I’ve read the whole thing, but skimmed most of the later chapters. I’m afraid it doesn’t get much better. Compared to Ranma and Inuyasha, it is much much much more episodic. There are no arcs and rarely any long stories that span more than 1-2 chapters. The stories become very repetitive too given how long the series lasted. The story does develop but it’s very slow.
Show-ha Shou-ten! vs Akane-banashi
I see a lot of similarities between these two mangas. Both are about similar and yet unique topics. Both are, at its core, shonen mangas (protagonist goes through trials and tribulations, becomes stronger, etc). Imo both have excellent art and story.
Is there one that you guys prefer? If so, why?
Or perhaps there’s another manga with similar topic and style that you prefer over these two?
The only isekai x sport I can think of is the baseball one. Which is pretty good if u haven’t read that.
I think made-up sports are too hard to do. Even Keijo is really just wrestling with special rules. Made-up board games, on the other hand, seems far more common. They had one in Hunter x Hunter (ant arc), Love is War had a few (thanks to Fujiwara and board game club), and Sket-dance had them. Many gambling mangas also have their own board or card games.
Can’t think of many fictional sports besides Genesis in Sket-dance. I don’t particularly like the sport but it was still hilarious
Same. IIRC I started reading that in 2021, I followed it until graduation, but dropped it soon after. The releases got slower and the story no longer felt interesting. Such a shame
Why would it take a scientist to demonstrate metric system…? Everything is in powers of 10. How hard is that to explain?
This entire manga has been one loooooong build up. I really hope it pays off
Imo Love is War is one of the best romcoms in the last decade. Most romcoms have to constantly introduce new romantic interests to stay fresh, but Love is War kept it strong from beginning to end without ever really doing that. The anime was superb as well.
I tried Gabriel Dropout but stopped reading about chapter… 30-40 I think. I think the setting has potential but Gabriel is just too annoying to me. And I feel sorry for the devils who get shafted all the time.
If Onizuka interests you as a character, I strongly suggest reading “Shonan Junai Gumi”, prequel to GTO. The art is crude in comparison, and the story and characters don’t really take shape until a few volumes, but it gives you great insight on both Onizuka and his pal Ryuuji
Started reading Dungeon Meshi since ppl were recommending it. Damn, it’s way better than I expected. Lots of innovative ideas and the world building is topnotch. Can’t wait for the anime!
Also started reading Aishiteru Game. Pretty typical romcom, but I’m a sucker for casual romcoms, and the art is pretttty good. Only on chapter 11, hoping it remains strong
I only like a few VRMMO mangas but this one has been great so far. I really hope the anime can make the fight scenes come to life.
I can never get tired of seeing their evil looks. These chapters are why I enjoy it more than Temple
Tis Time for Torture rarely uses fantasy ingredients so it’s fine to me. This one I’ve been following.
Gensou Gourmet is the type that I have no interest in. Only read 2 chapters but the story or characters did not appeal to me. The food aspect I cannot relate to.
Just started reading Dungeon Meshi and I think they did it right. Instead of constantly focusing on the dish itself, it’s more about the adventure and how food/cooking help them along the way.
This is a tough one. I’ve read a good amount of villainess mangas and tbh they all sort of blend together at some point. They are all so similar it was hard telling them apart after a while, especially if new chapters don’t come very often. I’ve stopped following all but two - “The Banished Villainess! Living the Leisurely Life of a Nun Making Revolutionary Church Food” and “I'm in Love with the Villainess”.
The former is not all that innovative, but the direction is slightly more refreshing than the usual. I wouldn’t say I recommend it but I prefer it over something like “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!”
The latter has a more unique premise and the art is better than most villainess mangas. Yuri might put some ppl off, but if you’re ok with it, this is probably the one villainess manga I’d recommend
Note: I almost never read anything with less than 20 chapters, so maybe there are some good, new villainess mangas out there that I haven’t read. Looking forward to other ppl’s comments!
The current bot isn’t doing a very good job tho. I see some random, old manga chapters. If it can properly create discussion posts for new chapters then I’m for it
Why are you posting discussions for random, age-old manga chapters?
Looks like it, but have mixed feelings about that. I love the entire series except for the final arc. I hope they take some liberty there at least to cover some of the flaws (e.g. the lame battle against the quadruplets)
I strongly dislike cooking fillers in isekai mangas lol. I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but it’s typically when the group camps out while traveling to a new town. The protagonist would make some modern dish with isekai ingredients and blow everyone elses’ minds. It’s an overused troupe that rarely adds anything of value to the story. There are other isekai troupes that I’m tired of (e.g. pages of random skills) but cooking fillers is a pretty bad and frequent offender.
I’m for it. New to lemmy so not sure if there’s auto-mod to make life easier on the mods
Unpopular Opinion: Isekai/Fantasy mangas should not focus on cooking
Isekai / reincarnation / fantasy mangas have been huge these past couple of years. There are many interesting mangas with various topics and themes out there, but “cooking” is one theme that I can’t get behind.
I love cooking mangas in general. I’ve read Mister Ajikko, Chuuka Ichiban, Yakitate Japan, Shota no Sushi, Oh! My Konbu, Shokugeki no Soma, and many more. In these mangas, no matter how ridiculous it gets, it is usually based on real world ingredients. The final product is often exaggerated but the flavor is something I can actually imagine. I’ve actually attempted to make some of them and read about others who have done the same.
But this is often untrue for cooking scenes in fantasy mangas. For example, cooking is a major part of Drifting Dragons. They would make dragon meat dishes that are similar to real world dishes and go into details about how it tastes. In Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, Mukoda would make real-world dishes but isekai monster meat, and how great they taste. But… so what? No matter how much you describe the taste to me, I don’t know and will never know how a dragon or orc taste.
I’m not saying those mangas are boring. I actually really enjoy both Drifting Dragons and Campfire Cooking, but I just can’t get into the food part of it. I would probably enjoy them even more if they glossed over the food and spend more time on other things.
Biora Therapeutics Continues to Monetize Legacy Diagnostics Assets
Probably sold it to their former diagnostic lab, Northwest Pathology, again
Ingles makes the switch to Orlando after one season with Milwaukee.
Cheat Sheet
Decided to post a new cheat sheet without some outdated info. The old one can be found here: Old Cheat Sheet
Upcoming Events
- Aug 10 - Canaccord Genuity 43rd Annual Growth Conference, fireside chat at 12:30 PM ET
- Aug 14 - Q2 2023 Earnings Report
- Oct 3 - Presentation at European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Press Release
Financials
- Outstanding shares - 12M as of Q1 2023
- 2022 OPEX - $62.1M (vs est. of $60M)
- Q1 - $20M ($18M excluding stock-based compensation expense)
- Q2 - $14.3M ($12.9M excluding stock-based compensation expense)
- Q3 - $14.1M
- Q4 - $13.9M
- 2023 OPEX
- Q1 - $15.5M
- Cash as of Dec 31, 2022 - $30.4M. Cash has been consistent for the past 3 quarters; I think it's safe to assume Biora intends to keep at least $30M in cash, even if it means heavy dilution.
- ATM Offering Left - \~$33M (used $5M in Q4 2021, $3.7M in Q1 2022, $1.1M in Q2 2022, $1.8M in Q3 2022, $12.9M in Q4 2022, $12.5M in Q1 2023). Initial offering was $90M but reduced to $70M in Q3 2022.
- Estimated runway - "well into 2023", w/ ATM Offering - mid-late 2024
- Avero Diagnostics sold for $10.9M. Press Release
- No revenue streams
- Nov 2022, Sold patent to Roche Diagnostics for undisclosed amount. No mentions in ER and no info in filings
Enumera Molecular
- Biora has a 25% minority ownership stake (6M shares) with potential financial upside and without committing any funds or resources from the company, Press Release
- Website
- Founded by Biora's former CSO, Matthew Cooper. Cooper previously founded Carmenta Bioscience, which was later acquired by Progenity (along with what later became Preecludia)
- Series A funded by Arboretum Ventures for $12.5M
Athyrium
Progenity/Biora's major shareholder, who started investing in Progenity back in 2013.
BELOW INFO IS SLIGHTLY OUTDATED. Athyrium recently invested more to adjust their warrant strike price. It is unclear exactly how much they own right now.
- Owns 3,669,578 shares based on latest 13D/F
- Cost basis is last calculated to be between $50-75, but potentially less now due to warrants
- Did not sell any shares during Nov 2021's ramp up to $6
- Part of their MO is to buy a company then turn them into a desirable target for acquisition
- Jeffrey Ferrell, managing partner of Athyrium, is also one of Progenity/Biora's Board of Directors. Related DD
Buyout Theory
This was a prominent theory during the initial ramp in late 2021, but not many talk about this anymore. A buyout is always possible, but there are not that many signs which points to one.
NaviCap (formerly Drug Delivery System (DDS))
BT-600 (formerly PGN-600)
- Tofacitinib + Device
- Highest priority.
- Treats ulcerative colitis.
- Target market is $7B.
- Timeline:
- Healthy patient studies (PM-601) - completed, Press Release
- UC patient studies (PM-602) - completed, Topline Results. Full publication will likely become available after American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting (Oct 21-26)
- Study effects of food on function of the device (PM-611) - completed, Press Release
- Tox Studies - Completed, analysis in progress, should be done before Q3. Encouraging results that shows robust safety profiles
- IND filing - Q3 2023
- Phase 1 - Q4 2023 to Q1 2024.
- There was timeline for Phase 2, but that's now removed from presentation
BT-001 (formerly PGN-001)
- Adalimumab variant + Device
- Sidelined, possibly due to lawsuits by AbbVie to other companies who uses Adalimumab
- Treats ulcerative colitis.
- Target market is $7B.
BioJet (Formerly Oral Biotherapeutic Delivery System (OBDS))
- 5 different programs
- BT-002- Adalimumab variant + Device, avg bioavailability. of 51.3%
- BT-200- Semaglutide (GLP-1) + Device, avg bioavailability of 37% (vs 1% of competitor).
- IONIS collab - Antisense Therapy + Device. (During Q1 2023 ER) Preclinical testing performed, results still pending
- Large Pharma 1 collab - undisclosed
- Large Pharma 2 collab - undisclosed
- Targets multiple markets, e.g. IBD $17B, GLP-1 $13B
- Timeline:
- 2022, continue generating preclinical data
- Q3 2022, Data Readout of Preclinical PK Studies
- Q4 2022, start clinical studies / trials. Announced a "next gen" device, which basically meant their old device wasn't good enough
- Biora looking to expand collaborations, hoping to gain non-dilutive capitol
Preecludia
- Rule out Preeclampsia
- Target market is $3B
- Validation study results published. Journal
- Progenity/Biora will not spend more resources developing Preecludia
- Licensed to Avero Diagnostics with milestone payments and low double-digit royalties. Press Release
Risks
Note: the likelihood is my personal opinion and is subject to change.
- Dilution - using ATM offering will dilute shares. Convertible notes (not sure how much) that can be converted to shares.
- Reverse Split - already happened
- Delisting - Biora does not meet the $50M asset / $50M revenue listing criteria. Notice was sent on April 4, 2023, and they had to submit a plan for compliance by May 19. It is unclear if Biora submitted the plan or if SEC accepted them. (Press Release)\[https://investors.bioratherapeutics.com/static-files/e9c14c3a-8c35-44e3-8777-50107a742cb8\]
- Trial Delays - already happened to all their programs, multiple times. Can definitely happen again
- Poor Results - all research thus far points to NaviCap/DDS and BioJet/OBDS being effective solutions. However, their "previous generation" OBDS definitely had problems; likely with deployment rate.
- Unexpected Expenses (Unsure) - there are a few open lawsuits against Progenity, which could result in settlement payments or other forms of expense. This can decrease their cash reserve/runway. SEC Filing, see "Item 1. Legal Proceedings"
Additional Resources
- July 2023 Corporate Presentation
- Q1 2023 Earnings Transcript
- Mar 2023 Investor Presentation
- Q4 2022 Earnings Transcript
- Nov 2022 Investor Presentation
- Q3 2022 Earnings Highlights
- Aug 2022 Investor Presentation
- Q2 2022 Earnings Report Transcript
- Q2 2022 Earnings Highlights
- Q1 2022 Earnings Report Transcript
- Q1 2022 Earnings Highlights
- May 2022 Investor Presentation
- Old May 2022 Investor Presentation
- Q4 2021 Earnings Report Investor Presentation
- Q4 2021 Earnings Report Transcript
- Q3 2021 Earnings Report Transcript