Shares in Neil Woodford favourite ReNeuron Group (LSE: RENE) jumped in early deals this morning after the company announced a positive result from its Phase II clinical trial of its CTX cell therapy candidate for stroke disability.
It looks as if the trial was a major success, paving the way for further testing and development of the product. Indeed, the study showed that the “positive response rates in key measures reported at three months after treatment in the PISCES II clinical trial were sustained at 12 months after treatment.”
The trial also revealed that the “CTX treatment was well tolerated in both short and longer term follow-up.”
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According to the company, these findings are “highly encouraging” as they indicate that the CTX therapy has the “potential to produce meaningful and sustained improvements in disability as well as motor function in disabled stroke patients.” No other treatments with a similar goal exist.
Development takes time
There’s still much work to do before CTX is a commercial success, but so far, findings are pointing to the conclusion that this treatment will not disappoint — great news for investors.
Getting new treatments from the development to commercial stage is a complex, timely and costly process. Luckily it looks as if Reneuron is making substantial progress, and more importantly, the business is well-funded and supported by stakeholders. To help fund its development the company recently received a grant of £1.2m from the Welsh Government.
Reneuron isn’t going to make its shareholders rich overnight, although, over the long term, I believe the sky is the limit for the company.
Figures show that the annual health and social costs of caring for these patients is estimated to be more than £5bn in the UK and over $70bn in the US. If the firm’s treatment can help control these costs and improve patient quality of life, taking just a tiny share of this market could be a multi-billion pound opportunity for the company.
Slow and steady
Reneuron could eventually see sales of more than £1bn, but for investors who are looking for a more defensive investment, Amino Technologies (LSE: AMO) might be a better buy.
Amino is a cash cow and management is committed to returning as much to investors as possible. Over the past five years, the firm has paid out around 22p per share in dividends to investors, which works out at around 44% of the year-end 2012 share price of 50p. Including dividends, over the past five years, the shares have returned 316%, smashing the FTSE 250’s performance over the same period of 70%.
If Amino can keep up this steady performance, shareholders will get rich slowly. Right now the shares support a dividend yield of 3.6%, the payout is covered 2.3 times by earnings per share and the shares trade at a forward P/E of 13.3. For the fiscal year ending 30 November 2018, analysts have pencilled in a dividend per share of 7.3p giving a dividend yield of 4%. Earnings per share growth of 8% should give a forward P/E of 12.3.
Overall, if you’re looking for a low-risk income and growth stock to help you make a million, I believe that you can’t go wrong with Amino.
