Bought some of these this morning as Instiutional interest as really boiled up over them. They have just announced a very positive deal and from what I can see theres quite a lot of news flow in the pipeline to keep this one going throughout the rest of the year. Its highly speculative but give me a Bio company that isnt.

Heres just a little historical detail about the company from the last results prelims 31/12/2004.

HIGHLIGHTS

Listing on London Stock Exchange raised 55 million
Kerraboot(R) received UK Drug Tariff Listing at a reimbursement price
of 14
Kerraboot(R) UK sales showed steady upward trend in first six months
of primary care promotion
Second safety and efficacy study for Cerepro(TM) showed mean patient
survival time increased by 80% in malignant glioma
Trinam(R) received Orphan Drug Designation in the EU
First international out-licensing deal signed with Teva Medical for
Kerraboot(R) in Israel
EG005 Phase II in lipodystrophy completed enrolment
Finnish manufacturing facility received Good Manufacturing Practice
certification (cGMP)
Named patient supplies of Vitor(TM) made available at request of
investigators for patients completing Phase III study
Cash of 47 million at 31 December 2004

POST YEAR-END EVENTS

Patent for Trinam(R) granted by European Patent Office

Dr Nigel Parker, CEO of Ark, commented:

'We made substantial progress in all aspects of our business in 2004 and
demonstrated that we are delivering on key milestones during our first year as a
publicly quoted company. Our progress to date supports our belief that we are
well placed to achieve our goal of becoming one of a successful new breed of
diversified healthcare companies servicing areas of high clinical need in
hospital and specialist medicine.'

ARKs History

Ark Therapeutics Group plc

Ark is a specialist healthcare group (the 'Group') with one marketed product and
three further lead products in late stage clinical development. Capitalising on
over ten years of research in vascular biology and gene-based medicine, Ark has
a balanced product portfolio targeted at specific unmet clinical needs within
vascular disease and cancer. These are large and growing markets, where
opportunities exist for effective new products to generate significant revenues.

Ark's products are sourced from related but largely non-dependent technologies
within the Group and have been selected to enable them to be taken through
development within the Company's own means and to benefit from Orphan Drug
Status and/or Fast Track Designation, as appropriate. This strategy has allowed
the Group to retain greater value and greater control of clinical development
timelines, and to mitigate the risks of dependency on any one particular
programme or development partner. Ark has secured patents or has patent
applications pending for all its lead products in principal pharmaceutical
markets.

Ark has its origins in businesses established in the mid-1990s by Professor John
Martin and Mr Stephen Barker of University College London and Professor Seppo
Yla-Herttuala of the AI Virtanen Institute at the University of Kuopio,
Finland, all of whom continue to play leading roles in the Company's research
and development programmes.

You can find full details of the last results here, http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200503100700205623J.html

Worth a punt I feel but as I have previously stated its high risk.

DYOR.

cheers GF.

Thanks - I pretty much only invest in Bios, mostly because I have an academic interest in them (PhD in analytical biochemistry) and partly because I think they are worthy from a moral point of view. Its more fun for me though rather than any serious financial commitment.

Nice rise today, shame there seems to be little discussion on this one anywhere. I also use two other bbs and seem to make most of the posts on them. Perhaps early approval may start some interest, although I don't really want the threads to be full of traders

Pleasure - I dabble a little. Apart from AKT I have modest holdings in AKR, CEN and OXB. Any strong views on any of these?

I hold OXB and CEN.

CENs results today are OK but largely predicted, I will probably get out of these soon. OXB has more interesting products which are more difficult to value. I'd like to see some hard end points such as survival times before making any other decisions. The management there also talk up potential deals but have yet to sign one so remain unproven. I also hold alizyme - they are similar to OXB with the deals lacking.

My track record of picking stocks is somewhat mixed. I did very well (+100%) with Chiroscience and Alizyme but lost badly on Xenova/Scotia/Regen/Phytopharm. Nature of the beast I suppose.

Interesting thoughts, thanks. I'm 100% up on OXB but continue to hold as I think there's a way to go with these yet. I'd forgotten that I hold RGN & AZM as well, both at a loss although AZM seems to be waking up a little. I've obviously got more exposure to the sector than I thought although all the holdings are extremely modest.

Excellent news today Dr Biotech and a good market reaction for a change. Things are looking good for AKT!

More on the patent...there is a lot more to this company than cerepro and trinam

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Shares in Britain's Ark Therapeutics Plc (AKT.L: Quote, Profile , Research) jumped on Thursday after the company said it had won a European patent for the use of a broad class of drugs known as ACE inhibitors for the treatment of stroke.

At 1110 GMT shares in the company were up 15.6 percent at 155-3/4 pence, valuing the company at 223.6 million pounds ($437 million).

Ark said the patent, valid until 2018, covers a group of 23 ACE inhibitors, widely marketed to control blood pressure and risk of other cardiovascular conditions, including stroke.


"Ark will now start to consider the further commercial licensing potential of the patent," Chief Executive Nigel Parker said in a statement.

The London-based company said it had already signed a licence agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) for the use of ACE inhibitors in the development of a stroke treatment.

The deal, which Investec estimates was worth around 19 pence of the company's valuation, included upfront payments and royalties on sales of BI's products in all territories in which Ark has secured patent protection.

Investec analyst Ibraheem Mahmood said any pharmaceutical company which uses ACE inhibitors, which generate billions of dollars of revenues, will in future have to compensate Ark for the right to use the drug. Continued...

We expect Ark to now "go knocking on the door" of all pharmaceutical companies with stroke programmes using ACE inhibitors and each time it cuts a deal we will increase our DCF (discounted cash flow) valuation," Mahmood said.

"Patents are key to a biotech company strategy, but typically are not valued by the market as they have commercial value only far into the future -- in this case this win has direct commercial value applicable today."

Ark said it had already filed a separate patent application in the United States and other international territories.

For the six months ended 30 June 2006, Ark's turnover fell 88 percent to 148,000 pounds on lower sales.


For the full year analysts forecast turnover of 1.1 million pounds, down 53 percent from the same period the previous year, according to Reuters Estimates. They forecast turnover of 6.2 million for 2007.

Very, very encouraging Dr Biotech.

Ark Therapeutics said that it has been given clearance ahead of time by the US Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee for its planned pivotal Phase III clinical study of Trinam in the US. Trinam is Ark's novel gene-based therapy to prevent haemodialysis access graft blockage.

After the initial review, the committee decided that the application does not require further review and public discussion, said specialist healthcare firm Ark. The company will now undergo Special Protocol Assessment for the Phase III study, which will involve at least 200 patients, with the FDA. The trial is expected to start in the second half of 2007 once this is complete.

another good rns today, but almost no reaction or trade

I'd hardly call a rise of 3.5% no reaction but based on the information released I would have hoped for a bigger jump.

most of it + the volume after i had posted

Of course it was, silly old me. It must have been a busy last half hour.

Speculative Buy recommendation from Growth Company Invesotr

http://www.growthcompany.co.uk/recommendations/1049282/ark-therapeutics.thtml

1300hrs 12.04.11 Ark Therapeutics Initiated @ Matrix with 12p Target Price

Is anybody trading this one? I have it on my watch list. I only posted the chart last week in response to a newbie poster, up today in a down market. Just noticed goldfinger you started the thread.

Started at the bottom and liked it then eh! :O)