EDITORIAL: THE YEAR IN REVIEW
February 8th 2010 02:10
Thursday December 17, 2009
Daily news on ASX-listed biotechnology companies
* ASX, BIOTECH UP: PRIMA UP 17%; CELLMID DOWN 7%
* BIOTECH DAILY EDITORIAL: THE YEAR IN REVIEW
* FDA SETS DATE WITH CHEMGENEX IN FEBRUARY 2010
* PHARMAXIS BRONCHITOL CYSTIC FIBROSIS APPLICATION TO TGA
* LEON CARR APPEALS NSW COURT ORDER
* FLUOROTECHNICS RIGHTS ISSUE TO RAISE $1.8m
* BIOTRON SAYS BIT225 CUTS HIV VIRUS LOAD 99% IN VITRO
* ELLEX DOWNGRADES H1 REVENUE FORECAST
* FDA GRANTS CLINUVEL AN ADDITIONAL ORPHAN DRUG DESIGNATION
* GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES EVALUATES BREAST CANCER TEST
* PHYLOGICA REQUESTS PARTNERSHIP TRADING HALT
* CORRECTION: NANOSONICS
* PHOSPHAGENICS INSULIN PATCH ‘ON TRACK FOR 2010 TRIALS’
To read all these articles in full, subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above or at www.biotechdaily.com.au
BIOTECH DAILY EDITORIAL: THE YEAR IN REVIEW
We lost a few companies in 2009, but it was Apollo Life Sciences that claimed the status of the first casualty of the recession that passed us by.
The departures were not Darwinian in the sense that some companies that are not the best in terms of board, management and technologies have survived the law of the economic jungle, while others that may have been “better” companies have failed.
On October 24, 2008 Apollo went into administration and was lost to biotech. More significant was the failure of Ventracor to sprint the last 100 metres of its FDA registration marathon in March 2009.
Dia-B reported its own death prematurely, with two companies claiming to be Pallane Medical squeezing each other out through the back door listing, with the loser the one with Peter King, the Winteray gang, no $12 million and a virus test and the winner was Peter Stafford hoping to take the original diabetes technologies forward.
Biosignal was attacked and eaten by Dr Paul D’Sylva and his Perth-based Empire entrepreneurs metamorphosing from anti-microbial film to actors on film.
Narhex Life Sciences was on life-support itself until its supporting pillar Dr Michael Cohen died suddenly in November. Biotechnology also lost Living Cell founder David Collinson - tragically - as the type 1 diabetes technology gained New Zealand approval and has begun trials. Living Cell is in good shape, but the future of Narhex is uncertain.
The folly of Fermiscan directors focusing on inventor Prof Veronica James instead of developing her breast cancer technology cost the company everything and dragged Polartechnics down with it. Polartechnics is very unwell, but is not dead, yet.
Agenix, once the great $100 million Agen, has been in a suspension since September 2008, but this is all to do with its management and nothing to do with any global recession. The company’s former chief financial officer and chief executive officer Neil Leggett has been facing charges in the Queensland criminal justice system. The Chinese biopharmaceutical companies Agenix thought it bought are proving to be as viral as their remedies.
Companies we thought would have died by now, but have surprised by surviving are Norwood Abbey, OBJ and Rockeby Biomed.
Solagran remains the only quasi-biotechnology company with a dedicated cheerleader contingent despite giving nearly half the company to Opes Prime. We continue to be amazed by the company’s announcements, despite the unexpected departure of director Denis Kilroy and the sudden death of company secretary Peter Stedwell, replaced by his son Justyn in that role. The links to Bioprospect, which boasts Elias Leo ‘The Gun’ Khouri and Snr Sgt Anthony Langdon of Victoria’s Water Police Unit are worthy of attention.
Similarly, Stirling has former career policeman, Peter Boonen, marketing forest-based products from Kiev, except unlike Solagran’s over-the-counter cure-all for liver cancer, alcoholism and Alzheimer’s, it appears that Stirling is merely a distributor rather than owner of the over-the-counter cure-all for influenza, tuberculosis and HIV.
In a merger more like a distressed auction, Cytopia will become part of Toronto’s YM Biosciences, just as Stem Cell Sciences was given up for a song to Stemcells Inc.
Portland Orthopaedics and Advanced Ocular were two more biotechnology losses and Nusep almost became the bigger better longer sex company Nxgen for a prematurely shorter smaller time than most and has returned as a normal ordinary sperm separator.
In good news departures, Arana and Peplin both accepted offers they could not refuse from Cephalon and Leo Pharma, respectively, making most but not all investors very happy.
Big winners improving their market capitalizations by more than 5-fold in the 12 months to November 30, 2009 included Acrux, Avita, Biopharmica, Biota, Genera, Halcygen, Healthlinx, Nanosonics, Prima and, Unilife, with many others more than doubling their share prices and market capitalizations during the year.
At last count, biotechnology companies raised more than $426 million in the year to November 30, 2009, while the total raised, including biotechnology institutions, was more than $600 million - or an average of $50 million a month.
Biotech Daily has taken an activist role on several issues in 2009, strongly advocating that the Federal Government begin to comprehend that the sector was worthy of significant investment. So far we have not been successful in winning the hearts and minds of the Federal Government and its advisers. The efforts have continued since unveiling of the less-than-radical Commercialisation Australia and will be redoubled in 2010. Biotech Daily has also written submissions on taxation policy, corporate governance and the roles of the ASX and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Biotech Daily’s last edition for the year will be published tomorrow and we return on January 18, 2010. There will be a modest subscription price increase in the New Year.
We wish all our subscribers and readers a very relaxing Summer holiday break, Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas and Summer Solstice.
David Langsam, Editor
Marc Sinatra, Analyst
To read all these articles in full, subscribe to Biotech Daily at the link above or at www.biotechdaily.com.au
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