Investor's Champion Blog
Provides refreshingly forthright, independent comment on predominantly small cap companies and specialist investment funds. Informed opinion, based on first-hand research, but pulls no punches in exposing management weaknesses.

Phytopharm (PYM) - It looks like it could have a potential block buster

There was very encouraging news this week for sufferers from Parkinson’s Disease with a positive announcement from Phytopharm (PYM), the pharmaceutical development and functional food company.

Pre-clinical data has shown that one of the group’s products, Cogane, reverses the changes in the area of the brain involved in Parkinson's disease. This data will be presented by Dr Jonathan Brotchie, an internationally recognised expert on Parkinson's disease, at 'The 11th International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders' on 5th June in Istanbul.

This latest study was partly funded by The Cure Parkinson's Trust which was founded by four men with Parkinson’s to fund research, to hasten a cure for this debilitative neurological condition.

Commenting on the findings, Tom Isaacs, co-founder of The Cure Parkinson’s Trust said: “Cogane’s ability to induce a person’s own neurotrophic activity offers a very real prospect of a better treatment for Parkinson’s disease.”

The Cure Parkinson’s Trust has been funding a variety of research projects globally. For further details see: www.cureparkinsons.org.uk


Phytopharm appears to be on the verge of something really big with Cogane, however, there must be a concern that a business of its small size (mkt cap c£33m) and with the distraction of other drugs under research (E.g. Myogane) has the resources to run with this.

Further funding will obviously be required to support the next phase of study and Dr Brotchie’s work will help support this.

Let’s hope Phytopharm can remain focused on what looks like could be a potential blockbuster product and not take the route of least risk by spreading its resources too thinly across a broad portfolio.

From an investment perspective isn’t the point of investing in micro cap pharmaceutical stocks the hope of finding a real ‘ten bagger’. After all, if we want security we can all simply invest in a blue chip.

 

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