Shares in medical food developer Provexis (PXS:AIM) are trading 16.4% higher at 1p on positive results from the second stage of its pilot study for heart-health food ingredient, Fruitflow.The results indicate that a 150mg single dose in powder form significantly lowers average 24-hour systolic blood pressure versus a placebo.The systolic level is the pressure in the arteries during...

London's blue chip benchmark opens marginally lower, down 0.2% at 7,003, in a thinly-traded session which sees less than £100,000 worth of trades in some FTSE 250 stocks during early deals.Key corporate updates include Lloyds Banking Group's (LLOY) £1.9bn acquisition of credit card outfit MBNA and a share buyback programme launched by mid cap Paysafe (PAYS) to stave off short-sellers. In...

Coinciding with its first birthday, online auction platform PrimaryBid will this week announce that retail investors will able to bid for discounted shares from any AIM company. There is a catch, but read on to discover why PrimaryBid could be an interesting proposition.I first discussed PrimaryBid in this column on 31 July 2014 in an article entitled 'Time for equal rights'. The original idea...

Few industries have stronger investment drivers than pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The rewards can be significant for investors who back the company that discovers the next wonder drug. For example, US outfit AbbVie (ABBV:NYSE) collected $12.5 billion in revenue in 2014 from Humira, a treatment for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.The risks are proportionately high, so...

A IM newcomer Evgen Pharma (EVG:AIM) could reward patient investors prepared to look ahead to a potentially transformative milestone 12 months in the future. The company plans to extract the health properties of broccoli, cabbage and other green leaf vegetables in the 'cruciferous' family.Drugs to fight cancer and repair the damage caused by subarachnoid haemorrhage, a type of stroke, are set...

Whisper it quietly: spin-offs are the City's best-kept secret. Investing in the shares of demerged businesses has delivered market-beating performance in all but the harshest market environments.US fund manager Joel Greenblatt at Gotham Capital made his fortune in the 1980s and 1990s relying heavily on the strategy. He claimed indiscriminately buying demerged securities in the US delivered...

Risk-tolerant traders should open a position in Science in Sport (SIS:AIM), the sports nutrition minnow demerged from biotech Provexis (PXS:AIM) earlier this month (9 Aug). A steady stream of new products, strong sales momentum and international market share gains offer powerful catalysts to drive shares in the company, known as SiS, higher in the months ahead.The Berkshire-based concern makes...

This year's strong stockmarket performance, despite a dip in May and June, has triggered a new wave of equity flotations. The healthy appetite by investors to back growth businesses is evident with three announcements today (8 Jul) of companies seeking to join Aim in the immediate future. These add to a growing list of flotations, albeit concentrated on the junior end of the market.Heading the...