RNS Hotlist: AfriTin, ANGLE, DeepVerge, Galileo, Genflow, Kazera, Landore, Poolbeg, San Leon, Serica, Strategic, UKOG

Poolbeg Pharma (POLB), a clinical stage infectious disease pharmaceutical company, said it has received ethics and competent authority approval to commence its Lipopolysaccharide human challenge clinical trial for POLB 001, which aims to address the unmet medical need for a treatment for severe influenza. The company said this is a major milestone and it looks forward to receiving the insights that this trial is expected to generate by the end of 2022.

It would appear a value enhancing move is imminent for shareholders at DeepVerge (DVRG), as it announced a significant reorganisation of the Group. As from 7 June 2022 the Labskin and Environmental Divisions have been separated and now run independently of each other. The Board notes recent interest and increased discussions with Tier 1 skincare corporations, US drugstores and venture capital backed companies, some of whom are clients, and is exploring a range of options to meet the unprecedented demand for Labskin services and the accelerating growth of Skin Trust Club. The company said it believes it is necessary to explore options to maintain this level of growth within an expanded Group structure.. It is clear that Modern Water, the Environmental Division, is experiencing its own fast paced growth.

San Leon (SLE), the independent oil and gas production company focused on Nigeria announces that, the documents in respect of the New ELI Investment have now been signed by the relevant parties, being ELI Malta and San Leon Energy Financing. The New ELI Loan from San Leon to ELI of $16,000,000 at a coupon of 14% per annum over four years and is repayable quarterly following a one-year moratorium; and the New ELI Subscription at nominal value of a further 10 per cent. of ELI's diluted share capital.

Creating something of a wow factor, Kazera Global (KZG), the AIM quoted investment company, announced that it has signed an agreement to secure an investment of $ 7.5 million in return for a 49% stake in the Company's marketing, sales and export subsidiary for all lithium production from the Company's wholly owned mine at Tantalite Valley, Namibia. The transaction values the Company's lithium assets alone at in excess of $15 million.

Serica Energy (SQZ), a British independent upstream oil and gas company, provided an operations update. The company said it was “delighted” with the significant progress that it has continued to make during 2022. The impact of the substantial investment programmes undertaken in the last three years has seen increased production levels providing responsibly sourced gas to the UK domestic market, protecting security of supply, and reducing the UK's reliance on imports as part of the transition to a lower carbon future.

UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) announced operational updates in respect of its key Turkiye and Portland Hydrogen/Energy Hub projects, together with an outline of its near-term forward strategy. The company said given the promising positive outlook derived from its Basur Phase 1 seismic programme, the  focus for the forthcoming 6-9 months will be firmly upon the delivery of Phase 2 seismic and a new Basur appraisal well, now anticipated to be able to add near-term oil production to the Company in H1 2023, subject to necessary funding.

Strategic Minerals (SML), a profitable producing mineral company, updated on its cash position and ore sales at the Cobre magnetite operation in New Mexico, USA for the quarter ended 30 June 2022. The company said confirmation from the largest Cobre client that demand is expected to be maintained at historical levels, is significantly reassuring in relation to the outlook for cash flow for the years to come. The receipt of the long awaited PEPR for LCCM has prepared us for re-opening of the Mountain of Light facility although the market's mood has changed in line with fears of a global recession.

Landore Resources (LND) announced the commencement of the 2022 drilling  programme on the Felix-Lamaune areas at the Company's Junior Lake Property, Ontario, Canada. The company said it will commence drilling to advance the highly prospective Lamaune Gold deposit, together with the adjacent Carrot Top Ni-Cu-Co-PGEs prospect, located eleven kilometres to the west along strike, to defined deposit stage. In addition, this programme is designed to upgrade the Zap Zone, Grassy Pond, Felix, B4-8 prospects, spaced along strike in between the above two areas, towards possible deposit status.

AfriTin Mining (ATM), an African technology metals mining company, announced the second batch of results for the lithium and tantalum drilling programme at the Uis Mine. The company said these results confirm its understanding of the mineralisation at Uis, in particular the polymetallic nature of the V1/V2 pegmatite, which continues to show consistent tin, tantalum and lithium mineralisation. We are confident, following continued positive results, that we are on track to reaching our objective of upgrading our resource for Lithium and Tantalum for the V1/V2 pegmatite.

Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies (OCTP), the pharmaceutical company, announced that on 19 July 2022, it entered into a master service agreement and work order with Simbec Research Limited, for its first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial for its lead compound, OCT461201, due to commence in Q1 2023. The company said it was “very excited” to partner with Simbec-Orion as it progresses its drug candidates to the next crucial phase of their development - randomised, controlled clinical trials.

OptiBiotix Health (OPTI), a life sciences business, provided an update on recent scientific and commercial activities. The company said it has been working to develop new first-generation products like LeanBiome® and WellBiome® into the sports nutrition and health and wellbeing market respectively, extend its product range for SlimBiome®, and provide scientific publications to support partners launching second generation products like SweetBiotix® and its microbiome modulators.

Galileo Resources (GLR), provided preliminary drill results and a prospecting update over its Option and Joint Venture project covering the Shinganda Copper-Gold (Cu-Au) Project, Zambia where the company has the right to earn an initial 51% interest. The company said drilling and assaying has confirmed the presence of copper in an area previously explored by a large mining company. Samples from the current drilling programme have been submitted to South Africa for fire assay to test for gold, which was not targeted in the historic drilling at Shinganda

Intelligent Ultrasound Group (IUG), the ultrasound company, announced that GE Healthcare has incorporated the company’s ScanNav real-time AI technology into its new Voluson Expert 22 ultrasound machine. The company said it was delighted to see its software incorporated into the Voluson Expert 22, one of the best obstetrics ultrasound machines in the women’s healthcare market. It’s a great example of how GE Healthcare “leads the world” in medical imaging.

Ananda (ANA) the potential UK grower of  medical cannabis for the UK and international markets, provided an update. The company said it is very focused on its  research programme to produce high quality, consistent medical cannabis for UK patients.  From a commercial perspective, it continues to note the increase in UK based medical cannabis patient numbers from around 3,000, when the research licence was granted, to approximately 17,000 patients currently.  The growth trajectory is right for its business plan.

AQRU (AQRU), an incubator specialising in DeFi, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Accru Finance Ltd., has entered into a partnership with Quickbit, to offer Accru Finance's yield generating products to a wider customer base. Quickbit facilitates payments in cryptocurrency for both consumer and corporate clients.

ANGLE (AGL), a liquid biopsy company, announce that the research team led by Prof. Evi Lianidou at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, has recently published results of a study undertaken in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, which demonstrates the benefit of analysing epigenetic alterations in circulating tumour cells to assess patient prognosis. The researchers used the Parsortix® system to isolate CTCs from 42 early-stage NSCLC patients for DNA methylation analysis.

Genflow Biosciences (GENF), a UK-based biotechnology company, said that Yassine Bendiabdallah, Chairman, and Peter King-Lewis, a non-executive director, purchased 470,500 and 382,000 shares respectively, at 3.7p. Shares of GENF have recently been somewhat on the back foot.