Joined the holders in CBF this morning. Looks like a recovery going on here and I here whispers well speculation of new contract wins. The company seems to be moving away from DNA and focusing on protein and virus production and they seem to be far more focussed.

The company have restructured their sales and marketing team and appear to be more aggresive in their actions.

Fixed and variable costs have also been attacked and the company is working from a lower cost base. The companys order book is higher than it as been for a while and I beleive quarterly profit will be achieved.

Chart also looks strong and shows a break up.

Pointers To Recovery.

From last results 11th Jan.

Sales improvement in the second half of the financial year due to switch
from DNA to proteins and virus.



Restructuring of sales and marketing to address US market.



Restructuring of the Oxford and Keele facilities.



Broadening of customer base - 12 new customers in 2004.



The 4.8m Oxford Facility completed on time and to budget.



Contracted business for financial year 2005 stands at 2.7m.



Financial:


Revenue: H2 2004 up 30% to 2.0m compared with H1 2004 1.5m
FY 2004 down 42% to 3.5m (FY 2003: 6.0m)

Gross margin: H2 2004 49% compared with H1 2004 39%
FY 2004 45% (FY 2003: 57%)

Loss before tax: H2 2004 reduced by 17% to 1.03m compared with H1 2004 1.24m
FY 2004 2.27m (FY 2003: 0.82m profit)

Cash at bank: Sept 2004 3.2m compared with Mar 2004 3.8m (FY 2003: 7.3m)

Loss per share: FY 2004 12.3p (FY 2003: 6.9p earnings)

Director Speak

Commenting on the results, Peter Fothergill, Executive Chairman said:

'Our second half improvement and the current position of our order book are
significant achievements. Management moved rapidly during the year to focus
sales and marketing in the US and from DNA to virus and protein production. This
was no mean feat and we are cautiously optimistic for the future.'

Company Outlook Statement.

Management is actively seeking to broaden the customerbase particularly in the US biotechnology clusters and is examining ways toexpand the service offering including later stage manufacture and there by developing longer-term relationships which can reduce the impact of the high levels of clinical trials failure. These initiatives are already beginning to gain traction with contracted business currently 2.7 million for the financial year 2005 ('2005'), with 52% from North America. If this improvement continues Cobra will recover value for its shareholders.

Fundies.

Presently loss making but looks like the corner has been turned. Awaiting next trading update/results.

Beta.

Fairly High.

Conclusion

Highly Speculative, but the rewards if recovery does take place could be very rewarding.



cheers GF.

And they had better pay up.

cheers GF.

Unbeleivable, its down today by a penny. Think Ill add.

cheers GF.

what's your target price then GF, and do you think there are even more deals in the pipeline? It seems there's been a load of news recently, so we may not get any for a while, and hence a fall in the SP.

If you take yesterdays buys and add them to todays buys, buys far outweigh sells over the last couple of days. Dont really have a target I will leave that to the market mechanism. Just feel we are going to see them move up.

cheers GF.

This is a fantastic turnaround. Watch for new deals.

cheers GF.

Back to winning ways after yesterdays sell off. Looks like we got rid of the short term punters.

cheers GF.

More to come in the weeks ahead.

cheers GF.

Cobra Bio Manufacturing being used in new HIV/AIDS vaccine trail. 2p rise today.

This looks to be very good news, deals flowing all the time. Does this announcement suggest further revenues for CBF? if so the recovery is getting better by the day.

Moving ahead nicely.

Cobra Bio-Manufacturing technology being used in new HIV/AIDS vaccine trial
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Cobra Bio-Manufacturing PLC said its proprietary DNA system has begun clinical evaluation as part of a new HIV/AIDS vaccine clinical trial funded by the European Union.

The Phase I trial is conducted by a consortium (Eurovacc) of organisations including Cobra and will be carried out initially in the UK and Switzerland.

newsdesk@afxnews.com


cheers GF.

EU trials for Cobra AIDS vaccine

Published: 12:11 Friday 18 February 2005 By: Douglas Bence, Companies Correspondent


Its revenue comes from a range of patented technologies, the most advanced of which are ORT(R), which avoids the use of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes.

The word Eurovacc comes from the European Vaccine Effort against HIV/AIDS network, which is funded by the European Union

It is a non-profit organisation and has been working for five years with the aim of developing safe and effective preventive vaccines against HIV/AIDS.

At the point of injection, the patient's cells synthesize fragments of HIV proteins directed by the DNA vaccine, which triggers a powerful immune response against the virus.

The advantage of this approach is that the immune response can be focussed in such a way as to inhibit growth of the virus. Cobra shares added 1.5p to 49p.

Professors Hans Wolf and Ralf Wagner at the University of Regensburg developed the DNA-HIV-C vaccine.

It is based on a representative Chinese subtype C isolate CN54 jointly developed with Professor Yiming Shao from the CDC Beijing, and is designed specifically to combat strains of HIV/AIDS prevalent in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Since its foundation in 1993, Cobra has specialised in DNA, virus and protein contract manufacture. It raised 7 million and floated on AIM in 2002.

Its revenue comes from a range of patented technologies, the most advanced of which are ORT(R), which avoids the use of antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant genes.

The word Eurovacc comes from the European Vaccine Effort against HIV/AIDS network, which is funded by the European Union

It is a non-profit organisation and has been working for five years with the aim of developing safe and effective preventive vaccines against HIV/AIDS.

This group has been working together for more than five years, and has developed a pipeline of potential vaccines.


cheers GF.

Just look at the volume going into this one. Me thinks good times ahead.

cheers GF.

I am thinking of selling Bioquell (done bugger all in three years) to get into this co. Will be watching carefully monday morning......... intersting products

already posted on another board and confirms news on the official IAVI website that COBRA are leading in the manufacture of trial DNA HIV vaccines.

http://www.iavi.org/viewfile.cfm?fid=8399

New trial of HIV/AIDS vaccine incorporates Cobra technology




http://www.cobrabio.com/


Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc (AIM: CBF), the international manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals, today announces that its proprietary DNA system has begun clinical evaluation as part of a new HIV/AIDS vaccine clinical trial funded by the European Union.

The Phase I trial is conducted by a consortium (Eurovacc) of organisations including Cobra and will be carried out initially in the UK and Switzerland. The AIDS vaccine involves an initial injection with DNA, designed with the participation of Cobra and using Cobra's proprietary ORT DNA backbone and manufacturing technology.

The initial dose is then followed by a booster dose with a genetically engineered pox virus. The DNA-HIV-C vaccine was developed by Professors Hans Wolf and Ralf Wagner at the University of Regensburg based on a representative Chinese subtype C isolate CN54 jointly developed with Professor Yiming Shao from the CDC Beijing, and is designed to combat strains of HIV/AIDS prevalent in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

cheers GF.

And we still have further expansion of Cobra in the US to look forward to!

"Mr Thatcher said the company was looking to expand in the U.S. where it currently has offices in San Francisco and Chicago."

Sir Hugo Baskerville
i cannot get a link what does it say. TIA

Yes Sir Hugo sir, can you give us a snapshot?.

regards gf.

DRUGS FIRM IN 2M U.S. PROTEIN DEAL

RICHARD BABINGTON

12:00 - 16 February 2005

Drugs firm Cobra Manufacturing has secured a major deal worth almost 2 million with a U.S.-based biotechnology company. The 1.9 million contract, with an unnamed company, is a long-term agreement covering the manufacture of eight protein products.

It is the second boost within a week for the company, which employs 75 people at Keele Science Park.

Earlier this month, it announced that it had extended a contract to make a prototype anti-cancer treatment.

The deal, to continue supplying Reolysin to Oncolytics Biotech, is worth more than 750,000 this year.

Cobra chief executive, David Thatcher, said the deal was a breakthrough for the company, which announced heavy losses last month.

He said it showed how the company had transformed itself following its problems last year, moving away from DNA products and moving into the protein market.

He said: "The company was launched on the back of DNA technology, but DNA products are not approved - it's about research and development.

"Protein biopharmaceuticals is a major market for us. We're very pleased to get this contract: having a proven track record in America is essential."

Cobra reported a loss of 2.27 million last month, after sales fell 42 per cent.

But sales went up by 2 million in the second half of the year, after switching to meet demand for drugs using proteins and viruses rather than DNA.

Protein products now make up 46 per cent of Cobra's current forward order book, with virus products constituting 37 per cent.

Orders from the North American market now make up 72 per cent of the current forward order book.

Mr Thatcher said: "What caught us off guard last year, was a rapid decline in the DNA market, which lost us a lot of European business.

"In a perfect world we would have replaced DNA with protein faster."

The new contract has increased the value of contracted business for this financial year to 4.9 million, 2.5 times more than at this time last year.

Mr Thatcher said the company was looking to expand in the U.S. where it currently has offices in San Francisco and Chicago.
..............................................................................

Also from the Guardian 12/1/05

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1388203,00.html

"He added that the firm is looking for strategic partners or potential merger and acquisition deals to broaden its capability still further."