These two UK shares are soaring in Tuesday business. And here’s why.
The Scancell Holdings (LSE: SCLP) share price has risen strongly after it announced plans to run clinical trials for its COVIDITY vaccine programme. The UK medical share was recently 6% higher from Monday’s close, taking gains over the past 12 months to 303%.
Scancell said it intends to run Phase 1 trials for its novel Covid-19 vaccine during the second half. This follows the release of preclinical data on two of its lead bivalent vaccine candidates: SN15 (also known as SCOV1), and SN17 (known as SCOV2).
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The COVIDITY programme is based on the UK healthcare share’s ImmunoBody DNA vaccine platform. It’s hoped its vaccine candidates will offer improved protection against new coronavirus variants of concern. This is “due to the inclusion of the highly conserved nucleocapsid N antigen in addition to the more variable spike (S) protein,” Scancell said.
Trials ready to begin
A regulatory application to begin Phase 1 trials on unvaccinated individuals has been submitted to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). A study isn’t possible in the UK because of the rapid rollout of Covid-19 vaccines here.
Scancell plans to gain approval from the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK should Part 1 of the South African study demonstrate safety. Phase 1 trials here will see the SCOV2 vaccine given to recipients of two doses of an approved vaccine. The South African trials will be used to assess both SCOV1 and SCOV2.
Scancell chief executive Dr Cliff Holloway said: “There is a significant threat from future mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as we have seen with the rapid transmission of the Delta variant. Our next generation Covid-19 vaccine has the potential to work alongside currently approved vaccines by protecting the population against new variants of SARS-CoV-2.”
Another soaring UK share
The Morses Club (LSE: MCL) share price has also ballooned on Tuesday following the release of fresh trading numbers. It’s currently 8% higher on the day, and up 72% over the past 12 months.
Morses Club said it’s enjoyed “a steady increase in customer demand across all lending products in both its Home Collected Credit and digital divisions.”
Customer numbers at its digital arm ballooned 40% between March and May. And total loan book balances increased 99% versus the end of February. Meanwhile, new credit issued came in 33% above expectations, and collections performance was ahead of budget.
Elsewhere, customer numbers at its Home Collected Credit unit clocked in at 144,000 as of May. This was 7,000 fewer than the UK financial share reported three months earlier. However, collections at the division are more than double the number Morses Club had expected. And total new credit issued was also 16% ahead of company expectations.
