australia has a big impact in Chicago

Transcription

australasian
Journal of AusBiotech
Australia’s Biotechnology Organisation
VOLUME 16 • NUMBER 1 • MAY 2006
AusBioFEATURE
Australia has a big impact in Chicago
BIO Chicago 2006 Debrief
AusBioFEATURE
Tasmania
Emerging Bio - Extraction Hub
REGULAR FEATURES:
AusBioTALK Wallaby milk contains powerful weapon against Human super bugs
AusBioBUSINESS Federal budget cements future for Australian Biotechnology
AusBioSTOCKS Stock report with Joanna Hill from Lands Kirwan Tong Stockbrokers
AusBioGRAPHY In depth interview with Dr Stewart Washer, CEO Phylogica Ltd.
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ABIC 2006 will deliver an outstanding event for all. Together with
AusBiotech, the hosting state Victoria and our major sponsors, the ABIC
Foundation looks forward to welcoming you to the beautiful city of
Melbourne, Australia.
ABIC 2006 will provide the opportunity for public and private
organisations to explore the drivers of and barriers to
research, development, innovation
and commercialisation in this
exciting and dynamic agbio
sector.
For more information
and to register NOW
visit www.abic2006.org
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Contents
Welcome
4
AusBioFEATURE
BIO Chicago 2006 Debrief 6
Australia has a big impact in Chicago
6
Highlights of Bill Clinton’s keynote address at BIO Chicago 2006 8
Asia Pacific to get its own ‘Virtual’ Biotech Marketplace
9
Tasmania – the Emerging BioExtraction Hub
10
Marinova
11
Tasmanian Alkaloids
12
Alternate sources of Omega-3 oils
13
Botanical Resources 14
AusBioTALK 15
AusBioBUSINESS
20
AusBioSTOCK
25
AusBioNEWSBOARD
30
AusBioINTERNATIONAL
36
AusBioEVENTS
39
AusBioSTATES
44
AusBioNICHE
48
AusBioPEOPLE
56
AusBioGRAPHY
62
Cover – Mr James C. Greenwood BIO President & CEO welcomes
Bill Clinton as keynote speaker, Bio Chicago 2006
Advanced Labs
Thomson Pharma
ABIC2006
2
9, 14
AusBiotech 2006
41
AusBiotech 2006
47
Pathtech
Level 1, 322 Glenferrie Road Malvern Vic 3144
Telephone: (03) 9828 1400
Fax: (03) 9824 5188
Email: [email protected]
www: ausbiotech.org
Advertising
For advertising enquiries, please contact
Andrew Jackson – Digital Image
Level 2, 181 Fitzroy Street St Kilda Vic 3182
Telephone: (03) 9537 0588
Fax: (03) 9537 0577
www.digital-image.com.au
Editorial Contributions
Please contact the Editor:
Jennifer Cook – AusBiotech
Telephone: (03) 9828 1405
Facsimile: (03) 9824 5188
The information, opinions and advice in this
journal are given in good faith and, while all
care has been exercised to ensure that the
information is accurate, no responsibility can
be accepted for errors, or loss or damage
from business decisions arising from the use
of information contained in this publication,
and the publishers hereby exclude all liability
be it contractual tortious or otherwise.
21
37
QSV Biologics
AusBiotech
34, 35
RMIT
IMBcom
Australasian Biotechnology reports on
research and business news within the
biotechnology arena and is published
4 times a year. AusBiotech members
receive the journal as part of their
membership benefits.
Publisher’s Disclaimer
Advertiser Index
ABIC2006
Australasian Biotechnology is the official
journal of AusBiotech – Australia’s
Biotechnology Organisation.
55
Outside Back Cover
Insert
Volume 16 No 1 May 2006 Australasian Biotechnology
Welcome
From the
Chairman
Welcome to the first edition of the new
look Australasian Biotechnology.
International outreach and access to
Australian biotechnology continues to
expand. Later this year The Agricultural
Biotechnology International Conference
(ABIC) 2006 will be held in Melbourne in
August 2006, hosted by AusBiotech and
sponsored by the Victorian Government.
This international congress will focus
attention on agricultural biotechnology
and new innovations in this sector.
Australia has much to gain from these
new technologies, particularly in the areas
of soil health, reduction in topsoil erosion,
advances in crop production in saltaffected areas and animal management
and health.
As former President Clinton explained to a packed auditorium
at BIO2006 – society advances through science, argument
and adoption. To do otherwise allows sectorial ideologies to
inhibit the benefits to the community
Stem cell research, genetically modified agricultural products
and broad adoption of biodiscovery policies, are current
examples where Australia has had leading scientific positions
but has failed to translate this front running into economic
and social advantage.
Our challenge is to develop the forums for the “argument”
that must be thrashed out before adoption of new science
and technologies.
To support this process, AusBiotech has formed a number
of key alliances. One such alliance is with Medicines Australia
and Generic Medicines Association in the Pharmaceutical
Industry Council (PIC). This body enhances our advocacy role
in one of the important sectors (nearly 50% of listed biotechs
are in this space). Similarly, the AusBiotech Board is reviewing
participation in other alliances that leverage the “argument”.
Simon Carroll – Chairman
Australia has a world-recognised strength in science and the
development of new technologies. However, this leadership
position is constantly eroded due to uncertainty on the road
to adoption of these technologies by the community and
regulatory bodies. How does Australia efficiently develop
technologies that require community and regulatory approval
along the path to market?
Australia has one of the most attentive regulatory systems
in the world. We are a key opinion leader in international
discussions and debates governing regulatory systems and
an early adopter of new policies and guidelines. Translating
these policies into practice in a way that is supportive of
innovation is our challenge.
Dr Simon Carroll
Chairman AusBiotech
Australasian Biotechnology Volume 16 No 1 May 2006
From the
CEO
It is a pleasure to report to you that AusBiotech is
strengthening its focus and influence in a number of key
areas which support members. This year has seen an
increase in AusBiotech’s engagement with media coverage
of biotechnology and other issues that have broad impact
such as legislation, regulation, taxation, government
program changes and tendered projects.
In the past months there has been demonstrable
consolidation of the organisation and changes to staffing
which reflect the needs of members. For example, a role
dedicated to Medical Devices has been established and will
support the work of the Medical Devices Action Agenda.
Announcements from member companies have been
very impressive during 2006 with great clinical trial results,
successful mergers and new partnerships. AusBiotech is
working hard to support members in all stages of the value
chain and in all sectors from bioinformatics and human health
through to agbiotech, fermentation and medical devices.
From the Editor
I can hear the cork being eased out of the champagne
bottle as we go to print on the first new look edition of
Australasian Biotechnology.
There have been a number of big changes as AusBiotech
has brought the production of the journal in-house including
the management of the journal’s advertising.
A new style has been applied to the journal with more indepth articles and dedicated sections to give our readers a
full account of the biotech sector.
Not only has the content changed but we have also
changed the layout. The design is clear and uncluttered
with increased white space, a clearer font and printed on
satin stock to improve readability. In this issue we have
also included as a special supplement a CD copy of
AusBiotech’s 2006 Directory of Australian Biotech.
We have also chosen Finsbury Green Printing – the first
successfully established environmental printing brand in
Australia. Finsbury uses inks that are vegetable based, the key
components being soya, and linseed oil, which are made from
renewable sources. The journal is produced on paper certified
by the Forest Stewardship Council and carries the FSC
trademark, the international benchmark for sustainable paper.
This paper is produced using 55% recycled content and 45%
2006 has seen significant steps forward in all these areas
of biotechnology. Our key upcoming events will provide an
excellent opportunity to showcase Australian innovation
and commercialisation of innovation to a very interested
international audience.
During the current company reporting period it will be
interesting to observe price movements and also whether the
AusBiotech ASX Code of Best Practice Reporting is useful for
CEO’s. As you are aware, Professor Michael Vitale is examining
the question of useability and impact. The results will inform
the Review Committee when considering changes and the
outcome will be communicated to member companies.
You will find in this edition reference to announced government
policy and a comment on the recent federal government
budget. Government continues to demonstrate an active
interest in biotechnology, this interest is evident at the research
and development stage as well as the investment phase.
You will also discover a number of regular features and two
feature pieces; one on the BIO conference and the other
showcasing a number of Tasmanian technologies. It is our
intention to listen to your feedback about the new look and
future features, so that any adjustments required can be
made by July, when the next edition will be distributed.
Anna Lavelle - CEO
“If biotechnology and medical devices matter to your
business, shouldn’t you be an AusBiotech member?”
FSC certified fibre from softwood grown specifically for paper
production and is elemental chlorine free.
In the printing of this journal, no isopropyl alcohol and no
solvent based cleaning products have been used which
helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Finsbury Green
Printing is Australia’s only carbon neutral printer and
operates under world’s best practice ISO14001:2004
Environmental Management and ISO9001:2000 Quality
Management Systems.
We have continued our environmental focus through to the
selection of an environmentally friendly mail house. Profile
Marketing supports environmental printing and will mail out
the journals in envelopes made from recycled paper to reduce
the use of plastic wrap. The paper envelope will also reduce
waste by eliminating a mailing cover sheet as all mailing
information is printed directly on the covering envelope.
Advertising is vital in order to support the publication of
this dedicated industry journal. AusBiotech now manages
all adverting in Australasian Biotechnology. Members
who advertise in our journal receive a 10% discount on
advertising rates. For more details see our Advertising rates
on page 61.
We hope you like our new look journal and look forward to
your comments and continuing contributions.
Jennifer Cook – Editor
AusBioFEATURE
BIO Chicago 2006 Debrief –
Australia has a big
impact in Chicago
Making News at BIO2006
In addition to providing an environment for deal making and knowledge transfer,
BIO is often used by State and Federal Governments as an international backdrop
for major biotech policy, funding and scientific announcements.
This year was no exception with announcements from a
number of state governments.
The Federal Government did not make any major
announcements at BIO, however an integrated package
of initiatives that will impact across the biotech value chain
was announced as part of the 2006 Federal Budget.
For further information on the Federal Budget see
Barry Marshall and Robin Warren had been chosen as
ambassadors to promote WA’s biotechnology industry on
the international stage.
The funding for the initiative of $850,000 per year for three
years will also support gastroenterology clinical work at Sir
Charles Gardiner Hospital and related work at the University
of WA as well as assisting in the establishment of the Office
of Nobel Laureates that was founded by Barry Marshall.
Professor Marshall’s first duty as ambassador was to
accompany Premier Carpenter and the WA delegation of 24
companies to BIO2006.
Just days before leaving for BIO, the Victorian Premier,
Steve Bracks, together with Innovation Minister, John
Brumby and Health Minister Bronwyn Pike announced
a $230 million injection of funds into the Victorian life
sciences sector.
The policy statement, Healthy Futures, includes initiatives
designed to support Victoria’s push to become one of
the top 5 biotechnology locations in the world by 2010.
Headline projects announced were:
•$53 million to establish a new Australian Centre
for Neuroscience and Mental Health Research;
•$35 million for a new Australian Regenerative
Medicine Institute;
Crowds at the Australian Pavillion
AusBiotech’s analysis “Federal Budget Cements Future
for Australian Biotechnology” in the AusBioBUSINESS
section of this journal.
The Western Australian Premier, Alan Carpenter, used
the run up to BIO to announce that Nobel Laureates
•$16 million for a new ‘Super Institute’ for infectious
diseases with the merger of the Austin Research
Institute and the Burnet Institute;
•Support for the expansion of the WEHI; and
•$1 million to support an industry partnership to establish
a new bioprocessing facility in Victoria.
With reports from companies that
this year Australian exhibitors at
BIO2006 have attracted in excess
of $2 billion in deals and prospective
leads, BIO’s apparent ability to
encourage governments to focus on
biotechnology and support needed
programs is turning out to be an
added annual bonus for the
Australian biotechnology sector.
San Diego, which will allow both centres access to
research facilities and staff as well as undertaking a
regular exchange program to fast-track research and
knowledge transfer;
•$3 million towards a collaborative research project
between the Department of Primary Industries and the
US Venter Institute to sequence the DNA of soil; and
•a major expansion of medical device company Aortech
Biomaterial’s manufacturing plant in Melbourne.
During the conference the Queensland Government made
several funding and policy announcements to add to its $1.5
billion investment in life sciences since 1998. These included:
•the signing of a Statement of Intent between Queensland
and Washington State to foster collaborative research and
exchange of ideas between Queensland and Washington
State universities;
•the allocation of $2.2 million in major biotech project grants
for joint university and business biotechnology projects to:
These investments build on the $1.6 million that has been
committed by the Victorian Government to life sciences
infrastructure and capabilities over the past 6 years including
the Synchrotron, Bio21 and the Australian Stem Cell Centre.
The big question that wasn’t answered by Healthy Futures,
is whether Victoria will join the bidding war for the mammalian
cell production facility that is to be established somewhere
in Australia with the assistance of a $10 million grant from
the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth expectation is
that the State that wants the facility will at least match their
funding commitment. To date the Queensland Government
has been preparing the way for a cell production facility and
would be keen to see it based in Queensland. Industry has
for sometime been pushing for a mammalian cell production
facility as Australia badly needs this support to enable
progress of clinical work in Australia.
The Victorian Government also used BIO to announce:
•the findings of an independent report – The Victorian Life
Sciences Industry Update prepared by Blake Industry and
Market Analysis - which shows that Victoria’s publicly listed
life sciences sector is now valued at $16.4 billion, a 50%
increase over 2004-05 figures;
•the signing of a MoU between Victoria and the Canadian
province of Manitoba, which will focus on building strategic
alliances between research institutions and businesses
working in biosecurity research, diagnostics and pest
and disease management;
•an agreement between the Australian Stem Cell Centre
and Monash University and the University of California
>University of Queensland and Bio-Layer to develop new
technology to improve the diagnosis of CHD and other
human diseases;
>University of Queensland and private international
partners for developing a set of new preclinical
drug testing tools; and
> Queensland University of Technology and its private
partners to develop a pilot sugarcane-based
biorefinery plant.
•$3.3 million to fund three collaborative biotechnology
projects involving national and international partners:
>University of Queensland’s International Biomaterials
Research Alliance received over $1 million to develop
new technologies in dental bone repair, vascular
regeneration, vision and medical imaging for monitoring
biological processes inside the human body;
> the Facility for Advanced Bioinfomatics alliance also
based at the University of Queensland received $1.9
million to establish a new Queensland Facility for
Advanced Bioinfomatics; and
>the Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies
at Griffith University received $300,000 for its Genome
Network of Stem Cells.
With reports from companies that this year Australian
exhibitors at BIO2006 have attracted in excess of $2 billion
in deals and prospective leads, BIO’s apparent ability to
encourage governments to focus on biotechnology and
support needed programs is turning out to be an added
annual bonus for the Australian biotechnology sector.
AusBioFEATURE
Highlights of Bill Clinton’s
keynote address at BIO
Chicago 2006
President Clinton Highlights
Use of Biotechnology to
Improve Agriculture and
the Environment, and
Alleviate Disease
Agricultural Biotechnology Will Play a
Significant Role in Feeding and Healing
Developing Countries.
CHICAGO – Speaking on April 11 at the BIO 2006
International Annual Convention, Former President Bill
Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, discussed the
importance of biotechnology in addressing food security and
health issues in the developing world.
“The first obligation of society is to feed its people,” said
Clinton. “Biotechnology can help us feed more people while
addressing environmental concerns such as global climate
change.”
Clinton also discussed the importance of efficiently managing
agricultural production. Climate change and top soil erosion
are two key aspects of environmental health that agricultural
biotechnology can address. The third is energy policy.
“I’m proud to have supported the development of crops
improved through biotechnology and the creation of sciencebased regulations during my Administration. These crops
reduce inputs, allow us to grow more food on less land, and
easily transfer technology to people in the developing world.
When we empower individuals to feed and care for their
families, it is a good thing.”
“All of these applications of biotechnology – agricultural,
environmental, energy, medical – have the potential to lift
people out of poverty. This integration of communities will
lead to greater global security.”
Former US President Bill Clinton giving the keynote address.
“President Clinton is a tireless advocate for many of the
challenging issues that face mankind such as global health,
and ending poverty and hunger in developing nations,”
said James C. Greenwood, president and CEO of the
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). “As President
Clinton emphasized today, biotechnology has the potential to
improve the world for future generations.”
Seven thousand delegates attended the lunchtime address
where President Clinton urged delegates to encourage their
own politicians and other people of influence within their
communities to support the industry.
Asia Pacific to get its own
‘Virtual’ Biotech Marketplace
While the scientific program at BIO is
universally considered to be world-class,
it is more often the deal-broking,
networking and access to international
dollars and expertise that pays real
dividends for the delegations that attend.
At this year’s conference, an idea to provide another forum
for international networking and interaction moved a step
closer to becoming a reality – the establishment of an Asia
Pacific Biotechnology Network.
During BIO, AusBiotech convened the first meeting of
interested parties to discuss what such a Network might
look like and how to move the idea forward that was first
canvassed at AusBiotech 2005.
Attending this inaugural meeting were Industry Association
representatives from Australia, India, Taiwan, Thailand,
New Zealand, Japan, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.
Although not in attendance at this meeting, both South Korea
and Malaysia have subsequently added their support.
All participants agreed a number of specific guiding principles
for the Network:
•The Asia Pacific Biotechnology Network would
be business focussed.
•The Secretariat function for the Network could be
based in Australia.
•There would be membership reciprocity between
member Associations.
•An annual regional meeting would be convened and
Australia expressed interest in hosting such an event.
Central to the Network will be the development of a ‘virtual’
Asia Pacific Biotechnology marketplace. This marketplace
will be facilitated through a web-based database and will
be accessible to members of participating Associations and
Organisations only.
The database will provide information on a member
company’s or institution’s product and R&D portfolio together
with other relevant financial information. Other members
seeking partners or services will be able to search the
database and make direct contact with appropriate matches.
The database will be accessed either directly through the
Asia Pacific Biotechnology Network’s website or through
each participating Association or Organisation’s own website.
Over the next few months AusBiotech will coordinate the
design and building of the website and together with the
participating countries will develop terms of reference for
the Network and confirm the milestones for establishing
this exciting initiative.
Updates on progress will be provided to AusBiotech
members through its regular e-newsletter and future
issues of Australasian Biotechnology.
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AusBioFEATURE
Tasmania – the Emerging
BioExtraction Hub
The island state of Tasmania is emerging as a key Australian biotech extraction hub. Tasmania’s natural advantages
of biosecurity, biopurity, fertile agricultural land, clean temperate waters and climate, have attracted high value extract
crop producers to the state, and have encouraged new internal businesses to flourish. Positioned in the southernmost latitudes of Australia, Tasmania enjoys long summer days which enables plants such as poppies, pyrethrum
and hops to accumulate greater quanities of high value extractives. Activity is not limited to the land, with significant
effort invested in biota present in the pristine Tasmanian waters. Tasmanian growers implement world’s best practice
ensuring their products meet the exacting standards of the industry. This integrated network of bioextraction growers
provides significant added value to the Tasmanian economy. Large international companies such as GlaxoSmithKline
and Johnson & Johnson have been drawn to the state for the primary production and development of some of their
key compounds. International interest in the ‘pure’ island state continues to grow.
Tasmania has established itself as a state of environmental excellence and has sought to protect its environment
from external disease, pollutants and foreign species inhabitation. The relaxed lifestyle, world class science facilities
and expertise, unique flora and fauna and outstanding environmental conditions has set the scene for a globallycompetitive future for the state in the biotech sector.
Three Tasmanian extraction businesses, Tasmanian Alkaloids Pty Ltd, Botanical Resources Australia Pty Ltd
and Marinova Pty Ltd, are examples of innovative bioextration companies who are leaders in their field. Another
outstanding example of world class science underway in Tasmania is work done by CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric
Research on Omega-3 oils.
10
Marinova
Hobart based Marinova is a company that has fully embraced
the concept of growth through independent equity.
Under the guidance of CEO Paul Garrott, Marinova has
evolved from a seaweed harvesting operation to an extraction
and fractionation enterprise with a core R&D competency.
The company’s focus is now set on expansion into both the
human pharmaceutical and nutraceutical sectors.
“The nutritional side of our business gives us a consistent
cash flow, allowing us to pursue early stage pharmaceutical
trials without a complete dependence on external capital,”
commented Paul Garrott.
“Part of the reason our company is profitable and doing quite
well is that we have a diversified approach to how we do
business. That’s our business model – we balance risk.”
“Through fractionation of GFS, we have produced
pharmaceutical grade novel molecules of varied molecular
weights, and have the capacity to produce fucoidans
targeted at specific therapeutic activity,” said Dr Helen Fitton,
Senior Research Scientist at Marinova.
In 2005 the successful production of a targeted GFS fraction
led to collaboration with a Canadian medical device company,
and a joint venture to develop a GFS based post-surgical
device. Having successfully completed animal models and
initial toxicity trials, Phase I trials are now being initiated.
Marinova also has a substantial portfolio of anti-viral data
on its fucoidan products, and is now capitalizing on the
products’ unique combination of low toxicity and potent
activity against Herpes and HIV.
It is the North American nutraceutical market that provided
Marinova with its early commercial success. Through
successful extraction of galactofucan sulphate (GFS), a
novel polysaccharide found in Undaria pinnatifida, Marinova
formed a relationship with Mannatech, a leader in the world
glyconutrition market.
Following the successful commercialization of a GFS
containing nutraceutical supplement in 2004, Marinova was
in a position to invest in a preclinical program investigating
the efficacy of GFS across a range of anti-inflammatory,
oncological and anti-viral indications.
Dried seaweed spores prior to
extraction and the creamy coloured
dried powder that is produced as
a result of the extraction process.
The seaweed powder can either
be custom blended or undergo
an extraction process to obtain a
certain GFS percentage
Harvesting Undaria pinnatifida off the East Coast of Tasmania.
11
AusBioFEATURE
Tasmanian
Alkaloids
Nestled near the historic town of Westbury
in the state’s north, Tasmanian Alkaloids
is an excellent example of integration
between technology and the rural
environment.
Tasmanian Alkaloids is recognised as the largest
manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients in
Australia and is the largest exporter of codeine and
thebaine in the world.
The company employs over 200 people including scientists,
engineers, technicians, operators, tradespeople and
administrative support. The team also includes farmers;
contracted for the production of the annual poppy crops,
and field officers who work closely with farmers throughout
the year to ensure top quality harvest results.
Poppies are grown on a three-year crop rotation cycle.
Sowing is in spring (September), flowering in early summer
(December) and harvest in mid-summer (February). Following
harvest, the poppy seed is separated and sold in a clean,
natural condition for the spice trade.
Separated poppy straw, containing alkaloids, enters the
extraction facility where the alkaloids are removed from
the plant material by a warm solvent percolation system.
The final product is called Concentrate of Poppy Straw.
Tasmanian Alkaloids produces two types of Concentrate
of Poppy Straw; one has as its main component morphine,
the other main component is thebaine.
Morphine is converted into codeine. Thebaine is converted
into a range of strong analgesics such as oxycodone and
buprenorphine.
Agricultural Research Scientist Dr James Miller said that his
team was working to better understand alkaloid production
by the poppy plant in order to maximise the content of the
required alkaloids in commercial crops. New technologies
12
Poppy crop Papaver somniferum.
are employed wherever possible to maximise the crop
improvement program. In addition to research into poppy
genetics and breeding methods, work is undertaken on
crop nutrition, crop husbandry and crop protection.
Processes are investigated in detail to define robust and
capable manufacturing procedures which consistently
deliver products with tightly defined and controlled quality
characteristics. A dedicated KiloLab facility ensures smooth
scale-up from the R&D laboratory to the manufacturing
facility where the process is validated and locked-in.
Tasmanian Alkaloids’ strategy for the development of new
products and their desire to remain an innovative market
force is realised by working closely with their customers
and partners.
CSIRO – Alternate
sources of
Omega-3 oils
Long-chain Omega-3 oils are mainly derived from seafood
and play an important role in human nutrition, including
development in infants. These oils are beneficial against a
range of human disorders such as coronary heart disease,
rheumatoid arthritis and hypertension. Against an increasing
understanding by nutritionists on the beneficial effects of
these oils, global fisheries are generally acknowledged to
be threatened and in some case unsustainable, indicating
a need for new and sustainable sources of the Omega-3 oils.
New sources of these valuable oils would reduce pressure
on declining fish resources worldwide and provide Australian
biotechnology companies with new microalgal derived
products and grain growers with new high-value crops.
The CSIRO Food Futures Flagship Omega-3 project involves
research teams from Divisions based in Hobart, Canberra
and other centres. In the short to mid term, single cell oilproducing microalgae are being examined, with a longer term
approach involving development of high value grains and
resultant oilseeds that provide substantiated health benefits
to consumers.
Omega-3 oils from fermentation
Microalgae and other marine microorganisms are the
natural Omega-3 factories of the sea. It is often not widely
appreciated that fish do not make these beneficial Omega3 oils, rather the microalgae do; the beneficial oils are
then passed up the food-chain to fish, and then humans.
Microalgae therefore offer a renewable source of Omega-3
oils for use in human and animal diets, depending on how
well they adapt to life in large-scale culture facilities.
Marine micro organism strains which have been recently
isolated by CSIRO are to be evaluated by an industry
partner – Clover Corporation - for their potential to produce
Omega-3 oils in large scale fermenters. Under laboratory
conditions the strains are efficient producers of the valuable
long chain Omega-3 oils docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and
eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) which are not produced by
land plants. This research is being performed in collaboration
with the Bioproducts CRC with funding from a Food
Innovation Grant.
Land plants
The Food Futures Flagship project also aims to isolate,
characterise and transfer new long chain polyunsaturated
fatty acids (LC-PUFA) genes from Australian microalgae
to land plants. Research to date has surveyed a range of
microalgal classes for their LC-PUFA profiles. A suite of
desaturase and elongase genes have been successfully
transferred to the model plant Arabidopsis, with EPA and
DHA having been produced in seed oil, the latter for the
first time. With further development, omega-3 LC-PUFA oils
from higher plants – seed oil and grains - offer alternative
sources of these essential PUFA for use in human nutrition,
biomedical applications and aquaculture and other feeds.
The incidence of type-II diabetes, colorectal cancer and
cardio-vascular disease is increasing rapidly in developing
nations. Therefore, these novel grains may provide significant
health benefits to these nations, while opening up further
market opportunities for Australia. Such novel grains are
more suited to the needs of the processing industry and
address growing consumer demands for healthy foods and
raw ingredients. For the rural economy, they provide the
opportunity for Australian farmers to move away from the
intensely competitive, low price end of the grain market.
They will allow Australian farmers to be among the first
primary producers to capture emerging, high-value
market niches.
Thraustochytrids are a source of single cell oils. Individual species can show
great diversity in cellular morphology and can occur in single cells to clusters
of cells, with complex reticulate forms and motile stages also occurring.
more info:
http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/ps3u,,.html
http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/pspx,,.html
13
AusBioFEATURE
Botanical
Resources
Forty per cent of the world’s pyrethrum
is grown and harvested by Botanical
Resources Australia (BRA) in the stunningly
scenic north-west of Tasmania.
However, it is BRA’s research capability and focus on
innovation, not its location that is breaking ground in the
health biotech industry.
Manager of Product Development Brian Chung said “BRA
is continually working to be the best in the world in crop
production and harvesting, in manufacturing process and
quality control, and in product and market development”.
In BRA’s core area of pyrethrum, the company is
researching ways to improve crop storage and post-harvest
management and to find more growth opportunities for
A Pyrethrum crop growing in Tasmania.
the product. It is developing more effective methods of
using pyrethrum with particular emphasis on resistance
management.
Pyrethrum is the world’s oldest known naturally occurring
insecticide and is used around the world to control all types
of insects, including mosquitoes, flies, garden pests, and
head lice.
Operations Manager Matthew Greenhill said “a lot of
existing pyrethrum products contain a synthetic form of
pyrethrum synergist called piperonyl butoxide, but the
presence of a synthetic ingredient restricts access to
important markets, such as the organic markets”.
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14
BRA is also applying the specialist skills and resources it has
developed in working with pyrethrum to other medicinal crops.
The company grows Australia’s largest echinacea crop, a
herb that has been proven to stimulate the body’s immune
system. In addition, BRA has also been researching
artemesia, since the World Health Organisation recently
recommended it as a preferred treatment for malaria.
There has been a lot of research done on tropical and
sub-tropical plants but not a lot is known about the health
applications of plants from temperate climates, such as
native plants in Tasmania.
BRA would like to take a whole lot of Tasmanian native
plants and screen their extracts against a range of tests
to determine what properties they may have, such as
insecticidal, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal ingredients.
In the long term the company plans to develop a database
of the medicinal properties of a range of native plants, and
work with other companies and research organisations to
explore commercial opportunities.
AusBioTALK
A strong dose of regulation for
pharmaceuticals sector
Companies operating in the pharmaceuticals
and medical devices sectors will need to be
extra vigilant in maintaining good business
and risk management practices following
changes to the regulatory regime under
which they operate, according to a leading
corporate lawyer.
Clayton Utz partner Ms Robyn Baker says amendments to
the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 which come into effect this
week present a serious corporate governance challenge for
companies in affected sectors and warns them to ensure they
properly understand the Act’s requirements or potentially risk
severe consequences.
A former adviser to government in the area of health, Ms Baker
says one of the major changes to the regime is that company
directors and managers are now exposed to personal liability
where they fail to ensure the company’s employees, agents and
contractors are across the Act’s requirements.
Companies will also need to take extra care to ensure the
accuracy of statements and information provided to the
Therapeutic Goods Administration, the regulatory authority
that oversees compliance with the Act, or risk attracting heavy
penalties. Companies also risk possible reputational damage
given the TGA’s broader powers to release information to the
public on breaches of the Act.
Ms Baker says the personal liability provisions raise a particular
concern for those involved in the day-to-day management of
companies operating in these sectors. “In failing to take steps
to adequately educate their own employees and ensure that
their agents and contractors understand what the company’s
obligations are under the Act, management may find themselves
on the wrong end of the law,” says Ms Baker.
The new provisions imposing personal liability are sections 54B
and 54C of the Act. Under those sections, any-one involved in
the management of the business may be found personally liable
if they knew the company would breach the Act and were in a
position to influence its conduct but failed to take ‘reasonable
steps’ to prevent the breach.
Possible breaches include a failure to comply with
manufacturing standards and failing to inform the Therapeutic
Goods Administration of issues with the quality, safety or
efficacy of a pharmaceutical good or device.
Certain breaches (such as non-compliance with standards) carry
a maximum criminal penalty for individuals of $440,000 and up
to 5 years imprisonment and a civil penalty of $550,000.
In determining what are ‘reasonable steps’, the court will be
asked to consider what action the director or manager took
to ensure the company’s employees, agents and contractors
had a ‘reasonable knowledge and understanding’ of the Act’s
requirements.
“Directors and managers who take a ‘head in the sand’ approach
to compliance with the Act now stand to suffer enormous
personal consequences. This is a very significant measure which
places them at the front line of the increasingly demanding
obligations of corporate governance in Australia,” Ms Baker says.
“The new laws also stand to drastically impact the way in which
companies in the pharmaceuticals and medical devices sectors
do business. It may no longer be enough for the company to
have a blanket provision in its underlying contracts (such as
contract manufacturing agreements) that require a third party to
comply with the Act and relevant standards. The company be it
a pharmaceuticals manufacturer or sponsor should now ensure
it has hard evidence that those acting on behalf of their business
understand the Act’s requirements.”
Ms Baker describes the new regime as a ‘carrot and stick’
approach aimed at encouraging companies to examine their
own internal practices to ensure compliance with the Act rather
than waiting for a breach to happen.
“Affected companies would be well advised, if they haven’t
already, to take all necessary steps to ensure they have the
appropriate systems and documentation in place not only to
ensure they avoid breaching the Act but also to protect their
management from personal liability ,” Ms Baker adds.
The proposed changes were prompted by the Pan
Pharmaceuticals recall, which raised concerns that the existing
regulatory regime was inadequate. Ms Baker says that while the
amendments significantly strengthen the regime by expanding
the power of the Therapeutic Goods Administration to enforce
the Act’s provisions, they are a double-edged sword for
companies and their management.
“The full impact of the changes will not be clear however until the
Act has been in operation for a while,” Ms Baker says.
Other changes under the Act include a tiered regime of criminal
offences with new maximum penalties of up to $440,000 and
5 years imprisonment, civil penalties of up to $550,000 for
individuals and $5.5 million for companies applicable to certain
existing offences, infringement notices as an alternative to
prosecution and provision for enforceable undertakings.
For further details contact Clayton Utz www.claytonutz.com
15
AusBioTALK
The AusBiotech ASX Code
of Best Practice for Reporting
by Life Science Companies
In late 2005, AusBiotech and the ASX launched the Code
of Best Practice for Reporting by Life Science Companies,
which for purposes of brevity can be shortened to ‘the
Code’. The Code serves to guide listed life science
companies as they observe a greater set of rules, otherwise
known as the Listing Rules, including rules and principle of
continuous disclosure. Adherence to the Code is voluntary.
The continuous disclosure regime requires companies to
immediately disclose information to the market that is likely
to have a material effect on the price or value of a security.
(Securities are shares or other traded instruments or
derivatives, such as options).
The stock market has one phenomenally powerful incentive
for stock owners to buy and sell parcels of shares in
companies or other entities: liquidity. Cash is the most liquid
of assets. Property is very ill-liquid. Selling a residential
property takes months. In contrast, shares in companies
listed on a strong exchange such as the ASX can be sold
in minutes, if not seconds, when buyers and sellers agree
on a price.
For the system to work, for the primary benefit of liquidity
to be maintained, the exchange must have integrity. Buyers
and sellers must have sufficient trust in the exchange so
that process of buying and selling is not unduly and unfairly
biased towards one set of participants over another, nor is it
perceived to be so.
By requiring listed companies to disclose information on
a continuous basis, the market’s integrity is strengthened.
No market, and no stock market is perfect, but the
continuous disclosure requirement has worked well to
the benefit of companies and investors.
The development of a reporting code for life science
companies is a practical means for listed life science
companies to work sensibly and comfortably within the
ASX’s listing rules, where the generality of the listing rules
may have given rise to variability in interpretation of those
rules. Hence, the Code is a reporting framework that will
engender consistency in reporting. Is this a good thing?
16
CODE OF
BEST PRACTICE
for Reporting by Life Science Companies
Absolutely, because the confidence of investors will
increase as they receive announcements that make more
sense, are subject to less hype, and include details that
can be meaningfully compared and analysed. And as the
Code it states “to provide investors and the market with
full and accurate information on their activities”.
reflection of the dynamic nature of the life sciences sector.
An ongoing review mechanism means that both positive
and negative feedback can be obtained in a timely and
convenient manner so that any formal changes to the code
in the future are effected quickly, simply and economically.
The Code is more than a set of a words on paper.
One could argue that it marks the transition of the listed
Australian drug and device development sector from an
immature, anything goes investment fad, to a sector with
a real eye on building sustainable businesses over the long
term that generate significant returns to the shareholders.
David Blake
David Blake is a Co-editor of Bioshares. He is a member
of the ASX AusBiotech Biotechnology Company Reporting
Code Review Committee.
What is in the Code?
The Code of Best Practice for Reporting by Life Science
Companies discusses the reporting of intellectual property
rights matters, licensing and other relationships of
commercial significance, regulatory matters, research and
development activities, clinical trials (and especially including
the announcement of results), manufacturing, and key staff
appointments and departures. Recognition is also made
of the differences that apply to medical device, ag-biotech
and animal health companies, and the consequent need
for different reporting requirements.
History
The ASX AusBiotech Code of Best Practice for Reporting by
Life Science Companies was formally launched in October
2005. A draft version of the code had been in circulation
from April 2004. The draft represented the deliberations of
a working group formed in 2003 that drew representatives
from AusBiotech, the ASX, listed life science firms, the
biotech analyst community and from other parties with an
interest in the sector.
What is happening now?
The ASX and AusBiotech have established a committee to
review the performance of the Code, with the first meeting
held recently in Sydney. One more meeting is scheduled
for 2006. The committee is chaired by Mike Hirshorn from
Nanyang Ventures, and hosted by the ASX. The committee’s
task is to review the scope, relevance and workability of the
Code, co-incident with its uptake and day-to-day application
by life science companies. The introduction of a review
mechanism sooner, rather than later is sensible strategy for
getting the best out of a voluntary reporting code, and is a
Reporting Season
Are you Prepared?
What is Real and What is Hype?
Tuesday 20th June 2006
11:00am – 12:30pm
Melbourne Exhibition & Convention
Centre, Victoria PANEL SESSION:
AusBiotech is hosting a panel discussion on the
Code of Best Practice as an affliated activity for the
Commercialisation Expo 2006 www.expo2006.com.au
AusBiotech invites industry members to a panel session
which will focus on The AusBiotech/ASX Code of Best
Practice for Reporting.
The panel will be comprised of key people who were
involved with the development of the Code, CEO’s as well
as analysts examining the Code and its implications. The
panel will encourage questions regarding the potential of
changes in reporting practices, options to improve and
examples of company experiences.
Anyone who registers for this session will receive a
complementary entry pass to the Commercialisation
Expo 2006 Exhibition Hall
SURVEY:
AusBiotech has commissioned a study to examine
the perceptions and reporting practices that relate to
the development of the Code. We encourage industry
feedback and have posted a brief survey on our website.
www.ausbiotech.org
AusBioTALK
Wallaby Milk
contains powerful
weapon against
human superbugs
Researchers from the Department
of Primary Industries (DPI) have
discovered an antimicrobial compound
100 times more effective than penicillin
in killing antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’,
Minister for Agriculture, Bob Cameron,
announced recently.
Mr Cameron said the DPI research team, led by Dr Ben
Cocks, uncovered the super-potent compound - AGG01
- in wallaby milk.
“Recent testing has revealed the extremely high potency
of the AGGO1 compound, and Dr Cocks’ team have also
discovered its potential to fight off bacteria and fungus is
much broader than first estimated,” Mr Cameron said.
“This includes a relative of the hospital superbug, MRSA
- often referred to as ‘golden staph’- and other important
disease-causing bacteria including E. coli; Streptococci,
Salmonella, Bacillus subtilus; Pseudomonas spp; Proteus
vulgaris; and Staphylococcus aureus,” Mr Cameron said.
Dr Cocks said this scientific discovery, could have a
profound impact on both animal and human health.
“The discovery came from a “mammary gland genome”
project at the DPI analysing bovine and wallaby lactation”
Dr Cocks said.
Funded through the Victorian Government’s $620 million
Science, Technology and Innovation Initiative (STI Initiative),
the project was a predecessor to the international kangaroo
(Tammar wallaby) genome sequencing project.
The compound has the potential to be commercially
synthesised and may prove vital in the war against
increasingly resistant human and animal diseases.
The DPI scientists have been researching the chemical
properties of the breast milk of Tammar wallabies to pinpoint
how their immune-deficient newborns build up resistance
to bacteria during their growth in the pouch.
They identified more than 30 anti-microbial factors using an
advanced computer system and bioinformatics technologies.
The international kangaroo (Tammar wallaby) genome
sequencing project is collaborative research between the
Australian Genome Research Facility and the US National
Institutes of Health.
18
Taking the Sneeze
out of Rye grass
Relief may be close for the more than two million Australians
who suffer from seasonal allergies to the pollen of perennial
ryegrass, a crop widely grown in Australia and elsewhere
as a feed or forage crop for dairy cattle and other animals.
Their plight is shared by twenty million US allergy-sufferers.
In an innovative use of biotechnology, a new variety of
ryegrass that does not cause the sneezing and itchy eyes
of hay fever has been developed by Melbourne researchers.
The major allergens in ryegrass pollen are two proteins
known as Lol p1 and Lol p2. Using ‘antisense’ gene-silencing
technology, where a complementary strand of DNA to the
gene of interest is used to inactivate the gene so that the
protein is not expressed, the researchers have created new
strains of ryegrass that do not express the Lol p1 and
Lol p2 proteins.
“The genes are almost fully silenced – it’s very effective,” says
Professor German Spangenberg, from the Molecular Plant
Breeding Cooperative Research Centre, part of the new $20
million Victorian Agribiosciences Centre (VABC) at La Trobe
University in Bundoora, near Melbourne.
Field trials of the new grasses are being conducted in the US.
As well as reducing the allergen load, the researchers have
improved several other traits, making the grass easier to
digest and giving it a higher nutritional value. These traits
can now be mixed and matched to create a variety of low
allergen grasses suitable for different purposes.
In addition, the same technology can be used to improve the
quality and remove allergens from other species of grasses
including the tall fescues, which are widely grown in the US.
A new company, Gramina, has been established to
commercialise the grasses both in Australia and worldwide.
Other programs involving pasture grasses at VABC include
the development of grasses with lower lignin content, making
them softer and more digestible and hence more palatable
for the cows that eat the grasses. Conversely, grasses with
a higher lignin content may be suitable for use in situations
where tough turf is required – such as on golf greens and
playing fields.
Techniques to transform ryegrass with all of the desired traits
simultaneously are being developed to speed up the process.
The improved traits can then be bred into a variety of elite
ryegrass cultivars to create low allergy grasses suitable
for many uses.
The first low - allergy grasses are likely to be released
for commercial use in 2013 – there are still field trials to
complete before final cultivars can be selected and grown
up in sufficient quantities.
The VABC, which was funded by the Victorian State
Government and by La Trobe University, is intended to be
a one stop shop for academic, commercial research and
development groups, according to Spangenberg, and
comprises a consortium including La Trobe University,
Department Of Primary Industries Victoria (DPIV), RMIT
University, Monash University, Florigene Ltd - a division
of Suntory, Molecular Plant Breeding CRC and GE
HealthCare Biosciences.
Web links
http://www.molecularplantbreeding.com
http://www.gramina.com.au
More nutritious grasses are also in development, utilising
the genetic pathways that control the production of fructan,
a carbohydrate that provides an excellent source of energy
for dairy cattle.
19
AusBioBUSINESS
Federal budget improves future
for Australian Biotechnology
By Dr Anna Lavelle
commercialisation. The already-announced funding for an
Adult Stem Cell Centre is also welcome as is the top up for
the R&D Tax Concession program – although it is a pity that
the Government did not take this opportunity to announce
structural changes to the program as put forward by the
industry and industry association, AusBiotech, to make it
more useful for the biotechnology sector.
Overall, though, this budget provides a framework for the
future, which clearly indicates that Australia intends to
develop its biotechnology industry across the value chain.
The message to multinationals is that the Australian industry
is not just a provider of intellectual capital but has the ability,
the funding and the infrastructure behind it to ensure that
in partnership negotiations it can leverage its R&D strengths
and maximise investment in Australia.
Federal Treasurer. The Hon. Peter Costello MP.
Whether by accident or design, this
year’s Federal Budget, has for the first
time provided strategic targeted support
for Australia’s burgeoning biotechnology
industry with funding boosts right across
the value chain – from discovery through
to commercialisation.
Spanning three portfolios – Health and Ageing, Industry,
Resources and Tourism and Science, Education and Training
– there are initiatives that will, to some extent, address the
skills issues, research infrastructure gaps and the ambivalent
venture capital support that has prevented the Australian
biotechnology sector from realising its potential.
In particular, the $700 million increase in medical research
funding, the establishment of the Health and Medical
Research Fellowship Scheme, the $10 million grant for
the development of a mammalian cell production facility,
and reforms to the venture capital sector certainly provide
the right signals to international and domestic investors
that Australia is serious about supporting and growing its
biotechnology industry across all stages of development and
20
The benefits of this approach are evident – from maintaining
quality researchers in this country through to early access
to new treatments for the Australian population and a better
return on taxpayers’ and investors’ investments in health
and medical research.
So, while this budget provides a useful blueprint for the future
– and, for that the Government deserves acknowledgement
– there is still much to be done.
One of the biggest threats to the Australian industry is the
growing skill shortage in the science and engineering areas.
Keeping the scientists and the researchers we already have
– through initiatives such as Medical Research Fellowship
Scheme – is important, but the need for a long term strategy
to attract secondary and tertiary students to these areas
and to encourage retraining and upskilling of those already
in employment is fundamental to the on-going growth and
success of the industry.
The development of transitional skills – particularly business
and management skills – to support scientists in their move
from the laboratory to the biotechnology start-up also needs
to be addressed.
Similarly, long awaited tax changes to the venture capital
sector, which will exempt investors from income and capital
gains tax on eligible investments made in early stage
investment vehicles will no doubt encourage greater domestic
and international investment and improve the investment
opportunities of Australian biotechnology start-ups.
If Australia can not find the correct balance in this area,
then the investment money will not flow, researchers will
leave in search of these imperatives elsewhere, social and
economic benefits will be lost and the outcomes of the
Government’s integrated biotechnology industry blueprint
will not be realised.
...this budget provides a framework
for the future, which clearly indicates
that Australia intends to develop its
biotechnology industry...
The Government’s reticence in dealing with the
recommendations of the Lockhart Review of cloning
and embryo research legislation, together with some of
the concerning amendments that have been made to
the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research
Involving Humans in its recently released draft do not
send useful signals.
However, with some Australian superannuation funds
advertising ethical investment products that specifically
exclude companies that develop genetically modified
organisms or products derived from these organisms,
there continues to be a need to better educate the
investment sector about the biotechnology sector and
the risks and benefits of investing in this industry.
It would be a pity if all of the Government’s work in providing
an integrated framework to support the growth of Australia’s
biotechnology industry, as illustrated in this Budget, comes
to nothing because an important part of the blueprint has
not been addressed.
Finally, the importance of having a progressive legislative
and tightly regulated research environment supporting
the biotechnology industry cannot be underestimated.
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21
AusBioBUSINESS
Is your company accessing the
cash benefits to which it’s entitled?
Many Australian businesses are
missing out on significant research and
development (“R&D”) concessions due to
the lack of clarity with respect to the broad
nature of eligible activities. Biotechnology
by its very nature lends itself to meeting the
requirements of the Federal Government’s
principal initiative to enhance and support
innovation and research.
Amongst other things, the R&D Tax Concession (“the
Concession”) allows eligible small companies in a tax loss
position to access a cash equivalent of carry forward R&D
deductions. This Tax Offset creates a huge opportunity
for the Biotechnology sector and provides the incentive to
register annually for the Concession, thereby opening the
door to a myriad of Government Grant opportunities.
Background to the Concession
The Concession was introduced in 1985/86 and is the
Federal Government’s flagship scheme to increase the
amount of R&D being conducted within Australia. It is broadbased and available to all industry sectors.
The Concession provides for eligible Australian companies
to deduct up to 125% (175% on incremental expenditure
subject to conditions) of eligible expenditure incurred on R&D
activities against their taxable income, thereby reducing the
after-tax cost of undertaking R&D for profitable companies.
The Government has enhanced the Concession by providing
small companies with a tax offset, or rebate, equivalent to the
value of the Concession.
The Concession is governed by section 73B of the
Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (“the Act”) and is jointly
administered by the Industry Research and Development
Board (“the Board”), through the Commonwealth
Government’s business assistance agency, AusIndustry, and
the Australian Taxation Office (“ATO”).
22
Maintenance of a R&D Concession
registration history – Why bother?
Particularly within the Biotechnology sector, R&D is central
to the business competitiveness of industry participants.
Australian R&D surveys taken over time have repeatedly
highlighted that the majority of respondents in small
enterprise have undertaken R&D to develop new products,
services and markets and would have done so in the
absence of the Concession.
Given that R&D funds are often committed irrespective of
associated incentives, the Concession offers “something for
nothing”. Key benefits associated with the Concession are
listed below:
•Provides a certain, direct and timely return on R&D
investment;
•Can reduce tax payable and hence the net cost of
projects;
•Provides cash to eligible companies in a tax loss position
when they need it most;
•Acts as leverage to raise equity to support further
investment in R&D – demonstrates successful R&D history
to private equity & Government grants providers;
•Maintenance of a registration history opens the door to
175% Premium deductions;
•Helps identify valuable intellectual property;
•Encourages companies to broaden the scope of R&D
projects; and
•Prompts a more structured approach to R&D and an
increased recognition of the long-term benefits.
Eligibility to register and claim
Registration for the R&D Tax Concession is available to any
eligible Australian company undertaking R&D. Eligibility to
claim the concession is limited to:
•Companies incorporated in Australia;
Given that R&D funds are often
committed irrespective of associated
incentives, the Concession offers
“something for nothing”.
•Companies incorporated in Australia acting as trustees of
a public trading trust; and
The types of R&D expenditure that attract Concessional
deductions include:
•Eligible companies conducting R&D in partnership.
•R&D expenditure (salary and other expenditure including
consumables, materials, travel, overheads etc);
The other key eligibility requirements include:
•Activities claimed under the Concession are required to be
the subject of a R&D plan prepared in advance of project
initiation;
•An Application for Registration of R&D activities must be
lodged with the Board within 10 months after the end of
the company’s year of income;
•A minimum R&D expenditure threshold of $20,000 applies
to companies claiming the Concession, except in certain
circumstances;
•The R&D activities must be carried out by or on behalf of
the claimant company;
•Where commercially practicable, an eligible company
needs to employ Australian citizens or permanent residents
of Australia and use plant and equipment, on Australian
soil which is of Australian origin;
•The results of the R&D must be exploited on normal
commercial terms and in a manner which is to the benefit
of the Australian economy; and
•Companies must maintain records to substantiate the
carrying on of R&D.
Eligible Activities and Expenditure
Eligible activities can either be “SIE” activities or “directly
related activities”. SIE activities are those undertaken in
a systematic, investigative and experimental manner and
involve innovation or high levels of technical risk. Directly
related activities are undertaken to support and facilitate the
SIE activities.
Additionally, the breadth of the legislation governing the
Concession should be borne in mind. There is no need
to generate tangible products. Development of systems,
methodologies, new or improved techniques and knowledge
can all meet the requirements of eligible activities.
•Contracted expenditure;
•Plant or pilot plant expenditure;
•Core Technology expenditure; and
•Eligible Feedstock expenditure.
175% Premium Concession
The 175% Premium Concession is available for additional
investment in R&D. To be eligible, companies must, on a
grouped basis, increase their incremental R&D expenditure
(excludes plant related expenditure) in a particular year above
a base level equivalent to the average R&D spend over the
previous three years.
The R&D Offset
The Offset appeals to smaller claimants as it is available
to companies which, again on a grouped basis, have an
annual turnover of less than $5 million and an aggregate
R&D expenditure of less than $1 million.
The Offset is paid at the rate of 30 cents for each dollar
of deduction that would have otherwise been claimable.
This is equivalent to a benefit of 37.5 cents per dollar of
eligible R&D expenditure where expenditure is eligible
for 125% deduction, and 52.5 cents per dollar of any
expenditure eligible for the 175% Premium Concession.
The refund is to be offset against any other Commonwealth
tax liabilities owed by the company including GST, FBT and
withholding taxes.
Differing from other tax concessions, the R&D Offset allows
for R&D tax deductions to be cashed out. It therefore
appeals to smaller companies which may have perceived
the Concession as an administrative burden. Particularly for
those who are uncertain of their future ability to exploit tax
losses, the cash-flow benefits of the Tax Offset represent an
attractive alternative.
23
AusBioBUSINESS
A recent survey by the Department of Industry, Tourism and
Resources in Canberra has shown that the Tax Offset has
enabled:
•Performance of continuous R&D by ironing out irregular
cash-flows;
•Direct funds increase on R&D investment;
•Return on investment irrespective of project success; and
•Employment of more staff to work on R&D.
Practical Example
Company “X” is a small Australian developer and
manufacturer of therapeutical drugs for humans. Eligible
R&D activities have been identified in connection with the
development of enhanced production and management
systems to improve efficiencies, productivity and yields.
The project will modify existing systems/processes in a new
way to provide a different and uncertain outcome that cannot
be predicted in advance without undertaking iterative R&D.
There is no precedent information to rely upon and company
“X” will be developing an innovative body of knowledge.
Eligible R&D expenditure associated with these activities
includes apportioned salary, contract costs for process
modifications, materials and consumables, attributable
overheads and travel directly related to SIE activities. Total
R&D spend came to $600,000 in the financial year ended 30
June 2005.
Company “X” has met all the basic Concession eligibility
requirements as well as those for the Tax Offset. It has
registered its activities with the Board within the 10 month
deadline and waited to receive its registration number from
the Board prior to lodging its annual income tax return (“ITR”).
Struggling with cash-flow, company “X” elects the offset
in the R&D schedule that accompanies the ITR. The cash
benefit (offset amount) associated with claiming the rebate is:
1.25% (R&D Uplift)*0.3 (Company tax rate) = 0.375
0.375*$600,000 = $225,000
Therefore, as no other Commonwealth tax liabilities were
outstanding, company “X” is now waiting for an ATO cheque
for $225,000 – money that is otherwise inaccessible as a
deduction until company “X” is profitable.
Conclusion
Despite being claimed by many, the Concession
is still eluding a vast number of eligible companies
which are often trying to source equity through other
sources. Using the Concession as an ongoing spring
board to access cash and deductions as well as
providing grounding for capital raising sounds too
good to be true, however, nothing is without pitfalls.
The ongoing number of Tax Offset applicants
who make errors in the identification of eligible
expenditure, registration and the election process
has remained fairly constant since the program’s
introduction in 2001. Although lucrative, the
program is subject to Government claims review
so it is advisable to commit time and attention to
ensure that the benefits available come to fruition.
In order to take full advantage of this opportunity, a
proper understanding of the legislative requirements
of the Concession is essential.
Further information
Brisbane
Garry Waugh
Partner
Phone: +61 7 3257 8694
Perth
James Edwards
Senior Tax Manager
Phone: +61 8 9238 3374
Sydney
Sandra Mason
Partner
Phone: +61 2 8266 0470
Melbourne
Tony Baxter
Partner
Phone: +61 3 8603 4209
24
SPOTLIGHT
AusBioSTOCK
Australian Stock
Market Report
by Joanna Hill from Lands Kirwan Tong Stockbrokers
Phylogica Ltd (ASX: PYC) $0.81 (up 34%)
PEPLIN LTD (ASX:PEP) $0.785
Listed March 2005
Month H $0.86–L $0.56 (vol 8.7 m on 796 transactions)
Issued capital OFP shares 74 m+34 m escrowed+options
17 m+4 m restricted
Cash March ’06 $ 3.5 m
Major shareholders:
• Biotech Capital 26.9%
• Institute of Child Research, WA 19%
• Dr Paul Watt 3.7%
Drug discovery company utilising proprietary Phylomer
technology to develop “revolutionary new drugs” in treatment
of stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and burn injury. Key
component of Phylomers is their ability to modulate the process
of cell death implicated in inflammatory process.
Listed Sep’2000
Month H $1.00 - L $0.69 vol 6.1m on 1,259 transactions
Issued Capital 127 m OFP shares+19.6 m deferred+10m options
Cash Dec ’05 $18.4 m
Major shareholders
• Acorn Capital Ltd 14.8%
• Asia Union Investments P. L. 13.1%
• Orbis Global Equity Fund 7.75%
Peplin has grown from a small start-up to a drug development
organisation, commercialising prescription human therapeutics for
the treatment of cancer.
Phylomers are stable fragments of naturally occurring proteins
with properties that make them attractive as cost effective
replacement for antibodies. The company’s Phylomer Libraries
are collections of millions of Phylomers that represent a source of
drug leads, which can be used for multiple diseases. First commercial partnership agreement with Ireland-based
Opsana Therapeutics to develop Phylomer drugs, a collaboration
in the area of Toll like receptors (TLRs) and T-regulatory
Cells, implicated in inflammatory diseases including sepsis,
asthma, atopic dermatitis and autoimmune diseases. Opsana
Therapeutics is a partner of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: WYE)
in discovery, development and commercialization of compounds
to treat inflammatory diseases.
Research collaborations:
• Baker Heart Research Institute to develop a Phylomer drug
that would improve outcomes of cardiac surgery.
• Garvan Institute of Medical Research pilot research to assess
Phylomer candidates using novel cell-based diabetes assays.
• Telethon Institute of Child Health Research and the McComb
Foundation trialing topical application of Phylomer-based
treatment to speed up healing and reduce scarring in burn
injuries.
• Awarded commercial Ready Grant (Oct’05) of $2.2m to
accelerate the development of its Phylomer drug candidates
for Rheumatoid Arthritis, preclinical testing with Melbourne
University.
• Canadian biotech Axela Biosensor partnership to test Axela’s
novel screening technology on a large pool of Phylomer drug
candidates. Lead compounds: PYC 36 S – demonstrated to completely prevent
damage in nerve cells in Stroke and Alzheimer’s animal models.
It holds global proprietary rights for its lead compound PEP005
Topical for the treatment of actinic (solar) keratosis (AK) and nonmelanoma skin cancer, currently in Phase IIb clinical trails.
PEP005 Topical works by killing most cancer cells and activating
the local immune system to clean-up dead cancer cells and killing
any remaining cancer cells. It is potentially a rapid acting and
cosmetically attractive non-surgical topical treatment.
Key Milestones:
• Australian pilot Phase IIb clinical trails for PEP005 Topical for
the treatment of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in situ
to evaluate safety and efficacy.
• Completed enrolment of patients into Phase IIa trail for basal cell
carcinoma (BCC) most common form of skin cancer
• Commenced construction of a new commercial scale
manufacturing facility fort he production of GMP grade
PEP005, an important component in planning for the final
stage of product development and market launch.
• Peplin granted US patent covering the use of its macrocyclic
anti-cancer compounds to stimulate the immune system.
• Two concurrent fundraising to raise approximately $40.
Significant investment from international institutional investors
to raise $26.5 m by an offer of 37.3 m shares @ $0.71 +
11.2 m options, lead by MPM Capital, and fully underwritten
by ABN Amro Morgan & Wilson non-renounceable rights
issue of 19.6 m new shares + 5.9 m options to existing
shareholders to raise $13.9 m
Pre-clinical stage pipeline is targeted at Leukaemia, using PEP005
in an intravenous formulation (PEP005 IV), and superficial bladder
cancer using an intra-cavitory or intra-vesical formulation. PEP005
demonstrated selective and potent anti-leukemia activity in preclinical disease models. PEP005 induces apoptosis in leukemia
cells via activation of PKC delta.
The Board of Directors are implementing changes to the Board
composition to reflect the company’s growth and international
stakeholders, including the appointment of Jim Scopa, general
partner at MPM Capital to the Board of Directors.
This information which has been collated by company reports released to the ASX contains general information only and does not
constitute financial product advice. Lands Kirwan Tong Stockbrokers and AusBiotech make no assertions as to the merits of any
investment opportunities in the companies referred to in these articles.
25
AusBioSTOCK
Issuer Name
ASX
Principal Activity
First List
Date
M Cap
$m
Last
Price $
Yr
Volume
Yr H $
Yr L $
EPS c
PER
Asset
B (c)
Ambri Limited
ABI
Diagnostic Systems (SensiDX system & ION channel
switcher)
16-Jun-00
10.1
0.05
799.0
0.16
0.05
-4
-2
4
0
AtCor Medical Holdings
Limited
ACG
Developer & international marketer of Blood Pressure at
the Heart device SphygmoCor
9-Nov-05
18.8
0.29
102.0
17
0
Alchemia Limited
ACL
Carbohydrate-based Therapeutic Agents
23-Dec-03
153.6
1.20
352.0
1.63
0.52
-11
0
22
0
Acrux Limited
ACR
Pooled Development Fund -Transdermal drug delivery
platform technology
29-Sep-04
98.6
0.83
318.0
0.93
0.48
-5
-17
19
0
Avantogen Limited
ACU
Cancer Therapies
25-Aug-71
27.4
0.10
950.0
0.26
0.10
-7
-2
2
0
AFT Corporation Limited
AFT
Air Purification Products & Services
16-Jan-92
14.8
0.02
13,226.0
0.04
0.01
-0
-8
2
0
Agenix Limited
AGX
Blood Clots Diagnostic Kits (Molecular Diagnostic
Imaging)
8-Oct-87
38.3
0.18
705.0
0.39
0.17
-8
-2
2
0
Analytica Limited
ALT
Production & Marketing Diagnostic Tests & Retractable
Syringe Technology
25-Oct-00
4.3
0.03
282.0
0.06
0.02
-3
-1
0
0
Ansell Limited
ANN
Healthcare Barrier Protection Products
20-Nov-85
1,577.2
10.10
1,323.0
12.15
9.06
14
73
238
19
Advanced Nanotechnology
Limited
ANO
Commercialising MCP nanopowder manufacturing
technology
24-Feb-05
19.5
0.13
433.0
0.25
0.12
-1
-15
5
0
Antisense Therapeutics
Limited
ANP
Antisense Pharmaceuticals. (Psoriasis, MS)
20-Dec-01
12.5
0.03
983.0
0.06
0.03
-2
-2
2
0
Anadis Limited
ANX
Gastrointestinal Therapeutics (bovine colostrum derived
products)
30-Apr-99
249.0
0.28
98.0
0.47
0.24
-3
-9
0
0
Apollo Life Sciences
Limited
AOP
Discovery & Commercialisation of proteins for therapeutic
& cosmetic applications
29-Jun-05
28.3
0.45
67.0
1.03
0.40
-2
-23
5
0
Advanced Ocular Systems
Limited
AOS
Dev treatment inflammatory eye diseases, AMD. Lead
Visagen. Innovative. injection kit
16-Jun-04
19.0
0.12
162.0
4
0
Australian Pharmaceutical
Industries Limited
API
Integrated Healthcare Services. Hospital supply.
Healthcare logistics. Healthcare manufacturing
16-Jun-97
594.5
2.34
16,000.0
3.45
2.20
13
19
82
13
AquaCarotene Limited
AQL
Production of Natural Beta-Carotene
5-Jan-99
2.3
0.02
183.0
0.06
0.02
-1
-5
0
0
Australian Healthcare
Technology Ltd
AUH
Healthcare Administration Systems
13-Aug-87
6.4
0.06
120.0
0.07
0.04
-1
-4
0
0
Avastra Ltd
AVS
Development & commercialisation biocompatible proteanbased wound closure technology (potential application
for drug delivery)
24-Jun-04
5.4
0.20
196.0
0.28
0.10
-8
-2
16
0
Avexa Limited
AVX
Anti-infectives research & development Immunodeficiency
virus; Hep B)
23-Sep-04
494.0
0.26
555.0
0.37
0.13
-13
-2
8
0
Biodiem Limited
BDM
Pharmaceutical development. Portfolio: Live attenuated
influenza vaccine; retinal eye disease; animal feeder
enhancer; treatment post heart attack
28-Jan-04
12.4
0.37
92.0
0.98
0.40
-9
-4
17
0
BresaGen Limited
BGN
Protein Pharmaceuticals & cell therapy (Cythera Inc)
21-Sep-99
12.1
0.09
321.0
0.12
0.05
-1
-19
3
0
Biotron Limited
BIT
Development & commercialisation of antiviral therapeutics
& cancer diagnostics
24-Jan-01
23.8
0.27
371.0
0.44
0.10
-3
-9
2
0
Blackmores Limited
BKL
Manufacturer & Distributor of Herbal Supplements
2-May-85
228.2
14.30
23.0
14.88
12.49
76
19
197
60
Biolayer Corporation
Limited
BLS
R & D Commercialisation of Medical & Veterinary Devices
for Internal Examinations (Veda-Scope)
7-Apr-00
10.9
0.20
67.0
0.35
0.12
-15
-1
6
0
Benitec Limited
BLT
Gene Silencing Technology
17-Feb-97
10.5
0.06
919.0
0.22
0.06
-11
-1
3
0
Bone Medical Limited
BNE
Development & Commercialisation of therapeutics for
bone & joint disease
24-Jan-85
7.5
0.32
19.0
0.42
0.14
-65
-1
4
0
Bionomics Limited
BNO
Gene Discovery associated with epilepsy, angiogenesis
& breast cancer
21-Dec-99
24.0
0.19
433.0
0.26
0.10
-6
-3
3
0
bioMD Limited
BOD
Safety needle & Syringe devices
24-Mar-04
3.9
0.06
211.0
0.10
0.04
-2
-2
4
0
Biosignal Limited
BOS
Commercialisation of seaweed derived antibacterial &
antifouling compounds - Furanones
28-Jun-00
12.7
0.19
422.0
0.27
0.14
-4
-5
0
0
BioPharmica Limited
BPH
Biomedical commercialisation company partnering with
universities, medical institute & hospitals in diagnostics
& devices
6-Aug-04
5.4
0.12
183.0
0.45
0.06
-1
-9
4
0
BioProspect Limited
BPO
Development & Commercialisation. Natural Insecticides
29-Jan-01
4.5
0.02
2,416.0
0.05
0.01
-1
-1
1
0
Brain Resource Company
Limited (The)
BRC
Provider International Database for Human Brain Function
28-Aug-01
25.4
0.30
68.0
0.40
0.22
-1
-26
7
0
Biota Holdings Limited
BTA
Antiviral drug discovery & diagnostics (Relenza).
Development & commercialisation second generation
flu therapies
20-Dec-85
262.4
1.47
8,727.0
2.75
0.42
-12
-13
27
0
Biotech Capital Limited
BTC
Private Equity Fund. Selected Life Science Companies
29-Aug-00
40.0
0.45
198.0
0.50
0.32
-2
0
56
0
CollTech Australia Limited
CAU
Production and sale of natural proteins. Extract protean
from sheep skin, collagen & wool by-products.
26-Feb-04
11.0
0.09
428.0
0.15
0.07
-2
0
4
0
Clinical Cell Culture Limited
CCE
Skin Technology & Treatment. Tissue-engineered
products.
11-Aug-93
31.2
0.14
2,337.0
0.42
0.10
-8
-2
6
0
Cogstate Ltd
CGS
Diagnostic & therapeutic products for neurodegenerative
diseases (also Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s)
13-Feb-04
129.0
0.28
163.0
0.30
0.09
-6
-5
7
0
Circadian Technologies
Limited
CIR
Management & Funding Pharmaceutical Research &
Development Projects
18-Apr-91
45.9
1.01
100.0
1.58
0.99
-15
-8
160
0
Clover Corporation Limited
CLV
Refines & Supplies Natural Oils
30-Nov-99
17.3
0.11
481.0
0.21
0.10
1
23
14
0
Compumedics Limited
CMP
Sleep Disorder Monitoring & Analysis Systems
21-Dec-00
98.0
0.07
270.0
0.29
0.06
-4
-2
4
0
Chemeq Limited
CMQ
Manufacturer & Marketer Veterinary Bio-Pharmaceuticals
- antimicrobials
25-Aug-99
42.3
0.41
771.0
1.52
0.38
-62
-1
15
0
Cochlear Limited
COH
Manufacturer & Marketer Implants for Impaired Hearing
4-Dec-95
27,818.0
51.66
579.0
56.00
32.30
127
41
-27
90
26
-2
-9
Div (c)
Compiled by Joanna Hill SDIA Practitioner Member SIA (Affil) Tel: 61 3962 9 5422 Email: [email protected]
These figures are collated at the end of trading 31st of May 2006
Issuer Name
ASX
Principal Activity
First List
Date
M Cap
$m
Last
Price $
Yr
Volume
Yr H $
Yr L $
EPS c
PER
Asset
B (c)
Cryptome Pharmaceuticals
Limited
CRP
Drug Discovery. Developer Innovative Platform
Technology for Protean-Based Medicines
6-Nov-03
12.1
0.04
223.0
0.13
0.04
-6
0
4
0
CSL Limited
CSL
Supply Blood Products & Vaccines
8-Jun-94
9,627.4
52.96
1,924.0
59.39
28.55
96
55
644
58
Cellestis Limited
CST
Developer & Manufacture of Diagnostic Tests
(Tuberculosis)
24-Apr-01
313.4
3.65
185.0
4.72
2.38
-3
-125
16
0
Cryosite Limited
CTE
Collection, Processing & Long Term Storage
Blood Stem Cells
9-May-02
5.6
0.13
81.0
0.23
0.12
-1
-10
4
0
Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals
Limited
CUV
EX- EPITAN (EPT) Developer drug candidate Melanotan
prevent skin damage from ultra-violate radiation
13-Feb-01
59.7
0.35
851.0
-8
8
0
CathRx Ltd
CXD
Catheters for the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac
arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation
26-Oct-05
374.0
1.50
25.0
-5
45
0
Chemgenex
Pharmaceuticals Ltd
CXS
Drug Disc & Dev. Cancer Ph2. P’ship pharm diabetes/
obesity & CNS. Ceflatonin Ph2 for CML
10-Jul-86
56.5
0.42
154.0
0.80
0.40
-7
-6
4
0
CyGenics Limited
CYN
Adult Stem Cell tech. Cord Tissue Bank. Cell
therapeutics. Cytomatrix tech dev.
18-Jun-04
16.9
0.33
86.0
0.52
0.29
-11
-3
8
0
Cytopia Limited
CYT
Pooled Development Fund. Discovery & development
of new drugs to treat cancer, immune disorders &
cardiovascular diseases.
31-Mar-99
72.1
0.94
256.0
1.08
0.43
-13
-7
33
0
DenX Limited
DNX
Computerised Dental Training system. Suspended from
official quotation 3/5/06
12-Nov-80
18.5
0.07
136.0
0.15
0.05
-11
-1
2
0
DCA Group Limited
DVC
Health Care Services - Diagnostic Imaging, Aged Care,
Retirement
17-Dec-87
1,288.0
2.73
5,403.0
4.15
2.68
10
28
-43
8
EvoGenix Limited
EGX
Development of antibody therapeutic products based on
proprietary technology platform; developing treatment fro
bone loss, respiratory infections, primary liver cancer
11-Aug-05
31.3
0.47
122.0
0.60
0.25
-3
-15
6
0
Eiffel Technologies Limited
EIF
Drug Development & Drug Delivery. SuperCritical Fluid
(SCF) (Insulin)
20-Aug-96
3.6
0.02
567.0
0.04
0.01
-1
-2
0
0
Ellex Medical Lasers
Limited
ELX
Production of Ophthalmic Instruments for Treatment
Impaired Vision
12-Sep-94
38.3
0.65
321.0
0.84
0.19
1
108
14
0
Eastland Medical Systems
Ltd
EMS
Manufacturer & Marketer of New Technology for injection,
infusion and blood drawing
24-Jan-02
17.3
0.14
306.0
0.20
0.11
0
45
6
0
Eqitx Limited
EQX
Research & Development of New Therapeutic Drugs for
chronic diseases and age related conditions
14-May87
8.2
0.18
135.0
0.30
0.16
-5
-3
5
0
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Corporation Limited
FPH
Manufacturer & Marketer of heated humidification
systems for respiratory care & obstructive sleep apnoea
21-Nov-01
1,850.0
3.71
416.0
3.80
2.68
12
32
31
10.656
Genepharm Australasia
Limited
GAA
Developer & distributor generic pharmaceuticals
10-Jun-04
323.0
1.20
245.0
1.59
0.81
-6
-19
10
0
Genesis Biomedical
Limited
GBL
Development & Commercialisation Cell Bionics
technology for osteoarthritis of the knee
11-Jun-99
9.5
0.06
700.0
0.12
0.03
-1
-8
1
0
Genesis Research and
Development Corporation
Limited
GEN
Genomics Tech. Partial gene sequence database.
Functional Genomics. Spin off AgriGenesis (plant science)
22-Sep-00
5.6
0.22
8.0
0.35
0.20
-26
-1
22
0
Giaconda Limited
GIA
Commercialisation of therapies for for the treatment
of gastrointestinal diseases. 2 lead compounds in ph
III Myoconda (treatment Crohn’s disease) & Heliconda
(resistant Helicobacter pylori infection).
28-Sep-05
79.0
0.46
45.0
7
0
GroPep Limited
GRO
Developer & manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals & cell
culture growth factors
31-Aug-00
72.7
1.55
155.0
1.85
1.24
14
11
61
0
Genetic Technologies
Limited
GTG
Genomics. Genetic Technology - Non-Coding DNA
30-Jul-87
134.1
0.36
1,069.0
0.60
0.32
-3
-11
4
0
Healthscope Limited
HSP
Hospital & Health Services
4-May-94
989.6
4.29
3,554.0
6.69
3.70
16
28
-24
13.391
Heartware Limited
HTW
Developer of a range of implantable circulatory assist
devices for the treatment of congestive heart failure
31-Jan-05
102.2
1.00
435.0
1.45
0.35
-3
-34
0
0
Healthlinx Limited
HTX
6-Nov-03
8.8
0.04
223.0
0.13
0.04
-6
-1
1
0
IBA Health Limited
IBA
Computer Software Services to Health Industry
31-Mar-00
249.2
0.89
2,130.0
1.27
0.37
5
18
2
1
ICSGlobal Limited
ICS
Internet-based transaction exchange for health industry
23-Dec-99
25.7
0.31
158.0
0.41
0.25
-4
-8
0
0
Institute of Drug
Technology Australia
Limited
IDT
Manufacturer specialised active pharmaceutical
ingredients. Integrated drug development services for
early stage.
24-Sep-93
52.3
1.15
130.0
2.06
1.03
7
16
61
8
IM Medical Ltd
IMI
Health IT services. Innovative signal & image processing,
3D graphics, data communication network inc Internet
6-Feb-97
7.0
0.01
11,292.0
0.03
0.01
-1
-1
0
0
Independent Practitioner
Network Ltd
IPN
Healthcare Services Infrastructure Facilities management
6-Dec-99
145.7
0.15
1,040.0
0.16
0.06
1
26
-1
0
ITL Limited
ITD
Innovative Medical Devices Blood Collection and related
markets
29-Oct-03
258.0
0.27
344.0
0.30
0.14
2
0
14
0
Living Cell Technologies
Limited
LCT
Treatment for cell loss. Patented tech based on cell
delivery system incl. alginate encapsulation
1-Sep-04
217.0
0.19
145.0
0.30
0.17
-7
0
3
0
Life Therapeutics Limited
LFE
International biotechnology Research & development
of separation technology for life science market.
Blood-clotting tests. Gradiflow patented technology
simultaneseously purifies viral [athogens & infectious
prion proteins.
8-May-86
156.8
1.65
524.0
2.11
0.58
-29
-6
-20
0
Lipa Pharmaceuticals
Limited
LIP
Complementary healthcare contract manufacturer
29-Jul-04
65.2
0.70
515.0
1.80
0.58
9
0
38
7.59
Medec Limited
MAA
Developer Diagnostic Device Energy Monitoring
10-Oct-03
19.8
0.31
124.0
0.60
0.18
-9
0
13
0
Metabolic Pharmaceuticals
Limited
MBP
Development pharmaceutical treatment metabolic
diseases obesity, diabetes,
26-Nov-98
115.2
0.41
1,001.0
0.85
0.39
-4
-11
7
0
-1
Div (c)
27
AusBioSTOCK
Issuer Name
ASX
Principal Activity
First List
Date
M Cap
$m
Last
Price $
Yr
Volume
Yr H $
Yr L $
EPS c
PER
Asset
B (c)
MedAire Inc
MDE
International Medical Company. Healthcare and
Evacuation services to overseas residence, corporations,
resource industry, aviation, and maritime industries.
20-Jan-03
32.2
0.53
119.0
1.15
0.50
-1
-56
7
0
Medical Monitors Limited
MDM
Provider Medical Technology Vital Signs Monitoring
12-Mar-87
178.0
0.29
805.0
0.30
0.04
-1
-26
-1
0
Medigard Limited
MGZ
Medical Safety Devices. Lead products: retractable
hypodermic syringes; blood collection device; IV cannula/
catheter introducer device
5-Feb-04
52.0
0.08
34.0
0.14
0.06
-1
-15
4
0
Monitor Holdings Ltd
MHL
Weight Gain & Energy Level solutions. Suspended from
official quotation 15/1/04.
2-Nov-89
128.0
0.03
4,765.0
0.05
0.01
-0
-31
0
0
Medical Corporation
Australasia Limited
MOD
Investment in Healthcare Research Development
Commercialisation of medical products - Accumap Vision
Measurement System & Cervi-Max Speculum
18-Dec-86
6.7
0.03
581.0
0.04
0.02
1
3
3
0
Mesoblast Limited
MSB
Commercialisation of adult stem cell technology with
specific application in the regeneration of bone & cartilage
16-Dec-04
724.0
1.67
288.0
1.89
0.42
-2
-79
0
0
Meditech Research
Limited
MTR
Development Carbohydrate-Based Therapeutics. Anticancer, asthma, inflammatory diseases (HyAct; GAGS
technology)
21-Jan-94
17.0
0.14
687.0
0.18
0.09
-3
-5
1
0
Medical Developments
International Limited
MVP
Medical & Veterinary Equipment. Lead Analgesic Agents
(pre-hospital & emergency). Penthrox Inhaler.
15-Dec-03
199.0
0.36
160.0
0.87
0.33
1
0
3
0
Medical Therapies Limited
MTY
Developer of novel therapeutics for inflammatory diseases
& cancer
9-Dec-05
8.5
0.29
104.0
-5
4
0
Mayne Pharma Limited
MYP
International pharmaceutical company, distributes
injectable generic and speciality pharmaceuticals.
Operations in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific,
Americas.
21-Nov-05
1,697.7
2.72
4,099.0
-59
82
0
Norwood Abbey Limited
NAL
Developer Medical Technology Drug Deliver (laser, micro
needle). Research Immune system Function & Treatment
2-Aug-00
57.4
0.29
552.0
0.63
0.29
-18
-2
-6
0
NeuroDiscovery Limited
NDL
Neurology R & D. Provider specialised
electrophysiological assays to the biopharmaceutical
industry
15-Aug-05
24.0
0.17
72.0
0.23
0.14
-0
-330
7
0
Neuren Pharmaceuticals
Limited
NEU
Developer of novel therapeutics in the fields of
neuroprotection and metabolic disorders. Lead
compound Glypromate (Phase I)
3-Feb-05
49.3
0.50
246.0
0.80
0.33
-8
-6
8
0
Narhex Life Sciences
Limited
NLS
Developer of compounds for the treatment of HIV/Aids
12-Jan-05
70.0
0.10
166.0
0.14
0.07
-0
-23
4
0
Novogen Limited
NRT
Developer Pharmaceuticals. Isoflavones & Phenolic
Therapeutic Compounds (dietary supplements, anticancer, cardiovascular)
1-Sep-94
263.7
2.66
274.0
6.00
2.59
-16
-17
57
0
NSL Health Limited
NSL
Distributor for Medical Technology. DenX Medical
software (dental training simulator, dental implant
navigator)
25-Feb-98
3.5
0.18
3.0
0.22
0.13
-4
-5
0
0
Optiscan Imaging Limited
OIL
Producer Optical Instruments Laser and Optical Fibre
8-Aug-97
50.1
0.51
299.0
0.65
0.28
-5
-9
10
0
Occupational & Medical
Innovations Limited
OMI
Research & Development of Safety Technologies for
Health Industry (safety scalpel, retractable syringe)
12-Oct-00
15.5
0.52
82.0
2.05
0.36
-11
-5
8
0
1300 Smiles Limited
ONT
Provides Dental services and management of dental
surgeries
11-Mar-05
31.3
1.66
14.0
1.80
1.06
14
12
15
6.6
Premier Bionics Limited
PBI
Research & Development Medical Devices & Diagnostic
Markets (respiratory illness, obstructive sleep apnoea)
29-May02
13.7
0.22
493.0
0.31
0.19
-13
-2
4
0
PanBio Limited
PBO
Development Manufacture Market Diagnostic Kits for
Infectious Diseases (inc. Dengue, Ross River fever)
9-Apr-01
15.4
0.25
139.0
0.33
0.18
-1
-34
16
0
Prana Biotechnology
Limited
PBT
R & D Drug for Treatment Age -Related Disease (inc.
Alzheimer Crutzfeldt-Jacobs, MND, Parkinson’s),
28-Mar-00
26.3
0.20
180.0
0.30
0.15
-18
-1
12
0
Probiomics Limited
PCC
R & D Prediction & Prevention products for
Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal & Respiratory conditions
(biopharmaceuticals, therapeutic oral vaccines, in vitro
diagnosis)
14-Dec-00
7.9
0.06
364.0
0.13
0.05
-3
-2
1
0
Peplin Limited
PEP
Discovery, development & commercialisation of
prescribed pharmaceuticals cancer treatment (topical
therapy for actinic keratosis & non-melanoma skin
cancers.
22-Sep-00
96.8
0.78
410.0
1.00
0.27
-9
-8
14
0
Progen Industries Limited.
PGL
Discovery, development & commercialisation of small
molecule pharmaceuticals cancer treatment
22-Dec-95
148.2
3.79
253.0
4.15
1.90
-17
-23
63
0
Pearl Healthcare Limited
PHL
Dental Healthcare. Dental labs, supplier to dental labs.
4-Mar-94
3.7
0.02
720.0
0.05
0.02
-11
-0
2
0
Portland Orthopaedics
Limited
PLD
Developer, manufacturer & distributor of reconstructive
orthopaedic devices
21-Dec-05
54.3
0.45
102.0
4
0
Primelife Corporation
Limited
PLF
Development Marketing & Management Aged Care
Facilities
6-Jun-91
139.6
1.04
728.0
1.46
0.71
-41
-3
36
0
Polartechnics Limited
PLT
Commercialisation Devices for detection of pre-cancer &
cancer. Opto-electronic measurements of human tissue
8-May-87
4.1
0.04
460.0
0.31
0.04
-13
-0
2
0
Pro Medicus Limited
PME
Medical IT & e-health provider of integrated software
products & services, including digital radiology
10-Oct-00
1,450.0
1.45
321.0
1.77
0.90
7
22
11
4
PharmaNet Group Limited
PNO
Provider Internet-based Network Systems for
pharmaceutical industry. Paramedical supplies.
13-Mar-87
9.4
0.04
4,097.0
0.08
0.02
-1
-4
0
0
Phosphagenics Limited
POH
Pooled Development Fund. Vital Health Science. D & C
patented phosphorylation technologies, nutraceuticals,
dietary supplements, Vit E phosphate complex.
11-Aug-93
150.4
0.27
552.0
0.31
0.22
-1
0
2
0
Prima Biomed Ltd
PRR
Fund Biotechnology Research (inc. cancer
immunotherapy, rheumatoid arthritis, vaccine technology
preventing parasitic diseases in animals)
23-Jun-88
16.4
0.09
893.0
0.13
0.07
-5
-2
4
0
Primary Health Care
Limited
PRY
Operator of Multidisciplinary Healthcare Centres
3-Jul-98
1,424.9
11.70
255.0
12.25
8.18
32
37
13
33
28
-5
Div (c)
Compiled by Joanna Hill SDIA Practitioner Member SIA (Affil) Tel: 61 3962 9 5422 Email: [email protected]
These figures are collated at the end of trading 31st of May 2006
Issuer Name
ASX
Principal Activity
First List
Date
M Cap
$m
Last
Price $
Yr
Volume
Yr H $
Yr L $
EPS c
PER
Asset
B (c)
pSivida Limited
PSD
Nano-technology. Dev & commercialisation of nanostructured porous silicon. BrachSil (treat liver cancer)
17-Sep-87
226.4
0.60
1,164.0
1.05
0.53
-8
-7
-8
0
Psiron Ltd
PSX
Development Platform Technology for treatment
Autoimmune Disorders, skin disease (inc. Psoriasis)
15-Oct-86
26.1
0.15
433.0
0.24
0.13
-6
-2
3
0
Peptech Limited
PTD
Research Development & Commercialisation of Peptide
Based products for Pharmaceutical & Veterinary Industry
23-Jan-86
211.7
1.31
1,358.0
1.65
1.22
16
8
45
8
Proteome Systems Limited
PXL
Development & Commercialisation of innovative tech.
solutions for proteomics & glycomics research, discovery
of protein biomarkers.
30-Sep-04
31.9
0.33
399.0
0.50
0.16
-9
-4
8
0
Pharmaxis Ltd
PXS
R & D & Commercialisation treatment autoimmune,
chronic respiratory diseases (inc. MS, cystic fibrosis,
rheumatoid arthritis)
10-Nov-03
363.1
2.10
530.0
3.28
1.14
-8
0
62
0
Phylogica Limited
PYC
Discovery & Development novel peptide therapeutics for
treatment of Asthma, Stroke, Diabetes
30-Mar-05
60.7
0.81
420.0
0.86
0.12
-2
0
4
0
Rockeby Biomed Limited
RBY
R & D Diagnosis & Treatment Human Fungal Infections
23-Dec-03
9.7
0.03
10,010.0
0.06
0.01
-2
0
0
0
Ramsay Health Care
Limited
RHC
Development and Management Private Hospital
24-Sep-97
1,753.0
10.10
870.0
10.99
8.00
25
41
130
22
Resmed Inc
RMD
Developer Manufacturer Distributor Medical Equipment
for Diagnosis and Management of Sleep Disordered
Breathing
25-Nov-99
42,082.0
5.97
2,468.0
6.38
3.85
14
43
56
0
RiTract Limited
RTL
Developer Medical Device Technology (retractable
syringes)
19-Dec-03
19.2
0.21
284.0
0.44
0.18
-8
0
2
0
Salus Technologies Ltd
SAH
Developer of products and processes in wound care &
tissue engineering sectors.
14-Jul-00
2.0
0.06
77.0
0.15
0.05
-5
0
2
0
Solbec Pharmaceuticals
Limited
SBP
Pharmaceutical Research (anti-cancer drug SBP002
- application in melanoma & mesothelioma
20-Jan-94
15.9
0.08
589.0
0.14
0.07
-2
-5
0
0
SDI Limited
SDI
R & D Manufacture Distribution Dental Materials (inc.
amalgam, composite materials)
7-Nov-85
88.1
0.71
360.0
1.00
0.63
2
30
15
0.5
Safety Medical Products
Limited
SFP
Developer of safety & retractable syringes Securetouch.
Worldwide rights to technology of Meditag - monitor
of temperature sensitive medical, pharmaceutical &
veterinary products
30-Nov-05
4.4
0.16
30.0
5
0
Sunshine Heart, Inc.
SHC
Development & commercialisation C-Pulse heart assist
device
28-Sep-04
10.7
0.14
143.0
0.37
0.12
-8
-2
11
0
Sonic Healthcare Limited
SHL
Diagnostic. Pathology & Radiology Services
30-Apr-87
4,135.6
13.97
1,657.0
16.12
11.46
45
31
-145
38
SciGen Limited
SIE
Development Marketing Sales Pharmaceuticals (inc. SciB-Vac Hepatitis B vaccine)
15-Nov-02
398.0
0.07
5,618.0
0.12
0.04
-1
-7
2
0
Solagran Limited
SLA
Development & Commercialisation of Bioeffectives
- ingredients for human & animal pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics & agricultural products
22-Dec-83
14.4
0.19
249.0
0.26
0.09
-1
-17
2
0
Select Vaccines Limited
SLT
Development & Commercialisation Diagnostics, Vaccines
& therapeutic products for infectious diseases
26-May94
4.3
0.08
323.0
0.31
0.07
-12
-1
1
0
SomnoMed Limited
SOM
Specialises in products for sleep apnoea. Lead product
SomnoMed mandibular advancement splint (MAS)
27-Aug-04
6.1
0.01
165.0
0.35
0.09
-3
-3
4
0
Starpharma Holdings
Limited
SPL
Global R & D Funding for Biotechnology..
Commercialisation Dendrimer Nanodrugs (inc.treatment
STD)
28-Sep-00
68.7
0.46
628.0
0.72
0.39
-6
-7
17
0
Sirtex Medical Limited
SRX
R & D Novel Technology for Cancer Treatment (radioactive
particles SIR-Spheres for liver cancer treatment)
24-Aug-00
131.0
2.30
111.0
3.24
1.14
-0
-2300
28
0
Stirling Products Limited
STI
Development & Commercialisation of livestock growth
promoter ST810 -decreasing fat, increasing muscle
production
24-Jul-97
11.2
0.10
221.0
0.34
0.09
-6
-2
3
0
Symbion Health Limited
SYB
Healthcare provider: pathology, diagnostic imaging,
pharmaceuticals
30-Jun-62
2,052.4
3.18
6,383.0
3.80
2.51
-3
-122
-49
7.771
Tissue Therapies Limited
TIS
Developer biomedical tech. wound healing, tissue
regeneration, cell culture; VitoGro platform tech.
enhancing cell growth & migration
19-Mar-04
9.5
0.60
45.0
0.90
0.40
-5
-13
30
0
Uscom Limited
UCM
Develop Supply Operate Medical Equipment - Ultrasonic
Cardiac Output Monitor
10-Dec-03
270.0
0.72
32.0
1.18
0.66
-8
0
25
0
Unilife Medical Solutions
Limited
UNI
Development & Commercialisation Re-tractable Syringe
26-Jun-86
21.5
0.20
565.0
0.71
0.13
-11
-2
0
0
Ventracor Limited
VCR
Development & commercialisation heart pump Left
Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) VentrAssist
17-Aug-93
202.5
0.78
3,750.0
1.69
0.76
-15
-5
12
0
Vision Group Holdings
Limited
VGH
Provider of private ophthalmic services. Diagnosis &
treatment of eye disorders & diseases
17-Dec-04
251.3
3.95
355.0
5.05
3.43
12
34
-104
10
Virax Holdings Limited
VHL
Early Stage Development Biopharmaceutical
(immunotherapeutics inc. HIV/AIDS, cancers, infectious
Hep B)
19-Dec-86
8.4
0.09
247.0
0.33
0.08
-6
-1
1
0
Visiomed Group Limited
VSG
Development & Commercialisation Therapeutic Devices
Asthma inc.Funhaler, Peak Flow Monitor
1-Jun-87
6.2
0.02
833.0
0.03
0.02
-1
-4
0
0
Xceed Biotechnology Ltd
XBL
Life Science Investment company. PolyNovo Biomaterials
PL (novel polymers) & Boron Molecular PL (specialist in
organoboron chem)
28-Mar-96
16.6
0.20
399.0
0.31
0.13
-6
-3
9
0
Zenyth Therapeutics
Limited
ZTL
Development and Commercialisation of antibody-based
therapies in the areas of inflammation and cancer.
5-Dec-96
651.0
0.50
172.0
0.60
0.41
-2
-23
43
0
-3
Div (c)
29
AusBioNEWSBOARD
These articles posted on the AusBioNEWSBOARD
are selected from AusBiotech member media releases.
Mission Biofuels Lists on ASX two
weeks early
4 May 2006 - Shares in Mission Biofuels Limited, (Mission
Biofuels or the Company) commenced trading on the
Australian Stock Exchange this morning two weeks earlier
than planned under ticker code MBT following a significantly
oversubscribed Initial Public Offering (IPO).
The IPO of 27 million shares at $1 per share was strongly
supported by institutional and retail investors. Prior to
the IPO, the Company raised $13.6 million by way of a
convertible note to Tiger Private Investment Partners (Tiger),
a US based investment fund. Mission Biofuels’ Managing
Director, Mr Nathan Mahalingam, said the Directors
welcomed all investors, particularly international alternative
energy investors Tiger, Tudor Capital and the Emerging
Sovereign Group to the Company’s register amongst its top
10 shareholders. With corporate operations based in Perth,
Mission Biofuels will construct a 100,000 tonne per annum
biodiesel plant at Kuantan Port, Malaysia using crude palm
oil as its primary feedstock.
Biodiesel is suitable for use in most diesel engines and
is a clean alternative to petroleum based diesel. Based
on the 100,000 tonne per annum capacity of the plant,
Mission Biofuels has forecast to generate $74.3 million
revenue in FY2008, delivering NPAT of $27.7 million. Mr
Mahalingam said the company will now work on expediting
the implementation plan to respect the confidence of all
investors. He said Hexagon, which is contracted to complete
the balance of plant and civil works at Kuantan Port, has
already commenced mobilisation of resources on the project
site. Crown Iron Works, which is providing technology and
equipment for the project, has also completed a significant
amount of engineering for the plant.
The Company will today issue Notices to Proceed to both
Crown Iron Works and Hexagon. It also intends to exercise
its option to lease an adjacent 24,000 sqm block of land
at Kuantan port immediately. This additional land will cost
approx. $80,000 per year in lease rentals.
For more information visit: www.missionbiofuels.com.au or contact:
Mr Nathan Mahalingam
Mission Biofuels Limited
+61 8 9218 9111
[email protected]
Mr Greg Evans
Director
Investment Banking Argonaut Capital Limited
+61 8 9224 6888
[email protected]
Chemicon International and Australian
Stem Cell Centre Announce Exclusive
Agreement to Commercialise Stem
Cell Products
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
21 April 2006 - Serologicals Corporation (NASDAQ: SERO)
and the Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) announced
today that that they have signed an agreement whereby
Chemicon International, Inc., Serologicals’ wholly owned
subsidiary, has obtained exclusive rights to commercialise,
market and distribute stem cell reagents developed at the
ASCC to scientists all over the world.
Initial products which will be available to researchers through
Chemicon include a novel and proprietary stem cell isolation
kit, various proteins and antibodies. The ASCC is assisting
Chemicon in new product development in the research
reagent area and expects that other life science tools will
also become part of this exclusive research collaboration
as they become ready to market. Chemicon will have the
first right of evaluation to commercialise these new research
reagents developed by the ASCC. In exchange, Chemicon
will make an in-kind contribution of research tools for use by
researchers in the ASCC laboratories as well as contribute
funds, products and technical expertise to the new stem cell
training program recently launched by the ASCC.
“Chemicon is excited to partner with the ASCC to bring a
vast array of novel stem cell products and technologies to the
market,” said Jeffrey D. Linton, President of Chemicon and
Upstate, which comprise Serologicals’ Research Segment.
“This unique arrangement will benefit stem cell research
worldwide by enabling access to the many innovative tools
developed at the ASCC which will further accelerate research
in this exciting area.”
“The Centre has and will continue to develop high-quality
research tools through its research programs, which we
believe should be available to all scientists to support the
development of the entire stem cell industry. Chemicon is an
ideal partner given its extensive stem cell product portfolio,
expertise in international distribution and marketing, and
dedication to the realisation of the potential of stem cell
research. In addition to distributing the ASCC’s research
reagents, Chemicon is committed to providing novel reagents
to our scientists, supporting our training programs, and, most
importantly, advancing world-class stem cell research,” said
Dr Hugh Niall, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Stem
Cell Centre.
For further information contact
Michelle Singe
Public Affairs Director Australian Stem Cell Centre
+613 9271 1115 or 0423 056 952
[email protected]
www.stemcellcentre.edu.au
30
ASX Announcement:
Medical Therapies Placement
to Raise $2m
9 May 2006 – Medical Therapies Limited (ASX : MTY) will
raise $2 million to fund potential acquisition opportunities of
strategically aligned businesses, and human clinical trials.
New shares will be issued following an agreement with Fresh
Capital Pty Ltd (“Fresh Capital”).
Firm commitments from sophisticated and professional
investors to subscribe for approximately 7 million shares
have now been received. The placement price of the shares
is 29 cents each which represents a 20% discount on the
volume weighted average trading price over the 10 trading
days preceding the Company’s trading halt on 8 May, 2006.
As the issue of these new shares represents less than 15%
of Medical Therapies’ ordinary issued share capital, prior
shareholder approval is not required. However, approval will
be sought from shareholders at the Company’s next general
meeting to enable the Company to issue further securities
going forward.
Fresh Capital will receive a placement fee plus options for
successfully raising the new capital. The details of these
components are a 5% fee plus 500,000 45 cent exercise
price, December 2009 expiry options, and 500,000 0.5 cent
Rights Issue Options, with a 20 cent exercise price, which
have a December 2007 expiry date. The grant of the 45 cent
options is subject to shareholder approval as it will take this
issue over the 15% limit, and this approval will be sought at
the next general meeting of shareholders. The issue of the
0.5 cent options is exempt as they fall under Exception 3 of
ASX Listing Rule 7.2.
“Medical Therapies is very pleased to have received such
strong support both from Fresh Capital and their clients, and
from some of our major shareholders who have invested
additional money in this placement. We plan to use these
funds to add further value for shareholders, particularly
through acquisition of strategically aligned businesses and
intellectual property” said Mr Llewellyn Casbolt, CEO and
Managing Director of Medical Therapies.
Execution of the placement is expected to be completed
late next week, at which time an Appendix 3B will be lodged
with ASX.
Further positive results of
phase IIa AK trial
BRISBANE, Australia, 9 May 2006: Peplin Limited (ASX:PEP)
today announced a 70% complete clearance rate in its US
phase IIa dose escalation clinical trial of its proprietary drug
PEP005 Topical in actinic (or solar) keratois (AK) a skin lesion
which can progress into skin cancer.
The preliminary result of this study (PEP005-004) was
announced in February 2006 in which the maximum tolerated
dose (MTD) was established at 0.05%. Subjects were then
followed for four weeks (or until all local skin responses had
resolved) post treatment. In the 10 patients who were treated
at the MTD, two applications of PEP005 Topical (0.05%) gel on
two consecutive days completely cleared 70% of AK lesions.
Managing Director & CEO Michael Aldridge said these
positive results were further confirmation of the ability of
PEP005 Topical to clear actinic keratosis lesions following
just two treatments, and indicate that a well tolerated dose is
also effective.
“The primary goal of the trial was to establish the maximum
tolerated dose for PEP005 Topical in treating an area of skin.
We announced that in February 2006.”
“Today’s announcement is very pleasing because it
correlates closely with the clearance rates we have seen in
previous studies. Interestingly we saw the clearance rates in
this study just four to six weeks after treatment. That is very
rapid,” Mr Aldridge said.
AKs are the most common pre-cancerous skin lesions
worldwide and the treatment of AK is the most common
dermatologic procedure performed in an out-patient setting.
Based on a 2005 study by The Lewin Group, Inc. in the US
there were 8.2 million treatments of AK in 2004 and 58 million
Americans have AK.
Further information:
Michael Aldridge Managing Director & CEO
Tel: 07-3250 1234
[email protected]
Media:
Damian Karmelich Hill & Knowlton
Tel: 02-9286 1215 Mobile: 0407 772 548
[email protected]
Inquiries:
Llewellyn Casbolt (02) 9889 1222
[email protected]
31
AusBioNEWSBOARD
Metabolic completes enrolment for
obesity clinical trial ahead of schedule
Avexa’s Capital Raising
Oversubscribed
2 May 2006
10 May 2006 – Avexa Limited (ASX: AVX) announced today,
that through a combination of a placement to overseas
investors and a fully underwritten rights issue to existing
shareholders it has raised a total of $14.2M.
• 5
36 subjects enrolled in the Phase 2B human clinical
study; recruitment closed
• Trial completion in December 2006; ahead of schedule
• Results to be announced in March 2007
Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Limited announced today that it
has completed recruitment for its Phase 2B obesity trial, the
OPTIONS Study. The OPTIONS Study is designed to assess
weight loss at lower doses of AOD9604 than previously tested.
Dr Roland Scollay, CEO, commented “we are very pleased
to have exceeded our enrolment target, and to have done
it ahead of schedule. It was a great effort from our team to
complete the recruitment early for such a large trial involving
over 500 subjects and 16 clinical sites. Since the date of
completion of the trial is determined by the date the last
subject is enrolled, we are confident we will conclude the
study in December 2006, and we expect to have the trial
data analysed and available in early 2007”.
The obese subjects participating in the OPTIONS Study
will receive a placebo or one of three different dose levels
of AOD9604 during the 32 weeks of the study. Until the
completion of the study, neither the doctors nor the subjects
(nor Metabolic) know which subjects are receiving drug or
placebo (a double blinded study). The results can only be
reviewed after all subjects have completed the study, and
the data have been checked for integrity, “unblinded” and
undergone extensive statistical analysis.
Previous announcements regarding this trial, made on
18 October 2005 and 23 January 2006 are available at
www.metabolic.com.au.
Key milestones
Phase 2B trial – all subjects recruited
Q2 2006 – Completed
Phase 2B trial – last subject completes the study
December 2006 – Date now fixed
Phase 2B trial – key results announced
March 2007 – Expected
Contact Information:
Roland Scollay Chief Executive Officer
[email protected] T: +61-3-9860-5700
Peter Dawson Chief Financial Officer
Diana Attana Assistant Company Secretary/IRO
www.metabolc.com.au
32
The 1 for 4 non-renounceable rights issue of approximately
39,500,000 ordinary shares closed on 5 May 2006, with
subscriptions from approximately 64% of shareholders
(totalling 25,366,601 shares of the shares offered).
The rights issue was fully underwritten by ABN AMRO
Morgans Corporate Limited and Wilson HTM Corporate
Finance Limited. The shortfall of 14,163,501 shares will be
placed to new institutional investors by the underwriters.
Avexa Limited Chairman, Dr Hugh Niall said, “The take up of the
rights issue by existing shareholders together with participation
by North American investors has been very encouraging”.
“Whilst a small number of shareholders including the Victorian
State Government and Zenyth Therapeutics did not exercise
their rights, this was more than balanced by the involvement
of new overseas investors and strong demand for the stock.
This has resulted in an oversubscription of the issue”.
The CEO of Avexa, Dr Julian Chick said “I am delighted by
the support of our existing shareholders and the interest from
new local and US investors”.
In commenting further he said that “The funds will be used to
prepare for Avexa’s Phase III clinical trials of our lead compound
AVX754 which is for the treatment of patients infected with HIV
virus that has become resistant to existing drugs”.
AVX754 also known as apricitabine is currently in an
advanced Phase II clinical trial (Phase IIb) with the results of
this trial expected to be known in the second half of 2006”.
For further information, please contact:
Dr Hugh Niall Chairman Avexa Limited
+61 (0)419 331 788
Dr Jonathan Coates
Chief Scientific Officer Avexa Limited
+61 3 9208 4300
QSV Biologics, Ltd. Signs Supply
Contract with Tissue Therapies, Ltd. for
Manufacturing VitroGro® Components
22 March 2006 – QSV Biologics (QSV), Ltd. Edmonton,
Alberta, Canada, announced today that they have signed
a contract with a biomedical company, Tissue Therapies
Limited (ASX: TIS) for the process development and cGMP
manufacture of clinical quantities of some of the therapeutic
protein components of the VitroGro® platform for the
accelerated healing of burns. cGMP means Current Good
Manufacturing Practices - the quality level of production
required for human treatment. These are some of the essential
components of the VitroGro®, formulation that Tissue
Therapies will use in a clinical trial later this year. Under the
agreement, QSV will be responsible for technology transfer,
process development, scaling-up and cGMP production in
QSV’s manufacturing facility in Edmonton, Alberta. Terms of
the final manufacturing contract remain confidential.
Tissue Therapies Limited is an Australian company developing
biomedical technologies for wound healing, tissue regeneration
and various cell culture applications.
Dr. Graeme Macaloney, QSV Founder & CEO said: “We are
extremely pleased to be selected by Tissue Therapies to be
their GMP manufacturer of choice for these components.
The Tissue Therapies’ management and technical team
represent a top notch international organisation developing a
valuable therapeutic breakthrough for the treatment of burns
and related conditions. Working with an Australian-based
biopharmaceutical company represents a milestone for QSV
in extending our global presence and underscores the benefit
of the Health Canada Mutual Recognition Agreement with
Australia and other jurisdictions like the European Union”.
Medic Vision wins the Innovic, “Next Big
Thing AwardTM” for Innovation
30 May 2006 – Premier Bionics’ wholly owned subsidiary,
Medic Vision Pty Ltd (“Medic Vision”) is pleased to announce
that its own, fully developed Mediseus Epidural Simulator
has won the Innovic Next Big Thing Award. The 2006 Next
Big Thing AwardTM is a national competition to identify and
showcase new Australian products with the potential to
become the ‘next big thing’. This award recognises and
promotes Australian innovation and is a key event of the
2006 Australian Innovation Festival. The announcement
was made on Friday 25th May by the Governor of Victoria,
Professor David de Kretser, AO, in Melbourne.
Commenting on the award, Medic Vision CEO, Mr.
Ross Horley said, “The Mediseus Epidural Simulator is
a new innovative product in an emerging and rapidly
growing market of technology training products for health
professionals. Winning this award is recognition of the
creativity and ability of the Medic Vision team to identify real
product opportunities and execute our strategy of being at
the leading edge of this market”.
For further information:
Ross Horley, Managing Director, Medic Vision
Tel: 03 8508-8288 or 0400 209 899
Peter Marks, Chairman, Premier Bionics
Tel: 03 9824 8166
David Seal, Corporate Synergy
Tel: 00 11 44 207 448 4416
See www.premierbionics.com.au for more details.
See www.medicvision.com.au for more details.
Dr. Steven Mercer, Tissue Therapies CEO said: “We are
very happy to have established a commercial relationship
with QSV for the supply of essential GMP components for
our VitroGro® products. This agreement was the result of a
careful international assessment of potential suppliers, with
selection criteria including cGMP, technical and scientific
experience, quality of production facilities and international
health regulatory expertise. QSV impressed us in all these
areas, particularly with their professionalism and scientific and
regulatory expertise. We look forward to a long term, mutually
beneficial relationship.”
Dr. Mercer said “This represents an important milestone in
Tissue Therapies’ progress towards our objective of the early
release of approved products for burns and wound care,
incorporating the VitroGro® platform.”
For further information:
Richard Hetrick Director of Business Development
QSV Biologics Ltd
(780) 438 7143
www.qsvbiologics.com
33
ABIC 2006
Unlocking the potential of
Agricultural Biotechnology
Agricultural Biotechnology
International Conference
6 - 9 August 2006
Melbourne Convention Centre,
Victoria, Australia
Host Industry Body
34
Host State & Principal Sponsor
Conference Program
Sunday 6th August 2006
Welcome Reception and Trade Fair Opening - Melbourne Convention Centre
Monday 7th August 2006
Plenary – The importance of biotechnology in meeting global food requirements?
Plenary – Advances in livestock biotechnology
Plenary – The potential of aquacultural biotechnology to improve the world’s food resources
• Commercialisation of
innovative plant biotechnology
• Livestock Biotechnology
– Future Directions
• Aquacultural biotech and its future
contribution to world food production
• Practical applications of genomics
to cereal crops
• Livestock Genomics
• Innovative ways of using ag biotech
Cocktail Function
Tuesday 8th August 2006
Plenary – Progress towards transgenic livestock
Plenary – Using genes to improve food crops
Plenary – Improving Health and Nutrition through Agricultural Biotechnology
• Major Plant
Genome programs
• Livestock Cloning
and Reproduction
• New wave technologies
and applications
• Battling the Elements
– abiotic stress resistance
• Investing in Ag Bio
• The Australian/New Zealand Showcase
– Opportunities for international collaboration
and investment
Conference Dinner
Wednesday 9th August 2006
Panel Session – The last decade: How has agricultural biotechnology helped our society?
Panel Session – Visionaries Caucus: Where will the agricultural biotechnology breakthroughs come in the 21st Century?
• Biotechnology in
Developing Countries
• Advances in Molecular
Marker Technology
• The Regulation of
Transgenic Technology
• Ten Years of Cotton
• Helping the Environment
• Markets and Trade
• Communications in Ag Bio
– How do we get the right
message out
• Risk Management and Path to
Commercialisation of
Transgenic crops
• Government and Policy
Closing Ceremony – Handover to next ABIC Conference
The Agricultural Biotechnology
International Conference (ABIC)
is the major global conference for
agricultural biotechnology. First held
in 1996 in Canada by the ABIC
Foundation, Melbourne Australia will
host the first conference to be staged
in the Southern Hemisphere. The
Victorian State Government as Principal
Sponsor and Host State and AusBiotech,
as the Host Industry Body invites you to
join the ABIC Foundation at ABIC2006
from 6 – 9 August 2006.
For more information on ABIC2006
please visit www.abic2006.org
35
AusBioINTERNATIONAL
Biotech without Borders
February heralded a very big week for
New Zealand’s biotechnology sector, with
NZBio’s second international conference
and the launch of New Thinking 06.
The week kicked off with NZBio’s “Biotech without Borders”
Conference on 27 February. This year’s theme reflected the
fact that biotechnology is now expanding across a number
of dimensions, and that traditional and conceptual borders
are quickly disappearing.
For countries like Australia and New Zealand, it means that
our remote geography is less of an issue than ever before.
As a result of advances in communication technologies
and expanding international networks, physical proximity
is becoming less important.
What is critical is the ability to partner effectively with the
generators of breakthrough ideas and knowledge.
Industry borders are also disappearing. Over the last 20 years
the business of developing new human therapeutics based
on novel proteins has attracted a lot of attention. Advances
in the agricultural and industrial segments have been much
slower and achieving returns has been far more challenging.
We are now moving into an era where new offerings are
bringing together technologies from across the spectrum.
Examples of this include bioactives and functional foods for
health and wellness, biofuels from specialist crops and new
biopolymers for use in foods and healthcare.
Simon Carroll
Chairman, AusBiotech
The borders between scientific disciplines
continue to disappear as we move towards
a more comprehensive understanding of
systems biology. Similarly, where science
and commerce were once quite distinct
activities, the linkages and dependencies
between the two are now strengthening.
These disappearing borders bring opportunities for Australia
and New Zealand to exploit our unique blend of agriculture,
industry and world class health research, build on our
diversity, take advantage of being small and agile, and
leverage our reputation as good international partners.
Many of the sessions in the NZBio Conference were based
around traditional biotechnology segments, but they also
profiled what is distinct and interesting about New Zealand’s
broad view of the scope of possibilities.
The Convergence Meeting on Wednesday 1 March built
on the borderless theme, by focussing on technologies
developed from mixing biotechnology with information
technology, materials science, agriculture and advanced
engineering. This is a very busy and interesting space and the
Convergence Meeting was one of the highlights of the week.
A one-day seminar on ‘go to market’ strategies for
technology companies completed the week. Presented
by Paul Wiefels of the Silicon Valley Chasm Institute, the
seminar was relevant to all technology-based businesses
and attracted participants from a wide range of private firms,
institutions and research organisations.
NZBio’s Conference, the Convergence Meeting and Crossing
the Chasm seminar formed part of a wider programme of
activities under the New Thinking banner. In partnership with
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, New Thinking 06 aimed
to create opportunities to benefit from cross-overs between
meetings being run at the same venue during the week by
Incubators New Zealand and the Kiwi Expatriate Association.
Biotechnology without Borders built on the success of last
years’ inaugural event, while adding some new dimensions
to increase the richness of the mix, and in doing so created
what we believe was an exceptionally valuable programme.
paekakariki-hill, New Zealand.
36
Brian Ward
CEO, NZBio
The French medical technology
industry in the vanguard of innovation
With several major innovations to its credit, the French medical
technology industry can be proud of its dynamic international
profile. Over 20% of the projects supported by the French
national council for the promotion of research in industry
(Oséo-ANVAR) concern breakthrough innovations, i.e. Global
or European firsts. Its cutting-edge medical technology has
now placed France in the forefront of quality healthcare.
A few words about SNITEM
Cardiovascular medicine entered a new era with the
advent of drug-eluting medical devices (prostheses that
also release a drug). The new generation of coronary stents
is a typical example: these metal-mesh “tubes” don’t
only preserve arterial patency, they also release an active
substance that prevents restenosis (recurrence of arterial
lumen narrowing).
SNITEM membership includes over 200 member firms,
ranging from small and medium-sized manufacturers to large
French companies and international groups, all serving a
highly diversified platform of needs in healthcare technology
and medical devices. SNITEM accounts for 85% of the total
turnover in this industry.
Parkinson’s disease is now treated at deep-brain level
using electric neurostimulation where electrodes implanted in
the brain are connected via a subcutaneous wire to a small
pulse generator inserted just below the clavicle.
Surgical robots coupled to 3D simulators allow surgeons
to practise and refine the most complex surgical procedures.
The main innovations involved in this system are an artificial
wrist and a 3D camera. Sitting at the workstation, the
surgeon uses a set of finger controls to manipulate the
surgical instruments and perform “virtual” surgery. His
motions are analysed and, after any hand tremor has been
filtered out, translated to the robot’s articulated arms in
contact with the patient.
In the field of disabilities, industrial innovation is enhanced
by medical partnerships. For instance, the technological
innovation centre of the Garches hospital provides
manufacturers with its clinical expertise and evaluation
protocols to help them develop new technical solutions (stairclimbing wheelchair, puff-controlled alarm device...).
Interventional radiology has changed radiologists into
therapists. In this broad field, their role ranges from nodule
aspiration (biopsy, sampling) to the complex treatments of
vascular or tumoral lesions in various organs. These imagingguided procedures use minimally-invasive techniques and are
usually performed under local anaesthesia.
Telemedicine is a new approach that improves diabetic
retinopathy screening and optimises cardiac-patient
monitoring and follow-up.
Neonatology uses increasingly sophisticated and efficient
equipment in varied fields, including heating and humidifying
devices or nosocomial infection prevention technologies for
incubators and paediatric transport.
SNITEM is a professional organisation that draws together
the greater part of the medical technologies and devices
industry. Set up in 1987, it is the first employer’s association
in France to represent companies in this business sector and
is the representative the authorities liaise with and refer to.
Contact:
Marelle Sassine
French Trade Commission
Level 35, St Martins Tower 31 Market Street, Sydney 2000
Tel:
61 2 9287 9225 Fax: 61 2 9264 5988
105801_RMIT_x3_AusB Page 1 16/5/06 11:44 AM
RMIT POSTGRADUATE SCIENCE FOR THE REAL WORLD
Mid year places are available for July 2006 start in the following
programs:
➔ Master in Biotechnology & Business (incorporating Grad Dip and
Grad Cert)
➔ Graduate Diploma in Bioinformatics- NEW for 2006
➔ Graduate Diploma in Biomolecular Technologies- NEW for 2006
Contact:
A/Prof Gina Nicoletti
Phone 9925 7143 or 9925 2133 or email [email protected]
➔ Master of Biotechnology (incorporating Graduate Diploma and
Graduate Certificate) with specialisations in:
➔ Clinical Microbiology
➔ Food Microbiology
➔ Food Science & Technology
Contact:
A/Prof Margaret Deighton
Phone: 9925 7123 or email
[email protected]
➔ Master, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate in Occupational
Health and Safety
Contact:
Mr Leo Ruschena
Phone 9925 7472 or email
[email protected]
Visit www.rmit.edu.au/midyear for details. Make 2006 the year to
build the career you want.
hmaBlaze 105801
➔ www.rmit.edu.au
37
AusBioINTERNATIONAL
New crop salt
tolerance project
links Australia
and France
Researchers from the Australian Centre for Plant Functional
Genomics (ACPFG) have received a grant to work on salttolerant crops with French researchers.
The grant will allow Australian researchers to work at
the French Agricultural Research Centre for International
Development (CIRAD), and French researchers to work
at the ACPFG.
Dr Emmanuel Guiderdoni from CIRAD will come to Adelaide
in August, while ACPFG researchers Dr Alex Johnson, Dr
Olivier Cotsaftis and Professor Mark Tester will head to
Montpellier later this year.
The grant also provides for French and Australian PhD
students to exchange research institutions for up to six
months. The joint research project is investigating genes
involved in plants’ responses to salt, knowledge that could
ultimately result in salt-tolerant crops. “This project is
just the first of what we hope will be several collaborations
between CIRAD and the ACPFG,” Dr Johnson said. The
grant is through the Australian Government’s FrenchAustralian Science and Technology (FAST) Programme, part
of the International Science Linkages Programme.
The FAST Programme
The objective of FAST is to promote and support scientific
and technological cooperation between Australian and
French researchers in both public and private sectors.
FAST will provide financial assistance, on a competitive
basis, for small, strategically-focussed workshops and for
collaborative research projects in leading edge areas of
research that seek support for eligible activities and which
meet the objectives of the ISL programme.
Workshops: the programme will support the following
expenses:
• the international travel and living expenses associated with
participation in the workshop;
•all workshop related organisational and logistical costs.
Research Projects: the programme will support the following
expenses for projects spanning up to three years:
•the international travel and living expenses associated
with participation in the research project.
Facts About The Grant
Funded by: the French-Australian Science and Technology
(FAST) Programme element of the International Sciences
Linkages (ISL) Programme
Project title: Utilization of a cell type-specific transgene
expression system in rice to investigate salinity tolerance
mechanisms in cereals
Project duration: 1/8/2006 to 1/10/2008
Collaboration: The project is a collaboration between
ACPFG and CIRAD (Centre de coopération Internationale en
Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement), a national
research institute in Montpellier, France. Project members
are Alex Johnson (Australian project manager), Mark Tester
(Australian project partner) and Emmanuel Guiderdoni
(French project manager)
Amount funded: $35,000 for the Australian side of the
collaboration, equivalent amount given by the French
government for their side.
www.acptg.com.au
Salt tolerance researchers from the Australian side of the FAST grant
(from left) Dr Alex Johnson, Dr Olivier Cotsaftis, Professor Mark Tester and PhD
student Darren Plett
38
AusBioEVENTS
AusBiotech CEO Forum 2006
Proudly Sponsored by
CEO Forum: Deals,
Risks & Compliance –
It can be windy at the top!
Summary of Speakers
Dr Jurgen Michaelis, CEO BioInnovation SA
and Dr Anna Lavelle, CEO AusBiotech
May 14 – 16 2006, Marriott Hotel, Gold Coast.
Focused on the future would easily sum up the total of a
roomful of Biotech CEO’s and top management at the recent
AusBiotech CEO Forum. Their combined skills and energy
contributed to some exciting discussions and debates on the
way forward for the Biotech industry in Australia.
Robin complimented the depth of management and
excellence of science in the Australian biotech industry and
felt the access to capital for Australian biotechs could be
improved on by:
Dr Anna Lavelle of AusBiotech took great pleasure in
introducing an outstanding line up of speakers ensuring
some excellent presentations. Steve Meller, Head of Global
Bioscience Business Development of Procter & Gamble
gave the delegates much food for thought on market
opportunities. Our own Australian of the Year Professor Ian
Frazer highlighted the fascinating HPV vaccine story, with all
the bumps encountered along the way.
• Go Global – find the right partner, not the nearest
Igor Gonda facilitated some lively discussion and debate on
Biotech Partnering with Global Organisations ably assisted by
John Young Pfizer and David Kwasha of Actelion.
The afternoon War Stories Session proved very useful and
were directed by Dr Ian Nisbet and Sue MacLeman, who
invited an inspired discussion on mergers and acquisitions,
licensing, capital, the mechanics of a deal, Board/CEO
relations. It was an open floor forum where everyone was
encouraged to contribute, complain and compliment. Some
useful pointers arose from this session for both early-start
biotechs and those who’ve experienced the longer haul.
Several issues were identified as key areas of attention:
• Access to Capital
• Access to Human Resources:
> Management expertise
> Research & Development skills
• Support of Innovation to Commercialisation
• Appropriate service industry relationships
• Strategic linkages with international organisations
•Awareness of Australia as a source of innovation
and cutting edge science
The latter point was raised loud and clear by guest speaker
Robin Wright, Head of Corporate Advisory Services of
Intersuisse Bioscience, based in London. Robin highlighted
that the Australian Biotech industry did not often register
on the Biotech screen in Europe, it was considered a
disadvantaged market due to the factors of distance, time
and being a relatively small market in global terms.
•Start Early – tell potential partners that you have things
coming, before you need them
• Keep your promises, and communicate that you have
• Recognise that you can compete with anybody
Brian Anker of State Development gave an excellent dinner
address, outlining how the AusBiotech CEO Forum offered
an excellent opportunity for industry and government to
work together for the common good of the Biotech industry.
Peter Riddles of Perkins Resources shared some amusing
anecdotes with the delegates during dinner.
The final panel session for the morning was ably facilitated
by Dr Roland Scollay of Metabolic who hosted a panel
discussion with Dr Jurgen Michaelis of Terra Rossa Capital,
Dr Michael Hirshorn of Nanyang Innovation Fund and
Dr Michael Panaccio of Starfish Ventures. This gave all
the delegates food for thought on accessing smart money,
one of the major obstacles faced by industry today.
Professor Paul Greenfield of UQ gave our final presentation
prior to lunch on early stage development and had much
experience to draw on with an excellent presentation.
Dr Anna Lavelle firstly thanked the offices of State
Development, Trade and Innovation for their very generous
three year program, together with Clayton Utz, in support of
the AusBiotech CEO Forum.
Anna went on to thank the CEO community –both speakers
and delegates for giving of their valuable time to contribute
to the CEO Forum program, it was agreed much had been
learnt in a compact, precise program within a mutually
beneficial environment, which could only ensure the continuing
development of the Biotech industry in Australia, both locally
and overseas.
Copies of selected CEO Forum speaker presentations are
available on our website www.ausbiotech.org
Queensland Government will sponsor the next CEO forum
on the Gold Coast in 2007 and will build on the success of
this years event. South Australia has agreed to sponsor a
national business development forum to be held in Adelaide
late February 2007.
39
AusBioEVENTS
ABIC2006
Spotlight on Melbourne for the Agbiotech
conference of the year.
The conference features international speakers, public events
showcasing important agbiotech issues, interactive panel
discussions and a major exhibition with over 80 exhibitors.
Many of the sessions at ABIC2006 will discuss the future of
food, for example Dr Jennifer Thomson, Head of Department
of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town will
discuss meeting global food requirements.
Aquaculture will be discussed by Professor Yonathan Zohar
from the Centre for Marine Biotechnology, University of
Maryland and Dr Wayne Knibb from Bribie Island Aquaculture
Research Centre in Australia.
The last day of the conference will provide thought-provoking
reflections on what has been achieved in agricultural
biotechnology over the past decade with Dr Derek Russell,
National Resources Institute, UK and Prof Jennifer Thomson
More than 1000 experts from 30 countries
are expected to attend the Agricultural
Biotechnology International Conference
(ABIC) 2006, in Melbourne, Australia,
August 6-9.
ABIC2006 brings together the world’s top academic
institutes, companies conducting leading-edge research and
government agencies working in the sector.
ABIC is the major global conference for agricultural
biotechnology. First held in 1996 in Canada by the ABIC
Foundation, its goal is to ensure ongoing opportunities for
continuous learning and networking within the agbiotech
community. AusBiotech is proud to host the conference along
with the Victorian State Government as the Principal Sponsor.
The theme of ABIC2006 is “unlocking the potential of
agricultural biotechnology”. The conference will focus on
innovation and commercialisation, the two processes that
must go together to take smart ideas to the market.
40
Delegates will also have the chance to consider the type of
breakthroughs that will come in the 21st Century with input
from Dr Juergen Logemann, BASF Germany who will be
joined by Prof Steve Wesselingh, Burnett Institute, Australia
and Prof Graham Mitchell, Foursight Associates, Australia.
Australia is a good fit for ABIC2006, as Australia is an
international leader in agricultural biotechnology with
research strength in areas such as high-nutritional pasturegrasses, livestock and crop genomics, avian influenza and
freshwater aquaculture.
Registration for ABIC2006 can be carried out online
www.abic2006.org
Registration costs A$1,320 for delegates, $990 for
academics, $495 for students.
Full details about the program are available from
the ABIC website.
Looking Ahead
to Sydney 2006
By highlighting opportunities and tackling
issues constructively, AusBiotech 2005
demonstrated a successful formula for
future conferences.
“The delegates were able to reach many, many people through
a number of forums,” said Dr Rathjen, Bionomics’ CEO.
“Through the staging management for evolving biotech
companies panel discussion, the theranostics stream and the
partnering and investor forum we estimate that we reached
almost, if not all, participants at AusBiotech - approximately
1000 people.”
Many international delegations have already indicated that
they will increase their presence at AusBiotech 2006 –
Dr Lavelle hopes to make the November conference in
Sydney larger and even more successful.
4428_Ausbio postcard DL
10/11/05
5:21 PM
Page 2
“We would like to give people a more informed choice
about which partnering sessions they would like to go to,”
said Dr Lavelle.
Dr Lavelle acknowledges the work of the organising
committees and expressed a desire to encourage more
involvement by students who will be the future faces of
Australia’s biotechnology industry.
The aim, above all, is to maintain the high quality of speakers
and international plenaries. The plenary speakers for 2006
include senior investment and business development
professionals such as Mike McCully, Director & Senior Analyst,
Recombent Capital USA.
AusBioEVENTS
A Look Back at
Perth 2005
AusBiotech National
Conference 2005
With 1000 participants from 24 countries, AusBiotech 2005
delivered on its focus: “Linking the Region”.
“Our aim was to encourage as many countries as possible
to come to Australia and recognise the benefit of doing
business here,” said Dr Anna Lavelle, AusBiotech’s CEO.
Sponsored by the WA state government, the conference
was opened by then, State Premier Dr Geoff Gallop and the
Minister for State Development (now new Premier of
WA), Dr Alan Carpenter.
“Biotechnology is one of the most globally important,
rapidly growing industries of the 21st century,” said
Dr Gallop. “It is an industry with enormous potential.”
Signing of a Memmorandum of Understanding with Korea – BAK
“The quality of the participants and the presentations
was excellent,” said Dr Deborah Rathjen, the CEO of
Bionomics Ltd.
“But also on the business side it was very active and
productive. Many of the large pharma companies and top
biotechs sent their business teams from the US, Europe
and Japan.”
“The Western Australian Government recognises the
importance of the industry to the development of the State
and is committed to supporting its growth into the future.”
Two countries – Singapore and Korea – formalised their
relationship with Australia’s biotechnology sector by signing
Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with AusBiotech,
forging new, strategic partnerships.
Emerging biotech powerhouses – India, China and Korea
– were represented alongside more established regional
‘hubs’: Singapore and Japan.
The MOU provided for information to be exchanged about
training, sources of financing and products as part of wider,
co-operative agreements.
“Our proximity to Singapore and other Asian cities was
very important in terms of ‘Linking the Region’,” said
Dr Ian Edwards, the chair of the conference.
“Memoranda are an important step in the direction of
relationship building, and leveraging regional connections”
said Dr Lavelle.
“Our organising committee put their heart and soul into it.
They pulled up their sleeves and worked very hard to make
sure the sessions, forums and other activities went well.
We were very pleased with the feedback.”
“By exchanging information and building trust you can
strengthen your relationship with key countries in the region,
bringing a bottom line benefit for businesses and the industry
as a whole.”
The conference offered networking, industry briefings and
business partnering at a number of different levels. Over
140 speakers took the opportunity to share their expertise
at the formal plenary sessions or as part of the Investment
Partnering Forum.
Calling Australia “a powerhouse of innovation”, she said
the conference played an important role in raising awareness
of the expertise different countries have to offer.
42
“Our conference gave Japan the opportunity to say that
they are open for business and are interested in talking to
Australians about potential partnering arrangements. They
were very happy with the opportunities offered.”
Individual companies have also given positive feedback.
Dr Rathjen said the combination of panel sessions and
targeted partnering gave her the opportunity to present
her company as dynamic and innovative.
“There was a level of awareness created regarding
developing and emerging capabilities in the Asia Pacific
region. I think there is clearly an opportunity to forge links
between Australia/ New Zealand and India.”
“In the past year, Bionomics has come through two
acquisitions and now operates in three different locations:
Adelaide, Melbourne and Europe. We have changed from
having no marketed products to owning our first marketed
product and substantial licensing agreements.”
India signed an MOU with AusBiotech last year. Similarities in
legal systems together with a common language – English –
are proving to be an advantage in developing the partnership.
“We were able to get our message out there and make new
companies aware of what we do. We were also able to
continue the dialogue that we have ongoing with a number
of major companies. It was very productive for us.”
Similarly, countries throughout the Asia Pacific region saw
the conference as an opportunity to showcase their expertise
and forge international partnerships.
Keynote speaker, Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw – a biotech
entrepreneur once called “India’s Mother of Invention” by
the New York Times – said the conference showed that there
are vibrant, dynamic biotechnology communities outside
North America.
“India also has a strong manufacturing base which Australia
does not have,” said Dr Lavelle.
“Australia and India complement each other in terms
of capabilities,” said Dr Mazumdar-Shaw.
“Australia/New Zealand need to forward integrate in
developing their discovery programs through scale up
manufacturing and clinical development. India needs to
backward integrate into discovery research.”
“There is a mutual benefit in linking India and Australia
in the area of drug development.”
This idea is being progressed at present with India in terms
of developing strong regional links that have a strong
commercial focus.
“It was successful because it made participants realize that
there are exciting opportunities outside the biotech ‘Mecca’
– the USA,” she said.
43
AusBioSTATES
Victoria
Queensland
After a hiatus of twelve plus months, the Victoria Branch
Committee of AusBiotech was re-established in late 2005.
The Queensland Committee for 2006 have started an
ambitious and action packed calendar of events for the year
– which will be staged through the Breakfast Series, Workshop
Series, ClubBio2006, BioPharma Careers Event and the
BioFutures Science Boot camp to ensure all spectrums of our
Biotech members interests are catered for. In addition, we will
be co-hosting a number of events during the year.
A key driver in setting up the composition of the re-established
Victoria Branch Committee was to ensure a broad crosssection of the key areas within the Australian Biotechnology
Industry sector were covered.
Committee members include:• Igor Gonda
• Sue MacLeman (EQiTX)
• Jonathan Sanders (Monash Commercial)
• Nick Gatsios (Teraform Ventures & Healthlinks)
• Craig Newton (Cynata)
• David Hudson (SGA Solutions)
• Ric DeGaris (Kendle)
with secretariat support coming from AusBiotech.
The priority areas that will be the focus of Victoria Branch
Committee going forwards include:
• c
reating a sustainable environment for funding in the
Biotechnology sector
• b
uilding and strengthening government relationships
to ensure ongoing support of the Biotechnology sector
moving forward
• p
roviding professional development and up-skilling of the
Biotechnology Industry workforce through events and
workshops
• improving/increasing our profile as an Industry
• leveraging strengths and providing representation for all
Australian Biotechnology Sectors
• c
ollaborating with and uniting the key stakeholders
/ groups of the Biotechnology Industry sector to put
Australian Biotechnology on the ‘world map’
A number of events have been held or are planned for 2006.
A ‘Welcome to 2006’ Reception was held at Monash in
early February and bimonthly CEO Forums are being held
across 2006 at which topics of interest will be presented/
discussed. ‘Commercialisation of Biotechnology: Hidden
risks for Directors and Officers’ is a seminar that was held
on 25 May 2006 (details are on the AusBiotech website),
whilst an ‘Early Stage Money’ event is in the initial stages of
planning.
Another very important event that will be occurring in
Melbourne later in the year is ABIC (6-9 August, 2006). Plans
are well underway in relation to this international conference
and early indicators are that it will be very successful. We
look forward to welcoming many national and international
attendees to Melbourne for this important conference.
44
The Queensland branch under the chairmanship of Trevor
Neville of TranZition Recruitment, assisted by the vice-chair
James Cameron of McCullough Robertson will guarantee a
first class array of events are on offer for its members.
Our first Breakfast for the year was hosted on 22 February
at the delightful Hillstone St Lucia Golf Club, to start off the
AusBiotech Ernst & Young Breakfast Series. We had Dr Ian
Nisbet, CEO of Meditech as our guest speaker, sharing his
wealth of experience under the topic of : “From Millennium to
Meditech – a great journey but a bumpy road”. His frank and
open discussion was much appreciated by the members.
Don’t believe your own BS was the most telling message to
take home!
We hosted a second Breakfast in April at Victoria Park Golf
Club, addressing “Deal making in the US and what Australian
Biotechnology Companies need to do to Create and Validate
Value”. This was a hard hitting address by Dr Gary Sams of
Digene US and Michael Aldridge of Peplin, who had a great
depth of experience and advice that they were willing to share.
June and July will be busy months – with the first of our
Workshop Series on 15 June under the popular topic of “Fuel
the Fire – Capital Raising in 2006”. The committee have lined up
four top speakers to address the topic from the legal, financial,
vc and CEO perspective - we anticipate this Workshop will be
oversubscribed as it touches on so many hot issues.
Our third Ernst & Young Breakfast Series will be hosted on
5 July where the 3 new CEO’s on the block Neil Leggett of
Agenix, Justus Homburg of Progen and Paul Nitz of Panbio,
will be invited to give their fresh approach from a battlehardened industry perspective.
The Biofutures Science Week - a Queensland initiative
developed over the previous 5 years, will be hosted during
the last week of June, it offers 80 senior secondary school
students throughout Queensland the opportunity to further
their interest in biotechnology and biomedical engineering and
to experience university life. The Biofutures Committee and
mentors are all members of the cross-institutional Australian
Biotechnology Students Association (ABSA). Planned for
the forum are talks by leading bioscience professionals from
throughout Australia, a public Biofutures Hypothetical and
Keynote Address, hands-on workshops, forums, social events
and careers seminars. A highlight for Queensland in 2006
promises to be the Keynote Address which shall be given by
Dr Sue McCoard, the recipient of the 2005 NZBIO Emerging
Biotechnologist of the Year Award.
The Queensland Biotech diary would not be complete
without our annual Conference. ClubBio2006 will be held
Thursday 21 and Friday 22 September with a tremendous
range of Session topics: Biologics, Finance Strategies,
Commercialisation, VETBio and Clinical Trials. The committee
has put together a great program at the Hyatt Regency
Resort at the Sanctuary Cove, Gold Coast. ClubBio2006
– “Breaking the Barriers”
We look forward to welcoming old and new members alike to
the AusBiotech Queensland Branch events. Visit the website
www.ausbiotech.org for up to date information on events.
AusBiotech wishes to thank Fiona Smith for her tremendous
efforts in promoting Biotech in Queensland through the
Queensland branch. Fiona will take up a new position at
IMBCom. We welcome Anne Hartshorne-Smith as the
new Development Officer for the Queensland branch.
Tasmanian
Biotech Business over Breakfast
In conjunction with the Tasmanian Government’s
Department of Economic Development and the University
of Tasmania, AusBiotech Tas Branch held a very successful
event late in 2005 titled ‘Biotech Business over Breakfast’.
Thirty-five researchers and industry professionals attended
the event at the picturesque Elizabeth Street Pier in Hobart.
Presentations were given by Dr Graham Mitchell, one of
Victoria’s Chief Scientists, CEO of Foursight Associates Pty
Ltd and TIAB member, A/Prof Adrian West, co-leader of
the NeuroRepair Group and Head of Molecular Biology at
the University of Tasmania, and Mr Brian Chung, Product
Development Manager, Botanical Resources Australia.
Dr Mitchell spoke of the exciting future opportunities in the
biotech space in Australia. This presentation was followed
by A/Prof West’s account of the work of his research
group and the steps they are considering regarding
commercialisation of their findings. Mr Chung gave an
overview of Botanical Resources Australia, highlighting the
importance of diversification and R&D for business.
Committee at Tasmanian Alkaloids
Marinova specialises in the extraction of bioactive
compounds from the seaweed Undaria pinnatifida harvested
from Tasmania’s pristine waters. See our AusBioFEATURE
on page 11.
The committee would like to thank both Dr James Miller
(Tasmanian Alkaloids) and Mr Paul Garrott (Marinova) for
arranging the tour of their respective operations.
South Australia
2005 Wrap Up
The South Australian Branch wrapped up a very successful year
with “Jingle Balls on the Green”; an opportunity for members to
network and enjoy a game of petanque or lawn bowls.
October saw the last of our successful series of BioBreakfast
meetings for 2005. Dr Dudley Pinnock, Director, Microbial
Products Pty Ltd spoke to us about the “Business of Bugs”.
Dr Pinnock took us through the journey of the formation
and development of Microbial Products and the regulatory
barriers to be overcome when introducing a new technology
and the tribulations of organising trials.
Earlier in October Dr Rob Morrison gave a presentation titled
“Trust me – I’m a Science Communicator”. Dr Morrison
explained how to communicate complex scientific concepts
to the media, how to deal with the media and make them
work for you!
During the morning, Dr Anthony Koutoulis, Chair of the
Tasmanian Branch of AusBiotech, presented Mr Matthew
Miller from the University of Tasmania and CSIRO Marine &
Atmospheric Research, with the AusBiotech State ABSA
Student Award. Mr Miller received the award for his work
on ‘Alternate sources of dietary oil for Atlantic salmon
grown under Australian conditions.’ This is the first time that
Tasmania has participated in these awards.
2006 – Looking Ahead
The Tasmanian Branch Committee was thrilled to be invited
to tour two of the state’s most exciting biotech businesses;
Tasmanian Alkaloids and Marinova.
In conjunction with the Pharmaceutical Sciences group of
RACI, the South Australian Branch also held a workshop
on “Risk Assessment in GMP”. The therapeutics industry is
undergoing profound changes in its approach to regulatory
compliance. The presenters, Steve Williams and Dr Phillip
Marshall will discuss the application of pharmaceutical risk
management as it applies to quality systems and compliance.
Located in northern Tasmania, Tasmanian Alkaloids
manufactures controlled substances providing medicinal
opiates from poppy varieties grown in Tasmania. See our
AusBioFEATURE on page 12.
The South Australian Branch are planning a return of the
BioBreakfast series in 2006; which commenced in February
with Dr Mike Hirshorm providing some insights to technology
commercialisation from a VC’s perspective. This was followed
in March by Dr Tom Duthy with a presentation on The
Dynamics of Biotech and the Equity Capital Markets: A Love
/ Hate Relationship.
45
AusBioSTATES
Three more breakfast have been scheduled for the
winter months:
Tues 27 June
Dr Hugh Niall, CEO Australian Stem Cell Centre
“Ten Years In Geneland with Gun and Camera”
Thurs 20 July
John Riemelmoser, Safety Medical Products Ltd
“Grab Your Lifejackets – We’re Floating” – A personal
perspective on a company float stock exchange
Thurs 24 August
Craig Cormick, Manager of Public Awareness,
Biotechnology Australia “Cloning in Hollywood”
Committee News
We sincerely thank Peter Bradley who has stepped down as
Branch Chair and Executive Officer after more than 2 years in
the role. Under Peter’s direction and enthusiasm AusBiotech
in South Australia is recognised as delivering quality events
relevant to the membership’s needs.
Dr Anne Collins will be stepping into the role of Chair and Alison
Bowman has been appointed as SA Development Officer.
We also thank Catherine Hustwick who has stepped down
from the committee and welcome Kea Dent.
New South Wales
The NSW Branch is proud to be hosting the 2006
AusBiotech Conference – Bridging Innovation & Investment
– and look forward to welcoming colleagues and guests
to a truly international event for the Asia-Pacific region.
With almost 700 members across NSW, the Branch, its
Committee and the special interest group advisory committee
for the NSW Medical Device Network remain dedicated to
delivering for the benefits of its members. Special networking
events and business seminars, showcasing and presentation
opportunities, as well as industry development issues are all
part of the program of interest for NSW into 2006.
In March 2006, the NSW Branch was pleased to host two
expert professors from the Fraunhofer Institute, with an
itinerary of specialist meetings planned to showcase the
research and corporate strengths of NSW biotechnology.
(A more indepth article on the visit follows.)
During 2006, the NSW Branch will continue to develop
programs for members covering Mentoring and Student
work placement. Members will be pleased to note that other
business development opportunities will also be offered, as
they arise.
The NSW Branch Committee and the Medical Device Network
advisory committee will also be seeking new, enthusiastic
representatives from industry, research and education
members to contribute to the ongoing development of the
Branch’s agenda. Of major focus in 2006 will, of course, be
the AusBiotech Conference 2006 and early planning is already
showing the wealth of biotech in the state to be on show
during the Conference.
Hamish Hawthorn NSW Branch Chair
46
From the rooftop at the CRC for Asthma [from left] Vikki Hine (DSRD/
AusBiotech), Prof Norbert Berend (Woolcock Institute of Medical
Research), Philip Bert (CRC for Asthma), Dr Jurgen Borlak (Fraunhofer),
Corinne Turner (DSRD) and Dr Uwe Heinrich (Fraunhofer)
Fraunhofer Institute Visits Sydney, March 2006
First steps to cooperative scientific progress
The NSW Branch of AusBiotech was delighted to recently
host a visiting delegation from the Fraunhofer Institute’s
Life Sciences Alliance and Institute of Toxicology and
Experimental Medicine in Germany.
The Fraunhofer Life Sciences Alliance (VLS) pools the
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s competencies in biology,
biomedicine, pharmacology, and toxicology. Following the
common principle of “Research for human health and the
environment”, the Fraunhofer Institutes offer concentrated
expertise both in the preventive areas of environmental and
consumer protection and also in the regenerative areas of
medical therapy and ecological recovery.
The Alliance identifies ways to preserve human health
and the environment in an industrialised world. In addition,
it develops methods of disease diagnosis and therapy and
environmental cleanup.
The visit featured Professors Dr. Uwe Heinrich Chairman
Fraunhofer Life Sciences Alliance and Managing Director
Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine,
Professor for Toxicology and Aerosol Research at the
Medical School of Hannover with Dr. Jurgen Borlak Director
Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine
and Chair in Pharmaco- and Toxicogenomics at the Medical
School of Hannover.
The purpose of the visit was to explore possible opportunities
for joint research and other collaborations between NSW
biotech researchers and the Fraunhofer Institute. The itinerary
of meetings featured visits to the Cooperative Research
Centre for Asthma (with Philip Bert, CEO and Prof Norbert
Berend, Director at the Woolcock Institute of Medical
Research, a partner in the CRC for Asthma; Proteome
Systems (Keith Williams, Founder and Nicolle Packer, Head
of Glycoproteomics); Pharmaxis (Ian McDonald, Chief
Technical Officer); ATP Innovations (Hamish Hawthorn,
Director Life Sciences and Mark Bradley, CEO); the University
of NSW and the Garvan Institute’s G2 (Fabienne Mackay).
The visit was an excellent opportunity to profile some of the
premier biotech research and commercial organisations in
NSW, confirming for the Fraunhofer that NSW is indeed a
wealth of biotech expertise. The meetings also confirmed the
potential benefits of developing collaborative relations with
the Fraunhofer Institute and it is hoped that there will be a
return visit, to coincide with the AusBiotech Conference in
Sydney in November 2006.
For further information, please contact
[email protected]
Western Australia
Congratulations to our local researchers Barry Marshall
and Robin Warren who were awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology and Medicine.
The WA Branch has had a very busy time over the past few
months. We have seen the election of a new Premier – the
Hon Alan Carpenter who has created a new portfolio in his
government. Headed up by the Hon Francis Logan MLA,
Minister for Science & Innovation, this new portfolio will
specifically target the biotech sector in WA.
WA AusBiotech branch co-Chairs, Janet Preuss and David
Cox attended BIO2006 and assisted with the running of
the WA Industry Booth. There was lots of interest in WA
companies and also the wonderful WA wines that were
available for tasting. Led by Premier Alan Carpenter, the WA
contingent consisted of over 50 delegates with many WA
companies exhibiting
Noble Laureate Dr Barry Marshall accompanied the WA
Government delegation and attended many high profile
meetings with the Premier. Barry even had a special punch
created in his honour. The Pylori Punch which turned out to
be a hit with the West Australian biotechnology delegation
in Chicago.
Event Highlights
Welcome to the New Year. This event was held on the
8th of February and was very well attended. Thank you to
our sponsors Philips Fox and our guest speaker Pauline
4428_Ausbio postcard DL 10/11/05 5:21 PM Page 1
Charman of Murdoch College, who gave a talk on the
specialist biotechnology program run by the college this year.
4428_Ausbio postcard DL
10/11/05
5:21 PM
A CEO Breakfast Forum was held on the 8th of March. The
special guest speaker was the Hon Francis Logan, Minister
for Science & Innovation. The Minister took the opportunity
to discuss the new portfolio and its implications for the WA
biotechnology industry.
Other events that were also well attended and well received
were; The Practical Side of IP – 29th March and Recent
Developments in Biotech Law and IP Licensing “Stuff Ups”
17 May.
Thank you again to all our supporters and sponsors Wray &
Associates, Pitchfork Winery, the Department of Industry &
Resources and MinterEllison.
The WA Branch appreciates the support of all our WA
members, non-member associates and our sponsors.
For further information contact:
Helen Cheeseman – Branch Executive Officer 08 9470 1212
[email protected]
Stephen Carter Director and David Sparling, General Manager
– Solbec Pharmaceuticals.
Page 2
47
AusBioNICHE
Student member
news: Henry Ko
wins grant from
the Foundation for
Young Australians
Individual Grant
ABSA paper at the 9th
International Conference
on Public Communication
of Science and Technology
(PCST9) in Seoul, Korea
AusBiotech Australian Biotechnology Students Association
(ABSA) were selected to present a paper entitled “Nurturing
the scientific leaders of tomorrow: Engaging the youth
of today” at the 9th International Conference on Public
Communication of Science and Technology (PCST9)
in Seoul, Korea, in May. With contributions from ABSA
committee members in NSW and QLD, this paper outlined
the work done by ABSA to help develop a supportive student
network in biotechnology and biomedical engineering
in Australia. The attendance of the conference, and the
opportunity to explore the development of an international
bilateral student network between Australia and Korea, has
been funded with the generous support of the Australian
Government’s Australia-Korea Foundation.
Also at PCST9, ABSA NSW committee member Henry Ko,
from the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at the
University of New South Wales, presented a paper and an
oral presentation entitled “The impact of tissue engineering
on the high-tech society” This paper explores the implications
of tissue engineering on the future of humanity, and how
science communication and biological art can develop the
public’s understanding of the area and provide new creative
methods of research.
Henry Ko, a PhD candidate studying tissue engineering,
from the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at the
University of New South Wales, won a Foundation for Young
Australians Individual Grant worth $3,000 to attend the First
World Forum on Science and Civilisation on “Tomorrow’s
People: The Challenges of Technologies for Life Extension
and Enhancement” held in March this year at the University
of Oxford. Henry also received a University of Oxford James
Martin Institute for Science and Civilization bursary worth
approximately AU$1,200.
Henry will also share his acquired knowledge of strategic,
ethical and sociological issues regarding life extension and
enhancement technologies with Australian students, peers
and the general public through various seminars
and publications.
The forum was a rare opportunity to engage with leading
scientists, scholars, business executives, policy makers,
religious leaders, and citizens from around the globe on
issues involving re-engineering the human body, living longer,
living smarter, and the governance of human transformation.
Henry gained an insight to the latest strategies from world
leaders and plans to share this knowledge with students and
other interested individuals from research, academia, science
communication, and the general public.
Henry is planning to report on the Forum through seminars
organised though the University of New South Wales,
AusBiotech Australian Biotechnology Students Association,
the Australian Science Communicators. More information
on the Foundation for Young Australians can be found at
http://www.youngaustralians.org
Information on the James Martin Institute for Science
and Civilization can be found at
http://www.martininstitute.ox.ac.uk/jmi/
ABSA 2005
ABSA 2005 has been another year of
success. We have very active state
committees who have contributed to the
success of ABSA. At ABSA we have an
aim to bring students and those interested
in the industry in close proximity to the
industry and the academic world.
In ABSA-Qld, they have been active in organising events for
both secondary and university students. The major events
comprised of the BioFutures week, the Biotechnology/
pharmaceutical careers night and the Student Excellence
Awards. The various committee members in the Queensland
ABSA were responsible for the successful outcomes for
these events. The BioFutures week had been very successful
in hosting 70 students comprising year 11 and 12 students.
Biofutures chair Alyssa Bates and her team were responsible
for the week long event which comprised of workshops,
hypothetical events, university visits and the key note address
from the Nobel laureate Professor Peter Doherty. The next
major event was the Careers Expo, which hosted some
350 students from various Queensland universities and 38
exhibitors representing the Queensland biotech/pharma
industries and showcasing their infrastructure and their
business interests.
The event was addressed by the chief scientist of
Queensland, followed by a panel discussion comprising
eminent scientists from across the pharmaceutical
and biotechnology industries. The event ended with a
networking session between industry representatives and
the university students. The Queensland State Development
Pharmaceuticals & Nutraceuticals department had been of
great assistance in hosting the event. The Student Excellence
Award attracted 5 quality entries and was sponsored by
GSK and Freehills. The ABSA committee are very keen to
host several small events during the course of next year, in
addition to the current events.
A successful and eventful year was seen for ABSANSW, not only had we recruited more new members
for ABSA, we have also built up good relationships with
all the major universities at Sydney. The year was kick
started with HomeBrew, ‘Ace with Recruitment Process’,
where professionals with technical backgrounds such
as Gavin Recchia of Spruson & Fergusons (Principal of
Chemical/Life Sciences Team) and Diane Heery (Director of
Recruitment Agency, Science People) were invited to give
us valuable advice on recruitment processes. The Student
Excellence Awards followed the success of HomeBrew.
Year 11 & 12 Students taking part in the Qld BioFutures program.
All students from the biotechnology related disciplines are
encouraged to apply by submitting a written application on
the application of the thesis they worked on. Four finalists
were selected to present at the NSW state conference,
in which a winner was chosen to present their thesis at
the national conference in Perth. Finally, it was the annual
ABSA careers evening held at University of Sydney. Industry
representatives from different areas of biotechnology were
invited to share their experiences in looking for their first
full-time position and also elements that all employers are
looking for. The year then closed with the AusBiotech-NSW
Christmas party, in which ABSA students were able to
network with other industry people.
ABSA has a very dedicated team around Australia who
are working to ensure that the students and the industry
have a close link. To raise awareness of the issues in
the Biotechnology industry and to ensure that the future
generations are interested in building up the future of the
industry. I would like to dedicate my deepest gratitude for
those on the committees and the hard work that they do.
I would also like to thank Denise Furness from the South
Australia branch of ABSA. Thank you for all the work that you
have done in raising the profile of ABSA in SA, and we wish
you all the best in your postgraduate studies. Hopefully we’ll
be able to see you back on the ABSA team soon.
Jean Hsu ABSA National Chair
49
AusBioNICHE
Student Excellence
Awards
The Student Excellence Awards were a great success again
in 2005, we saw many entries from each state and it was
hard to just pick one winner from the bunch. However we
had to select one winner from each of the states to attend
the 2005 National Conference in Perth, thanks to the
generous sponsorship of GSK. We would like to take this
opportunity to introduce each of the State winners.
From each of the state winners, we can see the very diverse
and interesting projects that our students are undertaking.
It is also important to note that these projects have commercial
implications in our industry, and the diversity of these projects
shows the diversity of the industry that AusBiotech represents.
It’s great to see that Australia is producing many great
scientists with great and valuable projects.
The ACT winner for 2005 is Elizabeth Forbes, Australian
National University for her work on “Understanding the
immunopathogenesis of inflammatory diseases of the gut”.
Thanks to all the students who entered the Student
Excellence awards, thanks to the high calibre of work that
was presented this year, and we wish you all the best in your
future endeavours.
Student Excellence Awards in New South Wales were very
close, and the judges had a very hard time in deciding the
winner for the state. There was a joint winner at the marking
process, with Benjamin Ovenden, an Honours student from
Charles Sturt University declared the winner for his work
on “Genetic Improvement of Seeding Vigour in Rice using
Diversity Array Technology”. Unfortunately Ben could not
attend the National Conference due to a Rice Symposium,
so we were fortunate enough to be able to send Phil
Bougton, our joint winner to the National Conference.
Phil is a PhD student at University of Sydney, whose project
was “Functionally graded material for spinal disk prosthesis”.
In Queensland, Bernadette McArdle, a PhD student at Griffith
University was awarded the State winner for her work on
“A Correlation between Biosynthetic Enzymes and
Therapeutic Targets of Natural Products”. In Qld, Freehills
patent and trademark attorneys sponsored the prizes for
second place Madusha Peiris and Bianca Boseley, third.
National Student
Excellence Awards
2006
The National Student Excellence Awards are on again
in 2006.
The winner from South Australia was Joanne Reed from
Flinders University with her work on “Programmed death
ligand 1 delivered by adenoviral transduced dendritic cells
inhibits T-cell proliferation”
Winners from each State will be presented with their
awards at the AusBiotech National Conference being
held in Sydney, NSW.
Our Tasmanian winner is Matthew Miller, from the University
of Tasmania. His work was on “Alternate sources of dietary
oil for Atlantic salmon growth under Australian conditions”.
• Flights to the National Conference in Sydney
Finally our winner from Western Australia is Craig Webster
from the WA State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, part
Murdoch University. His thesis and work was based on
“Towards Highly Parallel Tests for Plant Virus Diagnosis”.
2006 winners – One from each State – will receive:
• Accommodation close to the exhibition centre
• Poster displayed to all Conference delegates at
the National Conference
• Abstracts posted to the AusBiotech website
• One year complimentary Student Membership
to AusBiotech
For more details contact your state AusBiotech branch
or visit our website www.ausbiotech to download an
application form.
50
FBIG
(The Fermentation & Bioprocessing Interest Group)
The Fermentation & Bioprocessing Interest Group (FBIG) of
Ausbiotech originated in Victoria to provide a forum where
fermentation and bioprocessing professionals, scientists
and students may come together to discuss the latest
developments, share ideas and network.
The FBIG conference in March 2006, hosted by the Box Hill
Institute, is the 4th meeting with the same science oriented
mission: to build links, interact and to provide an opportunity
for people to participate at the beginning of their career in a
cost effective way.
Biotechnology continues to offer great opportunities for
Australia to develop new medical therapies, novel
solutions for the food and beverage industries and for
environmental remediation. With the strong support
from the governments the biotechnology industry is growing
rapidly and there were 83 ASX listed companies
as of February 2006. This presents a great opportunity for us,
the practitioners in the field of fermentation
and bioprocessing, to secure the growth of our industry and
to enjoy our professional achievements.
the non-invasive Cellscreen system from Innovatis which can
be used for media optimisation and cell line development.
The conference was an opportunity for researchers to
present their work and here the organising committee would
like to congratulate Scott Stansfield (UQ) on receiving his
travel bursary to attend the conference to present a talk
on his work on empirical modelling of mRNA translation and
Angela Ziebell (CSIRO) and Richard Li (UNSW) on winning
the poster award.
Without the support of our corporate sponsors FBIG would
not be able to run the conference at a low cost for the
delegates. We would like to thank the Victorian Government
for their major support of this conference. The organising
committee would also like to acknowledge the following
support from Box Hill Institute, John Morris Scientific, SAFC
Biosciences, CSIRO Molecular & Health Technologies, GE
Healthcare Biosciences, Bio-Rad Technologies, Sartorius
Australia, CUNO Pacific Pty Ltd, DKSH Australia, Enztech,
Fluid System Technologies, In Vitro Technologies, Millipore,
Pall Life Sciences and Scientifix Pty Ltd.
The two day conference covered topics such as: regulatory
aspects pertaining to GMP production; biotechnology
infrastructure from the Victorian Government’s perspective
presented by Dr Amanda Caples, Director of Biotechnology
DIIRD; vaccine production; microbial systems employed
in the production of fine chemicals and of a novel enzyme
LandguardTM to degrade pesticide; process optimisation
and downstream processing and novel technologies such as
Exhibition stands at the FBIG Conference March 2006.
51
AusBioNICHE
MDN (Medical Devices Network)
News for the Medical Device Industry
AusBiotech has been actively supporting the work of the
MDIA. We would like to thank the chair Dr Geoffrey Vaughan
who has lead the leadership group to conclude a critical set
of recommendations which will underpin future work on the
Action Agenda.
The developmental stage of the Medical Devices Industry
Action Agenda (MDIAA) is now completed with the next
step being the implementation phase. An Implementation
Group will be established to guide the implementation of the
proposals. The Implementation Group will consist of industry
leaders and other stakeholders who are committed to
implementing the Action Agenda, and who have the expertise
and are respected in the industry.
Proposals
The Leaders’ Group have refined the proposals they will
make to Government. Proposals as they relate to the Mission
themes are summarised below:
Developing World-class Capability
• D
eveloping a business directory to identify medical device
companies and capabilities;
• S
upporting business to enhance the commercial benefits
of their patents and to better enable returns on publicly
funded infrastructure and capability;
The best outcome will be achieved by the involvement of the
whole industry.
• D
eveloping a model for Australian industry to better access
CSIRO and other publicly funded infrastructure; and
Fourth Leaders’ Group Meeting
• Identifying short and long-term skills needs and initiating
tertiary training programs and other initiatives to address
skill needs and career path flexibility.
• Refined the proposals
• Considered options for the launch of the Action Agenda;
• C
onsidered options for implementing the Action Agenda;
and
• R
efined the Vision and Mission for the Australian medical
devices industry.
Vision and Mission Statement
Increasing Speed to Market
• F
acilitating conformity assessment of devices supplied in
Australia by October 2007, and proposing changes where
appropriate to regulatory practices;
• Increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of health
technology assessment processes to reduce the time and
cost of regulation;
• S
treamlining the ethics committee approval of clinical trials;
The vision for the Australian medical devices industry is:
• D
eveloping a proposal that would ease the regulatory cost
burden on early-stage medical device companies; and
By 2015, Australia will have an internationally competitive
medical devices industry, renowned for innovative and cost
effective health outcomes, that provides quality solutions for
Australia and the world.
• Identifying, promoting and fostering training initiatives in
commercialisation, regulatory science and processes and
Quality Management Systems.
The industry will achieve its vision by:
• Developing World-class Capability;
• Increasing Speed to Market; and
• Expanding Market Opportunities.
52
Expanding Market Opportunities
Other Information
• P
romoting the use of a voluntary regulatory compliance
mark;
There are a number of government programs that provide
assistance to industry, including:
• P
roposing strategies to attract investment into the
industry; and
The Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP)
• D
eveloping and implementing a model, including a cost
benefit analysis, to assess new technologies and guide
procurement decisions by health care providers.
New Parliamentary Secretary
On 27 January 2006, the Hon Bob Baldwin MP was sworn
in as the new Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for
Industry, Tourism and Resources.
Mr Baldwin replaces Mr Warren Entsch in the role, and is now
responsible for overseeing the Action Agenda. The industry
looks forward to working with him as development
of the Action Agenda nears completion.
Action Agenda Initiatives
The Action Agenda has been active in providing advice
to government matters that affect the industry. To date
submissions have been presented on behalf of the Leaders’
Group to:
• T
he Regulatory Burden Taskforce (provided to the
Prime Minister and Treasurer) on the regulatory issues
facing the medical devices industry in Australia. In our
consultation meetings in October 2005, industry indicated
that regulatory issues were by far the most pressing for
the industry;
The ICIP is a $25 million merit-based funding program
aimed at supporting business-to-business cooperation
on innovation projects, with a particular focus on meeting
strategic needs identified through Action Agendas.
Applications for round two will close on 15 June 2006.
For more information please visit the AusIndustry website.
The International Science Linkages (ISL)Program
Medical device organisations undertaking international
collaboration can apply to access the ISL program, which
supports both public and private sector Australian scientists
to collaborate with international partners on leading edge
science and technology. The Government is providing $92.7
million over nine years for this program. For more information
visit the ISL website.
Timing
The developmental stage of the Action Agenda is expected
to be launched in mid-2006, with implementation taking
2-3 years. The Action Agenda is expected to be launched
in mid-late 2006.
• T
he Therapeutic Goods Administration on clinical trials
arrangements in response to the Report of the Review of
Access to Unapproved Therapeutic Goods;
• T
he National Health and Medical Research Council’s
Draft National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human
Research; and
• T
he Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on key issues
relevant to the industry for their negotiations on a proposed
Australia-China Free Trade Agreement.
53
AusBioNICHE
What do you have to do to be
ready for the new medical devices
regulatory system?
Did you know that there was a new system?
1. Do you sell or manufacture a
medical device
2. Do you understand the new
regulatory system?
3. Have you started making the necessary
changes so that you will comply with the
new system by 4 October 2007?
Do you sell or manufacture a
medical device?
In Australia, Medical Devices are regulated by the Therapeutic
Goods Administration (TGA) and are defined as;
• Any instrument, apparatus, appliance, material or other
article, (whether used alone or in combination, and
including the software necessary for its proper application)
intended, by the person under whose name it is or is to
be supplied, to be used for human beings for the purpose
of one or more of the following:
> Diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation
of disease;
> Diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, alleviation of or compensation for an injury or handicap;
> Investigation, replacement or modification of the
anatomy or of a physiological process; or
> Control of conception
and that does not achieve its principal intended action in or
on the human body by pharmacological, immunological or
metabolic means, but which may be assisted in its function
by such a means; or
•An accessory to such an instrument, apparatus,
appliance, material or other article
Medical devices include a wide range of products such as
medical gloves, bandages, syringes, condoms, contact
lenses, X-ray equipment, heart rate monitors, surgical lasers,
pacemakers, dialysis equipment, baby incubators and
heart valves.
54
Do you understand the regulatory system?
OLD SYSTEM – Therapeutic devices were either LISTED
or REGISTERED on the Australian Register of Therapeutic
Goods (ARTG)
NEW SYSTEM – Medical devices will need to be
INCLUDED in the ARTG
After the 4 October 2002 Therapeutic and Medical Devices
fell into 1 of 4 regulatory categories:
1.Existing therapeutic devices on the ARTG as either
Registered or Listed (old system)
2.Therapeutic Devices for which application for Listing or
Registration had been made and were under review
3.Medical Devices for which applications had been received
for ‘inclusion’ in the ARTG (new system)
4. Excluded and exempt therapeutic goods.
Devices that are currently registered or listed in the ARTG
can remain in those categories until 4 October 2007,
at which time they will be automatically CANCELLED
from the ARTG.
Until 4 October 2007, the supply of all registered and listed
therapeutic devices will remain subject to the conditions
imposed when the entires were approved.
Have you started making the necessary
changes to comply with the new
regulatory system?
The new Regulatory System adopts a classification system
to categorise medical devices. The system uses a set of
classification rules based on:
• The manufacturers intended use;
• The level of risk; and
• The degree of invasiveness in the human body
There are five classes of medical devices:
1.Class I
2.Class IIa
3.Class IIb
4.Class III
5.Active implantable Medical Devices (AIMD)
GOODS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY EXEMPT OR
EXCLUDED ARE SUBJECT TO NEW PROVISIONS AS
OF 4 OCTOBER 2007.
A process called Conformity Assessment must be performed
BEFORE a device can be included in the ARTG. Conformity
Assessment is the MANUFACTURERS responsibility.
Any products listed or registered can remain in the ARTG
until 4 October 2007. At that time the products will be
automatically cancelled unless they are covered by an
‘included’ entry in the register and the listed or registered
entries have been cancelled.
3.Manufacturers with the TGA CE certification
The role of the TGA, or an overseas Notified Body, is to issue
certification after they have confirmed that the conformity
Assessment procedures by the manufacturer are appropriate
and have been applied.
A similar assessment by the TGA will be required to ensure
conformity assessment if the products are to be supplied
in Australia. However reduced assessment fees will be
applied to:
ASSESSMENT BY THE TGA IS REQUIRED for
Australian manufacturers of medical devices intended
for supply in Australia.
• Review post market monitoring procedures
Implications for Australian Manufacturers of Medical Devices:
A manufacturer based in Australia supplying listed or
registered goods has until 4 October 2007 to adopt the
Conformity Assessment requirements of the new legislation.
Until that time, the conditions that were imposed when the
products were approved will remain in force.
• Review conformity with the Australian essential principles
• Issue of conformity assessment certification
Steps you should take:
•Identify your status and understand your obligations under
the new system.
1.Manufacturers requiring a manufacturing license
•Investigate and take stock of the products you have listed
or registered on the ARTG and assess whether they are
still an active part of your product range.
If a license was required to manufacture the license will
remain in effect until:
•Decide whether you wish to continue to supply those
products in Australia after 4 October 2007.
•Conformity assessment requirements are established
by the manufacturer and an application for inclusion
n the ARTG for the goods has been approved prior
to 7 October 2007;
> If you do, you must start to make arrangements for their
transition under the New Medical Devices Regulatory
System to be ‘included’ in the ARTG.
• Supply of the goods ceases; or
• It is automatically revoked on 3 October 2007
2.Manufacturers are exempt from licensing
•AusBiotech and the Medical Device Network can help you
identify what you need to do to make sure that you achieve
your transition as easily as possible.
AusBiotech would like to welcome Sarah Evans who is
dedicated to Medical Devices and will focus on strategic
industry development.
In the pursuit of knowledge of human, plant and animal biology, The University of
Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience generates a fund of ideas, many of which
lend themselves to innovation and commercialisation. This process can lead to new
medical treatments, highly valuable heath diagnostic products and novel biomedical and
other technologies.
IMBcom is the value-adding innovation carrier for these ideas. We protect the discoveries
of the IMB researchers, build alliances with organisations to promote them, and create
partnerships with investors who help us to grow them into platforms for new enterprises.
Knowledge is the currency of today’s and tomorrow’s global economy.
55
AusBioPEOPLE
Fiona Wood joins
AusBiotech Board
Australian of the Year for 2005, Clinical Professor Fiona Wood AO has joined
the AusBiotech Board as a Director.
Clinical Professor Fiona Wood is currently Director of the Western Australian
Burns Service, Chairman of the McComb Research Foundation, co-founder
of Clinical Cell Culture (C3), Chairman of C3’s Scientific Advisory Board and
continues as a consultant Plastic Surgeon to the Royal Perth and Princess
Margaret Hospitals. She is also a mother of 6.
In 2005, Fiona was named Australian of the Year in recognition of her work
in education and disaster response programs associated with her interest in
burns. In the same year, she and C3 co-founder Marie Stoner, were awarded
the prestigious 2005 Clunies Ross award for their contributions to Medical
Science in Australia.
In announcing the appointment, Dr Carroll (chairman) said that Fiona’s
experience in bringing a medical device from research to market will inform
her contribution to the Board and will be of particular value to members in the
medical device sector.
“Her contribution to the AusBiotech membership through the Board will no
doubt benefit the Australian biotechnology industry, as it continues to realise
growth and success in this important scientific and medical sector,” he said.
Fiona Wood said that her decision to join the AusBiotech Board was based on
a desire to assist in driving Australia ahead in biotechnology.
“Biotechnology is a highly competitive area, with Governments across the globe
providing financial and other resources to support an industry that has the
potential to bring great benefit to the world population,” she said.
“Australia has an extraordinary reputation for innovation within this sector, but
we can not afford to be complacent – as a nation we must continue to respond
rapidly to changes and developments.
“We have many motivated school and university students whose talents are
waiting to be applied to biotechnology and that will make a huge difference,
but only if we have the infrastructure, resources and funding in place.
“I know from my own work that biotechnology is making a fundamental
difference to the quality of people’s lives – but there is so much more that can
be done and here in Australia we have the people and the
innovation to be a major part of that,” Fiona Wood said.
Fiona Wood
56
New AusBiotech
Members
Louisa Abdo
Robert Atwill
Peter Bailey
Stephen Birrell
Mark Bishop
Kerryn Bouyer
Alison Bowman
Jan Boyd
Brendan Butcher
Gary Butterworth
Michelle Carden
Sarah Chilcott
Mark Davie
John Devereux
Peter French
Ryan Gawel
Amy Gibson
Chris Glynn
Rosemary Harrison
Paige Hilditch-Maguire
Cathie Hilton
Philip Kearns
Marie Kelly
Gerry Lawson
Paul Leo
Pik Yan Leung
Paul Magoffin
Melanie McIntyre
Allison McLean
Trisha Munoz
Paul Nitz
Sarah Ochieng
Richard Pash
Katia Potter
G Peter Robert
Tim Rose
David Schnider
Silvana Sescillosu
Michael Sheridan
Joshua Simons
Andrew Somogyi
Lahn Straney
Magdalena Suder
Kathy Summerton
Alex Szabo
Jane Talbot
Tony Thompson
Simon Trickey
Johnny Quoc Vuong Tu
Paul Tuckley
Philip Vickery
Peter Walsh
Lucia Walsh
Grant Weyer
Simon Wilkins
Michael Winlo
New AusBiotech Members
Acrux Ltd,Brent Donovan
Advent Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd,Nick Ede
Advent Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd,Nigel Whittle
AgResearch Limited, KenWindle
AGSM, Jill Snell
AJ Stewart Electronics, Alan Taylor
Ascept, Laurel Fogarty
Ascept, Michael Korver
Ascept, Allen Goldenthal
Attain People Solutions, Margie Murray
Attain People Solutions, Adrian West
Attain People Solutions, David Chin
AusBiotech Ltd, Dahlia Catzel
Ausindustry, Helder Marcal
Ausindustry, Brian Damian Pethica
Australasian Medical & Scientific Limited,
Lance Sparrow
Australian Institute for Commercialisation,
Chit-Laa Pah
Australian Institute for Commercialisation,
Damir Hasagic
Australian Stem Cell Centre, James Aylward
Baker Heart Research Institute, Robert Marano
Bayley Design, Marianne Claire Johnston
Bioengineering Centre, Margaret Doherty
Bioengineering Centre, LaurieHodgman
Bioengineering Centre, Paul Wright
BioQ Devices, Greg Rudd
Blake Dawson Waldron, Shaun McRobert
Botanical Resources Australia Pty Ltd,
Ian Hughes
Box Hill Institute, Ka-Chi Cheung
BresaGen Ltd, Michael Patane
BresaGen Ltd, Sue Lynn Wong
BSP Pharma, Andrew Jarnicki
Carlisle Partners, Anthony Davidson
Carmichael Fisher, Monica Ogierman
Cerebral Palsy Association of WA, Uta Bauer
Cerebral Palsy Association of WA,
Richard Hopkins
Churchill Capital Services Pty Ltd, Alan Tough
CSIRO, Gary Cobon
Cullen and Co, Andrew Giddy
Davies Collison Cave, Uli Schmidt
Deacons Lawyers, Karen Kroeger
Deacons Lawyers, Sharon Babaeff
Deacons Lawyers, Jasmine Heng
Department of Environment & Heritage,
Diane Stark
Department of Innovation Industry & Regional
Development, Junhong Oscar Luo
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd, Kathryn Jones
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd, Tonny Joergensen
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd, Karen Dado
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd, Abigail Elizur
Dr Reddy’s Laboratries Limited, Kate Lyndon
Dr Reddy’s Laboratries Limited, Renee Dutton
Dr Reddy’s Laboratries Limited, Wayne Sampson
Dr Reddy’s Laboratries Limited, Natalija Gak
Dr Reddy’s Laboratries Limited, Craig Neylon
EngeneIC Pty Ltd, Tim Silk
EngeneIC Pty Ltd, James Pyke
Eqitx Limited, Kristin Groom
Ernst & Young, Ravi Venkataramanan
European Patent Office, Abhijit Mukherjee
F B Rice & Co, Vilas Dahanukar
Fisher Adams Kelly, Sharat Narasapur
Genetic Technologies Limited, Satish Mahanti
Ghantous Group, Megan Page
GlaxoSmithKline Australia Pty Ltd, David Powell
Global Watch Service, Eilzabeth Forbes
Grain Biotech Australia Pty Ltd,
Benjamin Ovenden
HWL Consulting Pty Ltd, Bernadette McArdle
IMBcom Pty Ltd, Joanne Reed
IMBcom Pty Ltd, Matthew Miller
IMBcom Pty Ltd, Leanne D’Souza
ITL Limited, Craig Webster
J.T. Campbell, David Tokell
Kelly Scientific Resources, John Arkwright
Lions Eye Institute, Bhavyashree Suresh
M+W Zander, Jason Armstrong
Madderns Patent Attorneys, Andrew Lucke
Madderns Patent Attorneys, Stuart Craig
Mater Medical Research Institute, Geoff Randall
Medevice Consulting, Kim Edwards
Merit Merrell, Michael McLean
Mimotopes Pty Ltd, Frank Yardley
Minomic Pty Ltd, Heather Bray
Minomic Pty Ltd, Su-Pi Sheu
Minter Ellison, Johnsee Lee
Minter Ellison, Yuki Ghantous
Minter Ellison, Ayal Marek
Molecular Plant Breeding CRC,
Helen Vertoudakis
Molecular Plant Breeding CRC, Rupert Saint
Molecular Plant Breeding CRC, Tony Davis
Narhex Life Sciences Limited, Andrew Stewart
National ICT Australia Limited, Ryan Parlett
Neuragenix Pty Ltd, Steve Harding
NIH/NHGRI, Michael Cohen
Open Sesame Consulting, Andrew Hyde
PanBio Limited, Sander Bangma
Perkins Resources Pty Ltd, Graham Jenkin
Perkins Resources Pty Ltd, Chau Mai
Phillips Ormonde & Fitzpatrick, Rick Lord
Phillips Ormonde & Fitzpatrick, Basim Hamo
Phoenix Eagle Pty Ltd, Vivian Chan
Phoenix Eagle Pty Ltd, Praveen Kumar Madala
Phylogica Ltd, Erik Helmerhorst
Phylogica Ltd, John Bonacci
Probiomics Limited, Jannette Sullivan
Probiomics Limited, Julian Stephens
Probiomics Limited, Hank Sciberras
Probiomics Limited, David McCarthy
Probiomics Limited, Curtis Crasto
Probiomics Limited, Karen Heilbronn
Protech Research Pty LTD, Melinda Barton
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Stephen Burnell
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Dominic Walker
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Darren Ryan
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Diana Cameron
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Jarrod Belcher
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Jennifer, MacDiarmid
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Himanshu Brahmbhatt
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Hedie Meka
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Emma McComb
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Bridget Maher
Q-Gen Pty Ltd, Christine Gockel
QSV Biologics, Dr Graeme Macaloney
QSV Biologics, Mr Richard Hetrick
Queensland Governmetn, Christine, Kit HwaYan
Resonance Health Analysis Services,
Angela Ritchie
Resonance Health Analysis Services,
James Ziogas
Sienna Capital Ltd, Sharon Winslade
Sonomat Pty Ltd, Gregory Martin
Stark Consulting, Tony Formentin
Stephens Lawyers & Consultants, Anne Pearce
Tabasco Technology Lawyers,
Christopher Wilkinson
Taiwan Bio Industry Organisation, Rob Lister
Taiwan Bio Industry Organisation, Jan Szubert
UK Trade & Investment, Paul Ostrowski
Uniquest Pty Ltd, Ze-Huai Zhong
University of Queensland, Glenn Tighe
University of Sunshine Coast,
Debra Denise Yin-Foo
University of Tasmania, Michael Squires
Veterinary Encapsulation Biosciences Pty Ltd,
Ravi Kaskana
Elise Hogan
Sue John
Victorian Institute for Chemical Sciences (VICS),
Andrew Dwyer
VisoGene, Rebecca Menhinnitt
VitalAire Healthcare, Christian Toouli
WA Biomedical Research Institute,
Dora Charalambous
WABRI, George Ng
Western Australian Department of Industry
& Resources, Megan Portas
Wray & Associates, David Beins
Wray & Associates, Ian Christensen
57
AusBioPEOPLE
Corporate & Institute Members of Ausbiotech
AAP Media Net
Access Macquarie Ltd
Acrux Ltd
Actelion Pharmaceuticals Australia Pty Ltd
Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd
Advanced Ocular Systems Limited
Advent Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd
Aegis Equities Research
AGEN Biomedical Ltd
Agilent Technologies Australia Pty Ltd
AgResearch Limited
Agrifood Awareness Australia
Aimedics Pty Ltd
Allens Arthur Robinson
AMGEN Australia Pty Ltd
Animal Resources Centre
ANSTO
Anutech Pty Ltd
Aortech Biomaterials
Applied Biosystems Pty Ltd
APS Plastics
Arnold Bloch Leibler
Ascept
ASDM
Association & Communications Events Pty Ltd
ATP Innovations Pty Ltd
Attain People Solutions
Austrade
Australasian Medical & Scientific Limited
Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
Australian Institute for Commercialisation
Australian Institute of Marine Science
Australian MedResearch Pty Ltd
Australian Proteome Analysis Facility
Australian Starter Culture Research
Centre Ltd
Australian Stem Cell Centre
Australian Stock Exchange Limited
Australian Technology Promotions
Australian Venture Capital Association Ltd
Australis Biosciences
Avanti Events
Avantogen Limited
Avcare Limited
Avexa
Baker & McKenzie
Bates Smart Science & Health
Architects
Bayer CropScience Pty Ltd
Benitec Australia Limited
Bio Electronics Pty Ltd
Bio Nova International Pty Ltd
Bio21 Australia Ltd
Biocell
Biocomm Services
BioIncyte Advisory
BioInnovation SA
Bio-Layer
Bio-Link Partners Ltd
bioMD Limited
58
BioMelbourne Network
Bionomics Ltd
BioPacificVentures
Bioprospect Ltd
Bio-Rad Laboratories
BIOSINGAPORE
Biota Holdings Limited
BIOTECanada
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
Biotron Limited
Biovite Australia Pty Ltd
Blake Dawson Waldron
Box Hill Institute
BresaGen Ltd
Brooker Consulting
Buchan Communications Group Pty Ltd
Business ACT
CallStaff Australia Pty Ltd
Canadian High Commission
Carmichael Fisher
Chemeq Ltd
ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals
Chemicon Australia Pty Ltd
Chubb Insurance Company ofAustralia Ltd
Churchill Capital Services Pty Ltd
City of Melbourne
Clayton UTZ
Cleveland Biosensors Pty Ltd
Clinical Cell Culture Pty Ltd
Clinical Network Services Pty Ltd
Clinical Trials Victoria
CM Capital Investments
Cognis Australia Pty Ltd
Colltech Australia Limited
Coridon Pty Ltd
Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Cortical Pty Ltd
Covance Pty Ltd
C-Qentec Diagnostics Pty Ltd
CRC for Innovative Dairy Products
Cryosite Ltd
CSIRO
CSIRO
CSIRO Livestock Industries
CSL Limited
CyGenics Limited
Cytopia Limited
Daryl Alexander & Associates
Datamonitor
Datapharm Australia Pty Ltd
Davies Collison Cave
Deacons Lawyers
Deakin University
Definitive Events Pty Ltd
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Department of Business, Economic
& Regional Development
Department of Economic
Development (TAS)
Department of Innovation Industry
& Regional Development
Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre
Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd
DocBanq Pty Ltd
Dr Reddy’s Laboratries Limited
Dynamic Hearing Pty Ltd
Ecobiotics Limited
EG Capital
Eiffel Technologies Ltd
Ellis Insurance Brokers
Enterix Australia Pty Ltd
Environmental Biotechnology CRC Pty Ltd
Epichem Pty Ltd
EpiTan Limited
Eqitx Limited
ERA Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd
Ernst & Young
ES Cell International Pte Ltd
EvoGenix Pty Limited
F B Rice & Co
Fairmont Medical
Finnish Bioindustries
Florigene Limited
FLUOROtechnics Pty Ltd
Freehills
Freehills Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys
Frost & Sullivan
Gateway Capital Limited
GBS Venture Partners Ltd
GE Healthcare
Gee Multimedia
Gene Stream Pty Ltd
Genesis Research and
Develepment Corp Ltd
Genetic Solutions Pty Ltd
Genetic Technologies Limited
Geneworks Pty Ltd
Genzyme Australasia Pty Ltd
GlaxoSmithKline Australia Pty Ltd
Global Markets Capital Group
Godfrey Remuneration Group
Gold Coast City Council
Graduate School of Biomedical
Engineering (UNSW)
Grains R&D Corporation
Grey Innovation
Griffith Hack
Griffith University
GroPep Limited
Ground Zero Pharmaceuticals
Honeywell Ltd
Hot Source Consulting
Howard Florey Institute
Hunter Immunology Pty Ltd
Hunting Party Securities Ltd
IBM
ICP Firefly Pty Ltd
IDG Communications
IDT Australia Ltd
i-lab Incubator Pty Ltd
Imaginot Pty Ltd
IMBcom Pty Ltd
IMPLICIT BIOSCIENCE PTY LTD
IMS Health Australia
Industrial Research Limited
Innovation Dynamics
InnovationXchange Network
Intersuisse Bioscience
Invetech Pty Ltd
Invitrogen
ISPE
ITL Corporation Pty Ltd
J. Craig Venter Institute
JobPharm Pty Ltd
Johnson & Johnson Research Pty Ltd
Kendle Pty Limited
Laboratory Systems Group Pty Ltd
Lander & Rogers
LEK Consulting
Life Therapeutics
Lions Eye Institute
Living Cell Technologies Ltd
Logical Freight Solutions
M7 Pty Ltd
Mallesons Stephen Jaques
Marsh Pty Ltd
Maverick DCM Pty Ltd
Mayne Pharma Pty Ltd
McComb Foundation
Meditech Research Limited
Medvet Science Pty Ltd
Melbourne Biotechnology
Melbourne Business School
Merck Sharp & Dohme
Mercury Human Resources
Merlin Biosciences
Metabolic Pharmaceuticals Limited
Microbial Screening Technologies
Middletons Lawyers
Millipore Australia Pty Ltd
MiniFab (Aust) Ltd
Minomic Pty Ltd
Minter Ellison
Molecular Plant Breeding CRC
Monash Institutes of Health
Mondo Medical Ltd
Monsanto Australia Ltd.
Monsoon Communications
MPR Group
Narhex Life Sciences Limited
National ICT Australia Limited
National Measurement Institute
Neurosciences Victoria Ltd
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise
Nextec Biosciences Pty Ltd
Nidor Pty Ltd
Nova Systems Consulting
Novapharm Research (Aust) Pty Ltd
NSW Dept of State & Regional Development
Nuplant Ltd
NZBio
Office of Eco Devt. For City of Brisbane
OmegaBio International Pty Ltd
On Q Recruitment Pty Ltd
Origo Biotech Pty Ltd
O’Sullivan PLLC
Ozgene Pty Ltd
Pakair Cargo Specialists Pty Ltd
PanBio Limited
Peplin Limited
Peptech Limited
Peptide Solutions
Pfizer Australia
PharmaVentures
Pharmaxis Pty Ltd
Phillips Ormonde & Fitzpatrick
Phoenix Biologix
Phoenix Eagle Pty Ltd
Phosphagenics Limited
Phylogica Ltd
Pillsbury Winthrop (International)
Piper Alderman Lawyers
Pizzeys Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys
Plant Biotechnologies Tasmania Pty Ltd
Portland Orthopaedics Limited
Premier Bionics Ltd
PriceWaterhouseCoopers Services
Prima Biomed Ltd
Probiomics Limited
Progen Industries Pty Ltd
Promics Pty Ltd
Proteome Systems Limited
Proteomics International Pty Ltd
Psiron Ltd
pSiVida Limited
PureTech Development LLC
Q-Gen Pty Ltd
Q-Pharm Pty Limited
QSV Biologics
Queensland Biocapital Fund
Queensland Investment Corporation
Queensland University of Technology
Radpharm Scientific
Research Australia Limited
Research Directions Pty Ltd
Resmed Ltd
Resonance Health Analysis Services
Richard Craig & Associates Pty Ltd
Ritract Ltd
RMIT Drug Discovery Technologies
Roche Diagnostics Australia
Rockeby Biomed Australia Pty Ltd
Russian Biotechnologies Ltd
Saturn Biotech Limited
Science People
SciGen Pty Ltd
Select Vaccines Limted
Shelston IP
Solagran Limited
SOLBEC Pharmaceuticals
SPAFAS Australia Pty Ltd
Spencer Stuart & Associates
Spruson & Ferguson
Starpharma Pty Ltd
Start-Up Australia Pty Ltd
Statistical Revelations
Stem Cell Sciences Ltd
Stephens Lawyers & Consultants
Stirling Products
Stricent AB
Symbion Pty Ltd
Syringe Safe Technologies Pty Ltd
Taiwan Bio Industry Organisation
Taiwan Trade Centre
Tasmanian Alkaloids Pty Ltd
Tectura (Australia ) Pty Ltd
Teraform Ventures
TETRAQ
TGR Biosciences Pty Ltd
The Australian National University
The British Midlands
Thermo Electron Corporation
Thomson Scientific
Thorgard Pharmaceuticals (Aust) Pty Ltd
Titan BioVentures Management
Trident Clinical Research Pty Ltd
Tripos Australia
TSL Group Limited
UK Trade & Investment
Uniquest Pty Ltd
Uniseed Management Pty Ltd
Universal Biosensors Pty Ltd
University of New South Wales
University of Southern Queensland
USCOM
V2V Pty Ltd
Ventracor Limited
Veterinary Encapsulation
Biosciences Pty Ltd
Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing
Virax Holdings Limited
Virient
Visiomed Group Ltd
Vision BioSystems Ltd
VUT Centre for Strategic Economic Studies
VUT School of Life Sciences & Technology
WA Biomedical Research Institute
WA State Agricultural
Biotechnology Centre
WATERMARK Patent & Trade Mark Att.
Welsh Development Agency
West Pharmaceutical Services
Western Australian Department of Industry
& Resources
Whitehorse Strategic Group Ltd
World Courier (Aust) Pty Ltd
Xceed Biotechnology Ltd
Xenome Limited
zektingroup Pty Ltd
ZENYTH THERAPEUTICS
59
Australasian
Biotechnology
is the official
journal of
AusBiotech
– Australia’s
Biotechnology
Organisation.
Australasian
Biotechnology
reports on
research and
business news
within the
biotechnology
arena.
AusBiotech Staff and
Office Bearers
Chair:
Dr Simon Carroll (Advanced Ocular Systems)
Tel: (08) 9389 5933, Email: [email protected]
Directors:
Dr Mikael Hirsch (CSIRO), Tel: (02) 6246 4450, Email: [email protected]
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AusBioGRAPHY
A Conversation with Stewart
Washer, CEO Phylogica Ltd
Western Australia is a big country. It must
be something to do with the wide open
spaces, a sense of not being reigned in by
topography and geography that breeds biotech
entrepreneurs like Stewart Washer. He is one of
the new wave of Australian commercialisation
entrepreneurs from the resource rich state of
Western Australia who specialises in taking
novel techniques to the market.
Like his resource-based predecessors, Stewart takes a
commodity that is plentiful on the ground; R & D from
world class Australian research facilities and manages the
commercialisation of these technologies to create spin-off
companies with high quality assets.
Stewart Washer is the CEO of Phylogica Ltd, the first
commercial spin-out from the Telethon Institute for Child
Health Research in Western Australia and Fox Chase Cancer
Centre in the USA.
Stewart joined Phylogica in 2004. He took the company
through an IPO to list on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:
PYC) at a 30% premium. Phylogica has developed a library of
unique peptide shapes called Phylomers® that can be used as
drugs. Much like a Lego box of protein parts harvested from
biodiverse bacteria; the Phylomer Technology is like a protein
matching service. Using genetics, a disease molecule can be
presented and binds with one of the Lego pieces to block the
disease. This has lead to the development of drugs against
stroke, burns and rheumatoid arthritis.
Stewart joined Phylogica with over 12 years of senior
executive and board experience in commercial technology
companies in the healthcare, food, agricultural and
environmental sectors. He has raised $25 million in private
and public shareholder funds and $20 million in government
funds to invest in his companies.
Before becoming CEO of Phylogica, Stewart was the CEO
of Celentis for 3 years and managed the commercialisation
of intellectual property from AgResearch in New Zealand with
650 scientists and $130 million in revenue. During this time, he
formed and governed a number of successful biotechnology
company spin-offs that employed over 100 staff and realized
profitable annual product revenues of $30 million.
Stewart was born in WA and grew up in Perth. He studied for
a Bachelor of Science at the University of WA in microbiology
62
and biochemistry. He went on to complete his Honours year
and PhD, a bit further south of the Swan River at Murdoch
University. His PhD project looked at engineering root-knot
nematode resistance in host plants. This was in the time before
the great GM debate and Stewart and his co-workers were
excited by their research results using genetic engineering.
It appears that Stewart has been hard-wired from birth for
entrepreneurial activity. Early on in his post doc years, he set
up a company with Ian Edwards from Pioneer Seeds in the
US called Grainbiotech to commercialise the products of
these modified plants. However, soon after a GM moratorium
was declared in most Australian states. Stewart has always
believed that to establish a successful business you must
to able to predict the needs of the customer. While this
technology has great potential, it was ahead of its time in
public acceptance and after seeing that GM wheat had little
future in Australia he sold his shares in the company and
moved on. Today Grainbiotech operates as a successful non
GM wheat breeding company that still owns the IP to salttolerant GM wheat.
His next venture was to create another company called
Biotest which was the first GM food testing company in
Australia. The company bought the licence to a test that
had been used in agricultural crops and food in the US.
The test was initially well received and was used by many
food companies and seed producers to satisfy consumers
that their products were GM free. After an initial flurry of
activity by companies to create GM free credentials, the
food companies soon established repeat suppliers and
would forego further testing. Again this demonstrated the
need to predict the customers. Biotest however, still had
good value in several disease tests it had developed for
plants and Stewart ended up selling the business to a local
biotechnology company.
From here, he moved to NZ to head up Celentis, a biotech
company created by NZ Agresearch which was owned
by the NZ government. In three years he took a company
with $10 million in revenue and no profit to $30 million in
revenue and $6.5 million profit. Here, Stewart honed his
entrepreneurial skills; he matched new technologies to a
business development plan, put together a team to carry
it through to proof of concept and secured seed capital
to produce a sellable biotech business. Stewart in fact
developed the cookie cutter mould to take novel biotech
ideas to market.
Celentis’s success demonstrated Stewart’s belief in asking
the question first- “what does the customer want?” He first
asked the customers what they wanted and determined what
was needed to take it to market. Then he went back to the
lab and funded the research to prove that the technology
could provide what the customer requested. He then put
together a company with a business development plan and
a management team to carry the project through to fruition.
Together with the seed money investors, Celentis created
and sold many biotech companies. Stewart believes there
is no lack of great ideas or money just the expertise to carry
these ideas to market. Much of this expertise is overseas
as the critical activity mass is not yet in Australia to attract
people here and pay them internationally competitive salaries.
While in NZ with Celentis he formed a fund called Biopacific
Ventures to back novel technologies in the food and agricultural
life sciences that raised over $100 million from a range of
investors including Inventages, the Nestle fund. Celentis was a
successful marriage between government and private business
but unfortunately the model fell apart as the NZ Government
modified their view on their role in biotechnology and many of
the key people were lost in the process. Stewart emphasises
that the success of any biotech company is its people, “having
key people in place is everything”.
Stewart, his wife and their young son returned to Perth to
begin again and refocus on what Stewart loves best and that
is setting up successful biotechnology companies. Within
two weeks of his return he had an offer to take up the CEO
position at Phylogica. He knew Dr Paul Watt the key scientist
at Phylogica and he found the technology had great potential.
Phylogica had already been in operation for 6 years with preseed funding from the NIH in the US as well as other grants.
Stewart was familiar with the history of the company and
knew that it was a blue blood with depth of concept.
Shortly after joining the company he raised seed capital and
listed on the ASX in March 2005 for 20 cents. One year later
Phylogica was trading at 75 cents and was voted as one of
two speculative Australian shares in Bioshares publication
of its “super six”, along with Avexa. Phylogica was the top
performing biotechnology company in Australia in the first
quarter of 2006.
Stewart believes the Australian biotech sector is a bear
market and is still in its infancy. He says “there are not
enough biotech winners yet that have made it with values at
around the one billion dollar mark. There is lots of potential for
several to reach this size soon, most noticeably with Cochlear,
Resmed, Biota, Alchemia and Pharmaxis”. Stewart predicts
the Australian biotech sector will go through a growth phase
and enter a phase of mergers and acquisitions to create more
sustainable biotechs.
Stewart is no stranger to the mix of politics and medicine.
Stewart’s father Mal Washer, is a medical doctor as well
as the Federal Member for Moore, an electorate north of
Perth. Although he has no aspirations to enter politics, he is
involved with the current debate between medical science
and politics. He hopes that there will be state cooperation to
deal with ethical issues in science.
“The debate on RU486 and the stem cell debate should
be carefully considered and not hijacked by emotive
arguments. These are complex issues both scientifically and
ethically and the right thing to do is to heed the advice from
professionals in these fields who are on review committees
and have extensively looked at all sides of the issues.
Australians need to have confidence in the strength of the
OGTR and TGA guidelines”.
Stewart has an interesting view of the three coloured biotech
sectors. Green being agricultural biotech, red being medical
biotech and white being industrial biotech.
Stewart says “Australia punches above its weight in the area of
medical research and development. In the area of immunology
and proteins we have more than our share of Nobel Laureates.
What Australian biotech companies need to focus on, is value
adding on-shore. We need to be competent in preclinical trials
in particular, that add significant value to potential compounds
arising from R&D for a relatively small investment”.
In regard to green biotech sector, Stewart thinks Australia
has probably missed the boat. “In the future, China and India
will feed themselves and export surplus GM crop produce
while the developed world will probably paying more for nonGM products. Australian consumers do not understand GM
crops and generally do not want to eat them at this stage. In
keeping with his philosophy of understanding the customers
needs - it is time to move on and focus beyond GM foods to
the red and white biotech sectors”.
Perhaps the one area of the green biotech sector that
Stewart thinks Australia should focus its attention is in the
area of animal feed. “Animal feed is expensive and by using
biotechnology we can improve the feed so there is less
phosphate waste and greater uptake of nutrients. We need
to replace world dependence on animal material as animal
feed with plant crops which will reduce costs and the risk
of prion diseases. Australia has the space and established
broad acre farming practices to supply the world with clean
value added animal feed”.
Closely aligned to this area is the consideration of animal feed
for use in aqua-culture. Stewart believes this is, as yet an
untapped resource which has a massive potential to develop
an all-in-one feed with a GM modified plant providing fish
oil/meal equivalents. Again, Australia is in a prime position
surrounded by ocean and temperate climates and with a
fledgling aqua-culture industry.
In the white biotech sector, Stewart points to the production
of biofuels and materials production as another important
area of focus for Australia. “By creating biodeisel and
bioethanol we can supply the world with clean wastefree product. Biodiesel can be created from oil crops and
recycling of waste cooking oil and bioethanol can be made
from high starch and cellulose crops such as sugar. Australia
should look to the next step and gear up to export biofuels.
We know resources management and in Australia we have
the sunlight and established broad-acre farming practices
in crops such as sugar. In ten years time when the enzyme
degradation of cellulose is streamlined, Australia should
supply the world with a clean, renewable energy source”.
Stewart sees a convergence of nanotechnology and life
sciences in the area of materials production for medical
applications. “In the non-medical materials area there
are opportunities to improve cotton, wood and textiles to
produce new materials. Europe is heavily investing in white
biotech as it is environmentally sustainable and will replace
plastics and oil based products”.
For the time being, Stewart is happy to be back in Perth and
at the reigns of a company that is geared-up and ready to
ride the next biotech bull market wave when it comes later
this year or early next year. Living in Perth has many lifestyle
attractions. It has always been a resources rich state and is
buzzing with the current boom in resources. Stewart accepts
the tyranny of distance and that he will travel often to the east
coast to talk with customers and investors, as well as the
longer hauls to the US and Europe as a necessary part of
doing business in Australia and globally.
63

australia has a big impact in Chicago

Transcription

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