used to.
An unpopular arrangement with Bracknor Investments meant that AVO borrowed money in exchange for shares and warrants, which worked fine so long as the shares didn’t dip below the nominal 25p. They did, so large fees and additional payments were due. Thankfully, a group of major shareholders under AB Segulah have provided a £3.9m loan to the company on far more agreeable terms, and will no doubt continue to support in future. The group of investors incidentally includes Peter Gyllenhammar, the former Volvo CEO and Aviva Chairman and a shrewd, pragmatic man. A crisis in funding at the company has now passed, and AVO now has a secure future.
I said before that the management team led by Nicholas Serandour and Michael Sinclair have attracted some leading medical practitioners to the board. These people have reputations, (in some cases legends) to protect among their peers. Clearly they (as do I) see the potential this company has to revolutionise the whole process of radiotherapy. Therefore ‘b’ also gets a tick.
Of course the vicious attacks that some so-called investor websites have been making on the company and the AVO management team continued after the funding announcement yesterday. Do these people have an agenda? Perhaps. But with security and funding now in place, AVO can complete the first LIGHT machine and the Harley Street Centre.
At just 17p per share, and a market cap of c£12m, AVO technology should start to deliver a material difference for cancer sufferers in the next few years. As this moves closer, I expect a commensurate increase in the valuation of the company.
New CERN particle accelerator may help both doctors and art sleuths – Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO)
A new particle accelerator unveiled at CERN, the European physics research center, is expected to spawn portable accelerators that could help doctors treat cancer patients and experts analyze artwork.
CERN is gradually upgrading its hardware to get more data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), its 27-km (17-mile) circular accelerator that smashes protons together at almost the speed of light to probe basic questions about the universe. Its latest upgrade, resembling a 90-metre oil pipeline hooked up to a life support machine, replaces the 39-year-old injector that produces the flow of particles for the LHC.
Standing by the new Linac 4 machine, which cost 93 million Swiss francs ($93 million) and took 10 years to build, project leader Maurizio Vretenar said CERN had miniaturized the technology and saw many potential uses.
“It’s a brave new world of applications,” he told Reuters in Linac 4’s tunnel 12 meters under Geneva.
CERN has already built a version to treat tumors with particle beams and licensed the patent to ADAM, a CERN spin-off owned by Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO).
Another medical use is to create isotopes for diagnosing cancers. Since they decay rapidly, they normally have to be rushed to patients just in time to be used.
“With our portable technology they could be made inside the hospital already,” Vretenar said.
His next goal is a one-metre prototype weighing about 100 kgs, with which museums could analyze paintings and jewelry.
Full story here
Advanced Oncotherapy announces the appointment of an Executive Chairman at subsidiary ADAM
Advanced Oncotherapy announces that Professor Steve Myers OBE, Head of Medical Applications at CERN, has been appointed as Executive Chairman of Advanced Oncotherapy’s fully owned subsidiary ADAM S.A.
ADAM was founded in 2007 as a spin-off from CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, and was acquired by Advanced Oncotherapy in 2013. The ADAM team is responsible for designing and developing the Company’s next-generation proton beam cancer therapy technology, the LIGHT system.
Professor Myers has been the Head of Medical Applications at CERN in Geneva since 2014. From 2009-2013, he was the Director of Accelerators and Technology, where he was responsible for the operation and exploitation of the whole accelerator complex, with particular emphasis on the Large Hadron Collider and for the development of the new projects and technologies.
In 2012, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering which honours the UK’s most eminent engineers, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the European Physical Society and International Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is internationally recognised for his engineering contributions and leadership in the development of CERN’s particle colliders over the past 40 years, including the Intersecting Storage Ring Accelerator, the Large Electron-Positron collider and the LHC.
Professor Myers has been awarded a number of international prizes including the Duddel Prize & Medal from the Institute of Physics (now re-named the Gabor Medal & Prize) and was awarded an OBE in 2013 for services to science and technology. Professor Myers holds a number of honorary and advisory positions and is Chair of the Advisory Committees of both the John Adams Accelerator Institute in Oxford and the Cockroft Accelerator Institute and has published over 300 scientific papers.
Sanjeev Pandya, CEO of Advanced Oncotherapy commented: “Professor Myers’ wealth of knowledge and experience is second to none. He has been part of the CERN Scientific Review Board since its inception in January 2015 and has provided the Company with invaluable advice and high level guidance during this time. We are extremely lucky to have someone of his calibre on board and we are looking forward to working more closely with Steve in the future.”
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Advanced Oncotherapy Plc |
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Sanjeev Pandya, CEO |
Tel: +44 20 3617 8728 |
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Nicolas Serandour, CFO |
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Westhouse Securities (Nomad & Joint Broker) |
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Antonio Bossi / David Coaten |
Tel: +44 20 7601 6100 |
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Beaufort Securities (Joint Broker) |
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Jon Levinson / Elliot Hance |
Tel: +44 20 7382 8300 |
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Walbrook PR (Financial PR & IR) |
Tel: +44 20 7933 8780 or avo@walbrookpr.com |
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Paul McManus / Anna Dunphy |
Mob: +44 7980 541 893 / Mob: +44 7876 741 001 |
About Advanced Oncotherapy Plc www.avoplc.com
Advanced Oncotherapy is a provider of particle therapy with protons that harnesses the best in modern technology. As a result, Advanced Oncotherapy will offer healthcare providers affordable systems that will enable them to treat cancer with an innovative technology as well as better health outcomes and lower treatment related side effects.
Advanced Oncotherapy’s team “ADAM” based in Geneva focuses on the development of a proprietary proton accelerator called Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology (LIGHT). LIGHT accelerates protons to the energy levels achieved in legacy machines but in a unit that is a fraction of the size and significantly lower in cost. This compact configuration delivers proton beams in a way that facilitates a greater precision and electronic control which is not achievable with older technologies.
The Company has signed two purchase agreements with Sinophi Healthcare Limited for the LIGHT proton therapy systems to be installed in hospitals in China. There are also four additional framework agreements and further Letters of Intent from other healthcare providers.
The Company has also signed a joint venture agreement with CircleHealth, owned by AIM-listed Circle Holdings plc to operate the Company’s proton beam cancer therapy centre in Harley Street.
Advanced Oncotherapy continually monitors the market for any emerging improvements in delivering proton therapy and actively seeks working relationships with providers of these innovative technologies. Through these relationships, the Company will remain the prime provider of an innovative and cost-effective system for particle therapy with protons.