acambis, acm

the fortunes of this smallpox vaccine company changed after 11/9 upon receiving 500m contract from the usa army to supply it with smallpox vaccine. the stock stood at 120p before it hit the roof at just under 400p early year 2002 gapping as it rose by some 90p that was accompanied with a mighty volume spike of 12m (average daily volume is well below the 1 m mark, today stood at near quarter a million most of which has been buy trades, yet the stock managed to stage another dropping day! someone must have something cooking here!)

there is news now that the usa intends to have all its citizens vaccinated against smallpox. meanwhile the company has stated that it expects to report top end revenue when it posts its preliminary figures by march 11.

you would expect the share price for acm to be racing, but it aint so. in fact the opposite is true. over the past 5 trading days the share price has dropped on every day that culminated with the biggest of such drops today, 4.2% to take the stock to 227.5! the top of the support zone of 223-227. the spread has been 4%, reasonable for a stock of this nature.

9 and 18 days smas both heading down rather steeply. the 150 ema has plotted a shallow saucer shape, now at the rim which is flat. 9 day sma has just crossed over the 150 ema having had just crossed over the 18 day sma earlier on. so there is some downside forces left in the stock.

rsi commenced its rise from near the bottom. slow stochs ranging flat at the bottom. macd histogram had bottomed up and begun to rise when these series of price drops commenced 5 trading days ago. so we have divergence.

apart from the moving averages, the other negative aspect is the m formation that straddles august and mid september last year.

this stock should be on every canny traders watch list. has the potential to explode up starting with one mighty up gap to take it back to its previous high and beyond.

Before we all forget about this one - info released 3 days ago

Acambis PLC
25 February 2003

Acambis wins $9.2m US Government contract to develop MVA vaccine

Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts - 25 February 2003 - Acambis plc ('
Acambis') (LSE: ACM, NASDAQ: ACAM) announces that its US subsidiary, Acambis
Inc., has been awarded a $9.2m contract by the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health, to
develop a new Modified Vaccinia Ankara ('MVA') vaccine.

MVA is a weakened form of the current generation of smallpox vaccines and, as
such, should allow the safe inoculation of 'at risk' people with weakened immune
systems, who would otherwise be unable to be vaccinated against smallpox.

The contract requires Acambis to develop a new MVA vaccine, deliver several
thousand doses of the vaccine to NIAID and conduct a Phase I clinical trial in
healthy adults. The contract is structured on a 'cost plus fixed fee' basis. For
this contract, Acambis has partnered with Baxter Healthcare Corporation, its
major shareholder and strategic partner. Acambis is acting as the prime
contractor and Baxter as sub-contractor, leveraging each other's strengths and
capabilities. Acambis expects to hold the exclusive commercial rights to the MVA
vaccine.

The NIAID can award additional funds under the contract for expanded Phase II
clinical trials in healthy adults and Phase I and Phase II studies in 'at risk'
populations. The estimated value of Acambis undertaking the work required by
this additional element is $26.5m.

In addition, the US Government has declared its intention to stockpile MVA
vaccine. The NIAID plans to issue a Request for Proposals for the production of
up to 30 million doses of MVA vaccine constituting the US Government's stockpile
for emergency use.

Under contracts dating from September 2000 and November 2001, Acambis is also
producing smallpox vaccine for the US Government as part of programme to produce
a stockpile sufficient to provide a dose for every man, woman and child in the
US.

Dr John Brown, Chief Executive Officer, said:

'We recognise the importance of MVA as a product that complements our existing
smallpox vaccine.

With the addition of MVA to our ACAM2000 vaccine, we have established a vaccine
franchise that enables us to offer governments the package of products they need
to protect all their people against smallpox.

'Winning this first contract puts us in a great position to tender for the
second contract to supply the US Government's MVA stockpile,' Dr Brown
commented.

Acambis PLC
18 February 2003



Notification of conference call and webcast

Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts - 18 February 2003 - Acambis plc
('Acambis') (LSE: ACM, NASDAQ: ACAM) will announce its preliminary results for
the year ended 31 December 2002 on Tuesday, 11 March 2003.

The results announcement will be released at 7.00 am GMT. A conference call for
analysts will be held at 9.30 am GMT. For details, contact Mo Noonan at
Financial Dynamics on telephone number +44 (0) 20 7269 7116. An instant replay
of the call will be available until midnight on Tuesday, 18 March on the
following telephone numbers: UK: +44 (0) 20 8288 4459; US: +1 334 323 6222. The
pin code is 416402.

An audio webcast of the call will also be available via Acambis' website at

www.acambis.com.
The webcast replay will be available until midnight on Tuesday,
11 April.

With the terror alert' test' in London soon, does this mean that the Gov't will be proactive and buy small pox doses for the entire popluation. Looks like its just 20 million so far, a bit similar to the number of labour voters:)

From memory the UK government aren't getting their stocks from Acambis, but from Powderjet. If you remember there were accusations that powderject got the contract over acambis because powderject gave a large donation to the labour party.

The thing is the UK order is small fry compared to the US order and other US orders

Results due out this week - should make things interesting

Judging from this Saturdays FT article there could be a silver lining to Acambis losing their court case with BTG. It apparently removes uncertainty, and opens the way for a bidder to step in. I like the notion of a racy takeout price.

Acambis left vulnerable after BTG settlement

Acambis has settled a legal dispute with BTG, the intellectual property group. But the deal makes Acambis, one of the UK biotechnology industrys few recent successes, more vulnerable to a takeover.

In an out-of-court settlement, BTG is understood to have agreed to receive the relatively small sum of 12m from Acambis now, rather than run the risk of having to negotiate with any large acquirer of the vaccine-maker in the near future.

Some close to the dispute said One hears the company is up for sale and thinking of quite a racy takeout price, although Acambis sources strongly denied this.

They said the company, which has more than 100m cash after supplying smallpox vaccines to the US government, may attract interest because of its strong balance sheet and valuable assets, but was not seeking buyers.

The company is also vulnerable because of the recent decision by CE John Brown to step down. Russel Reynolds, the headhunter, has been hired to find a successor. Rolf Stahel, ousted last year as CE of Shire Pharmaceuticals, is understood to have been approached.

Genghis Lloyd-Harris, CSFB analyst, said the settlement of the dispute about whether Acambis was contractually obliged to pay BTG 2% of its turnover increased its value to bidders by removing uncertainty. He said The CEO is stepping down with no announced successor, its high quality assets are significantly undervalued, and M&A consolidation is picking up.

Bidders could include Akzo Nobel, which this week said it was looking to break into the human vaccine market. Others could include Merck, Aventis, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline.

If 290 support goes you'd best get the bin bags. Woof!!!!

interesting last comment from 3 years ago !!

Anyway stock has been trashed deservedly so -- some big seller around but seems to be meeting buyers today ahead of a ruling due tomorrow

ruling likely to positive for acm -- expect bounce tomorrow

ruling delayed -- bounce more unlikely short term?

but bid moving up !1

:-)



UPDATE 1-Acambis agrees 276 mln stg bid from Sanofi Pasteur
AFX


LONDON July 25 (Reuters) - Vaccine maker Acambis Plc said on Friday it had agreed to a takeover offer from Sanofi Pasteur that values the British company at around 276 million pounds ($547.8 million).

Acambis said the bid from Sanofi Pasteur -- a unit of Sanofi Aventis, the world's third-largest pharmaceutical company -- was at 190 pence in cash for each Acambis share.

Shares in Acambis, which in April won a 10-year contract worth $425 million to supply the U.S. government with smallpox vaccine, closed 0.9 percent higher at 116 pence before the news.

'This mutually beneficial acquisition is a logical step building upon Sanofi Pasteur and Acambis' decade long partnership on key projects to develop and market vaccines of the future,' Wayne Pisano, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi Pasteur, said in a statement.

Acambis Chairman Peter Fellner welcomed the offer, which was at a 62.5 percent premium to where the stock ended on Thursday.

'Sanofi Pasteur, which is one of the world's largest vaccines companies, will benefit strategically not only from Acambis' pipeline and technologies, but also from its significant U.S.-based R&D and manufacturing infrastructure,' Fellner said.

(Reporting by Mike Elliott; Editing by Quentin Bryar) ($1=.5038 Pound) Keywords: ACAMBIS SANOFIPASTEUR/

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