The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) went up by 0.33% today to 5,945 points.
There was one particular announcement that could be important for the whole country:
CSL Limited (ASX: CSL)
Australia's biggest healthcare company, CSL, announced a heads of agreement has been signed with Astrazeneca. The deal is for the expected manufacture of approximately 30 million doses of the Oxford University vaccine candidate AZD1222, for the supply to Australia with the first doses scheduled for release in early 2021. This will be done after successful clinical trials.
The ASX 200 business also said that a heads of agreement has been signed between CSL and the Australian government to supply 51 million doses of the University of Queensland vaccine to Australia. The first doses are scheduled for released from the middle of 2021. This will also be done after clinical trials have been successfully completed.
CSL said that results from the pre-clinical and early clinical studies for UQ-CSL V451 are promising, however CSL said it's impossible to predict the level of success the candidate will have in late stage clinical trials. Should the phase 1 study prove to be successful towards the end of this year, CSL will take full responsibility for the subsequent phase 2b/3 clinical trial, which is expected to commence in late 2020.
The Australian government will provide funding to support CSL's readiness to manufacture the AZD1222 vaccine candidate and provide an additional COVID-19 vaccine option for Australians.
CSL CEO and managing director Paul Perreault said: "The social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a high level of urgency to the task of developing a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and to manufacture a successful vaccine at a high quality and in sufficient quantities.
"CSL has been working at pace to respond to the pandemic and has invested significant resources in the rapid development and large-scale manufacture of UQ-CSL V451, along with a number of other therapeutic programs. Together with partners including the University of Queensland and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), our development and manufacturing teams have been working extremely hard to advance this program to ensure the availability of a safe and effective vaccine should clinical studies prove successful."
The CSL share price went up 1.1% today.
Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG)
Fund manager Magellan announced its funds under management (FUM) at 31 August 2020.
It said that its FUM has grown by more than $3 billion to $100.87 billion. Most of this increase helped the global equities segment grow FUM to $77.1 billion.
In August, Magellan experienced net inflows of $566 million, which included net retail inflows of $208 million and net institutional inflows of $358 million.
The ASX 200 share was down for most of morning trading. The Magellan share price finished down 0.05% today.
Bailador Technology Investments Ltd (ASX: BTI)
Technology investment fund Bailador Technology Investments said that the value of its investment in portfolio company Instaclustr has increased 42.2% which is equivalent to a 6.5 cent increase of the company's net tangible asset (NTA) per share on a pre-tax basis.
The 42.2% increase in the value of Bailador's investment in Instaclustr to $27.1 million follows the "strong" operating performance of the business over the 12 months to 31 August 2020.
The revaluation was done as at 31 August 2020 and was in accordance with Bailador's valuation policies.
Bailador's other investments include businesses like SiteMinder, DocsCorp, Straker Translations, Brosa, Rezdy and Standard Media Index.
The business said that its pre-tax NTA was $1.30 at the end of August 2020. The post-tax NTA was $1.19 at the end of last month.
