AGENIX REQUESTS ‘UP TO 2 MONTHS’ SUSPENSION
September 1st 2008 01:41
Friday August 29, 2008
Daily news on ASX-listed biotechnology companies
* ASX UP, BIOTECHS DOWN: ACRUX UP 7.5%, POLARTECHNICS DOWN 25%
* AGENIX REQUESTS ‘UP TO 2 MONTHS’ SUSPENSION
* MEDICAL THERAPIES SETS OUT MIDKINE TIMELINE
* RESMED PROFIT UP 66% TO $US110m ON REVENUE UP 17% TO $US835m
* SIRTEX PROFIT DOWN 23% TO $1.2m ON REVENUE UP 13% TO $39.4m
* SELECT VACCINES CEO DR MARTIN SOUST RESIGNS
* SOLAGRAN TAKES 7% OF BIOPROSPECT; REQUESTS 2 BOARD SEATS
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AGENIX
Agenix has requested an immediate suspension for up to two months to clarify its ownership of its recently acquired Shanghai assets.
Agenix said the suspension was required “until such time as clarity on the control [of Chinese assets] issue is attainable to the satisfaction of the directors and our auditors, which we anticipate to be in the period of one to two months”.
The company said the suspension “should end once we release to the ASX our audited annual consolidated financial report for the year ended June 30, 2008.
Agenix company secretary Jeffrey Luckins told Biotech Daily the ASX was comfortable with the potential lengthy suspension and said it could be a shorter time frame than two months.
The company said it was “continuing to take all necessary actions and continue to pursue the necessary options to resolve acquisition of the Chinese operations”.
Agenix formed the view that completion of the preliminary consolidated financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2008 could not be completed in accordance with the ASX Listing Rules.
Agenix said it had a series of contracts which it believed that control of the Chinese operations had been acquired.
The company’s China acquisition recently stalled when it failed to receive a waiver for the completion of the share transaction of a pharmaceutical company from the four percent shareholder, who was also the landlord (see Biotech Daily, July 24, 2008).
Agenix chief executive officer Dr Stephen Phua has taken direct responsibility for the Shanghai based operation.
After taking advice, the board said it was “concerned that it may not technically have obtained control of the Chinese operations”.
“Our auditor has advised the Board that it would not be in a position to issue an opinion on the matter of consolidation until further information is available and the situation can be clarified,” Agenix said.
“This may result in a reversal of the previous accounting treatment,” the company said.
On August 7, 2008 Agenix issued a demand letter to the vendors of the Chinese entities, including a demand on their representatives (see Biotech Daily of that date).
The demand required that these parties remedy certain breaches relating to the Agenix acquisition of the Chinese entities.
Separately, New Zealand’s Intellectual Property Office has granted Agenix a patent covering its Thromboview technology, adding to patents in the US and Singapore.
Agenix said the patent gave “broad coverage for the use of the humanized D-dimer antibody with a range of imaging or therapeutic applications”.
“The intellectual property suite for our Thromboview technology is growing and together with the impressive clinical data gathered to date, will add significant value to our commercialization efforts”, Dr Phua said.
Thromboview is being tested in a multicentre phase II study in Canada and the US against the current standard diagnostic test for its efficacy and safety in the detection of pulmonary embolism.
In 2002, pulmonary embolism had a total of 500,000 events in the US alone and about 30 percent resulted in sudden deaths.
The diagnostic standard is the computerized tomography pulmonary angiography which is effective in the diagnosis but is only demonstrating a ‘filling’ defect in the pulmonary vessel and has a high radiation exposure.
Thromboview is a humanized monoclonal antibody that uses a common radio-isotope to target and detect the 3B6 protein expressed only in fresh clots.
Agenix last traded at 1.7 cents.
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