Ann: Suspension from Official Quotation - Continued, page-82

ASX crackdown on COVID-19 company announcements

The ASX has acted on around 60 announcements containing claims about COVID-19 that required close review with the most offenders coming from biotech, medtech and cannabis sectors.Cannabis firms are among those developing COVID-19 specific products. Eric Engman/ APSince the ASX issued fresh guidance on 31 March cautioning companies about making misleading COVID-19 announcements, the number of possible misleading claims by companies continues to increase, but at a slower rate.Other companies gaining further ASX scrutiny are coming from completely unrelated sectors where companies are “diversifying” to sell hand sanitisers, face masks, etc.An ASX spokesman told The Australian Financial Review this total includes proposed announcements rejected by ASX and those that have been amended, after discussion with ASX, prior to release to market."There have also been some announcements made that were retracted or rectified to ensure that they were accurate, complete and not misleading," he said. "A number of announcements have been released without questioning or concern from the ASX noticed a significant number of instances where companies made announcements with potentially misleading claims around COVID-19, including groups that did not appear to have had any prior meaningful involvement in similar activities such as claiming to have found a cure or new treatment for COVID-19.Other claims were made around gearing up to use their manufacturing facilities to manufacture masks, gowns, thermometers, hand sanitisers and other medical necessities in short supply with little or no details. COVID drug fuel rally Companies like medicinal cannabis producer MGC Pharmaceuticals, Cellmid, whose major business is hair-loss and anti-ageing treatments, and TBG Diagnostics are only a few of the companies looking at COVID-19 products.ASX is now reviewing all proposed announcements with COVID-19-related content before release. Ordinarily, ASX does not review every announcement ahead of time with over 130,000 made by companies each year."It is the responsibility of each company to ensure they are making appropriate announcements and keeping the market informed," the ASX spokesman said.

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