Stem Cell Sciences PLC (STEM)





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FTSE AIM All Share Pharmaceuticals & BiotechnologyMarket cap: 12.600m
Summary
Development and application of stem cells and stem cell technologies in biopharmaceutical research and cell-based therapies
Key Fundamentals Financials - Annual Report (31/12/2005)
Turnover m 0.85
Pre-tax Profit m -2.52
EPS p -12.9
DPS p -

Key People Director Job title
Dr. Michael Dexter Chairman
Dr. Peter Mountford Chief Executive

Latest 3 RNA Heading Date
New license - hMADS 25/07/2006
Strategic Collaboration 17/07/2006

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Stem Cell Sciences to open California office
HAMISH RUTHERFORD

STEM Cell Sciences, the ambitious Edinburgh biotech company, is expanding into the United States as it moves to become a genuine global player.

Already having operations in Australia and an associate company in Japan, the company is in the advanced stages of planning for a Californian sales office to tap into a potentially huge market.

Chief executive Peter Mountford said the company would also seek an academic partner in the US - mirroring its other operations, all linked to universities - and establish an automated cell-production facility in Cambridge to translate current bench-top cell production methods into a process suited to contract cell supply.

The company was spun out from the University of Edinburgh in 1994 to commercialise the work of Mountford and Professor Austin Smith.

In a cutting-edge field, STEM has developed its business model and intellectual property around embryonic and tissue-specific stem cells and aims to tap into the potential the science holds in drug discovery and cell-based therapies. In an expanding product programme it is involved in preclinical research to develop cells for treating central nervous system diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

In the first full-year results since the company floated in July last year, SCS yesterday posted a loss of 2.38m, almost 1m more than in 2004, as operations expanded.

Turnover increased to 847,000, including the first income from the sale of its media products, which enable the growth of stem cells for research and drug discovery, the first commercially available. The company raised 6m when it floated, and finished the year with net cash of 5.2m. Mountford said the company was meeting or exceeding all of its targets. The company plans to be profitable by 2009.

The results prompted little interest on the stock market, with no shares traded yesterday. They are currently at 67p, having hit 100p when the firm floated last July.

Web links

Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/
Cambridge University Stem Cell Institute
http://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk/
Comment On Reproductive Ethics
http://www.corethics.org/
European Consortium for Stem Cell Research
http://www.eurostemcell.org/index.htm
Institute of Stem Cell Research, Edinburgh Uni
http://www.iscr.ed.ac.uk/
Nuffield Council on Bioethics
http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/go/ourwork/stemcells/introduction
Roslin Institute
http://www.roslin.ac.uk/

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LONDON (AFX) 25/07/06 - Stem Cell Sciences PLC (STEM) has in-licensed a novel human stem cell, discovered in fat tissue and easily grown, which the company said could help to improve the drug discovery process.

The so-called 'human multi-potent adipocyte-derived stem cell' has been shown by scientists to be capable of producing fat and bone at very high efficiency, and will be suited for drug discovery in such areas as obesity and osteoporosis.

STEM holds world-wide exclusive rights to commercialise the cells for drug discovery in the field of obesity, and an exclusive option in the field of osteoporosis.

The company said the new licence will enable it to position itself as the leading supplier of stem cell derived cell types for drug discovery, a rapidly developing market.

'We have been delighted with the way these cells have performed and expect their addition to our cell-based screening platform will substantially expand the range of discovery assays that we can offer to pharmaceutical industry partners,' chief executive Dr Peter Mountford said in a statement.

Shares in AIM-listed Stem Cells closed Monday at 56.5 pence, valuing the company at 12.6 mln stg.

Down again to 41.5p now. STEM will go down to 20p. Embryonic research is deemed immoral and this would not gain public interest at all. Legislation will be lengthy and very likely not approved.

hi hlyeo98,

This was never going to be a stock that was to move north overnight. If Stem Cell technology lives upto ones expectation of developing safe and effective stem cell-based therapies for currently incurable diseases. I'm sure the question of 'immorality' will soon be forgotten by the general public.

I cant deny that the current price hasnt made me a little uneasy!

Good luck

Ian

hlyeo98's prediction not looking so pessimistic now! But I remain more in tune with Ian and feel that the benefits will outweigh the objectors in the long term. The drop from heady heights only 7 months ago is concerning but drifts like this are common in AIM stocks in the absence of any news. (Even the recent EU funding appears to have been ignored... http://www.advfn.com/p.php?pid=nmona&article=22420867&epic=STEM ) There was also a Dun and Bradstreet 'negative performance indicators' warning in June which didn't help... never got to the bottom of what that was all about.

Any positive news should result in a sharp jump so the brave would regard this as a good buying opportunity! I'm not liquid enough to be brave at present!

25.5p now...still on the dive. As I have said before, stem cell research is not a place to invest.