GENERA TO RAISE $5m FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH DIAGNOSTICS
May 2nd 2008 07:12
Wednesday April 30, 2008
Daily news on ASX-listed biotechnology companies
* ASX, BIOTECHS DOWN: OPTISCAN UP 6.5%, POLARTECHNICS DOWN 12%
* PHOSPHAGENICS TPM ANAESTHETIC BEATS CONTROL
* GENERA IPO TO RAISE $5m FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH DIAGNOSTICS
* OPTISCAN BEGINS EUROPEAN MULTI-CENTRE TRIAL
* BIOSIGNAL EGM TO VOTE ON DIRECTORS’ FEES, OPTIONS
* METABOLIC APPOINTS IAIN KIRKWOOD DIRECTOR
* HEARTWARE APPOINTS TIMOTHY BARBERICH DIRECTOR
* CATHRX APPOINTS JAMIE PLATT
* ANZ’S OPES PRIME BIOTECHS: NO SALES, AGAIN
THE MARKET
Ten of the Biotech Daily Top 40 stocks were up, 20 fell, seven were unchanged and three were untraded.
Optiscan was best, up 1.5 cents or 6.52 percent to 24.5 cents on small volumes, followed by Psivida up 6.38 percent to 10 cents and Phosphagenics up 6.06 percent to 17.5 cents.
Polartechnics led the falls, down three cents or 12 percent to 22 cents on moderate volumes, followed by Bionomics down 10 percent to 36 cents.
subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above or at www.biotechdaily.com.au
GENERA BIOSYSTEMS
Genera Biosystems initial public offering to raise $5,000,000 and list on the ASX closes on May 15, 2008.
Genera chief executive officer Dr Allen Bollands told Biotech Daily there had been a positive response to the IPO and he believed most of the funds had been raised.
He said the company had received commitments for most of the $5 million sought in the IPO but was short by about 100 investors of the ASX 400 investor minimum.
Genera hopes to issue up to 10,000,000 shares at 50 cents a share to commercialize molecular diagnostics technologies including DNA detection and genotyping systems, a sensitive, versatile and real-time optical detection system with point-of-testing potential and proprietary interpretive software.
Genera’s prospectus said the technologies originated from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, the Australian Genome Research Facility and the University of Melbourne.
The company is based at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s La Trobe University campus.
The offer opened on April 4, 2008 closes on May 1 and Genera expects trading to begin on May 15 under the ASX code GBI. The lead manager to the issue is Domain Capital.
The prospectus says that following the offer the total number of shares on issue will be 51,191,684 shares giving the company a market capitalization of $25,595,842.
Genera will compete in the $US2.5 billion molecular diagnostics sector, specifically the diagnostics of women’s health.
Genera has an agreement with Sonic Healthcare to assist with studies required by the US Food and Drug Administration. The agreement provides for the potential sale of the Paptype product to Sonic, in the event of their validation of the product.
Sonic holds a significant shareholding in Genera for its assistance with validation studies.
Genera’s Paptype is a diagnostic test for human papillomavirus, the organism responsible for 99.7 percent of cervical cancers. The Paptype test can simultaneously detect and genotype high risk and certain low risk types of HPV from a Pap smear specimen.
Genera said its technologies were adaptable to multiple commercial applications, including medical diagnostics and other critical testing environments.
The pipeline of products includes the Ampasand platform to develop complementary follow up products, with applications in women’s health.
The company has commenced development of a test for Chlamydia and gonorrhoea.
Genera said Paptype was developed from the Ampasand platform.
The board of directors includes non-executive chairman Ferdinando Careri, non-executive director Dr Matthew Harris and executive director Dr Karl Poetter.
Dr Poetter led development of the surface chemistry part of the Ampasand beads, as well as the molecular biology-based applications of the beads. He is the co-inventor of Genera’s QSand technology, with the University of Melbourne’s Paul Mulvaney.
The company secretary is Geoffrey Widmer.
The clinical development advisory board is chaired by Prof Suzanne Garland, who is a professorial fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne and is head of clinical microbiology and infectious diseases at the Royal Women’s Hospital. She is a senior consultant for clinical microbiology at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.
The advisory board includes Prof Ian Frazer the inventor of the technology which enabled the first HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, along with Prof Sepehr Tabrizi, Prof Michael Quinn, Prof Gregory Rice, Prof Paul Mulvaney, Prof Simon Foote and Dr Keith Watson.
CEO Dr Bollands has held senior positions with Smithkline Beecham and Novartis in Australia, Europe and the United States. He has a background in marketing, sales, product development and business development.
subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above or at www.biotechdaily.com.au
| 60 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog