Well, BTC have dumped their entire holdings on market, this one is down and nearly out--
C3 reviews skin-spray fate 20th February 2007, 7:45 WST
Fiona Wood’s Clinical Cell Culture has refused to rule out selling its spray-on-skin technology as the company reconsiders its future in the wake of its latest setback.
The company yesterday admitted it would not meet its revenue forecasts for this year, blaming lowerthan-expected sales and the quest for approvals in key markets.
C3 also revealed plans for an external review of its “short and medium-term strategic options”, to be completed in just five weeks.
The announcement sent C3’s market value tumbling by a third, as the stock lost 4.5¢ to 9¢. The stock was the most traded on the market, with 49.6 million shares exchanged.
Professor Wood, a co-developer of the skin technology which leapt to public prominence after the Bali bombing in late-2002, is a director of C3 and one of its biggest shareholders with 6.23 million shares.
C3 chief executive Bob Atwill said the review would look at “all eventualities and what is the best way to go forward and realise the value in C3 technologies”.
He did not rule out a possible sale of the technologies.
“I’m not going to speculate in terms of what it will or won’t include,” he said. “But if we have to take the hard decisions and they are required then we will do that.”
C3 has been trying to win approval for its products from the US Food and Drug Administration for some time, most recently saying it aimed to have the green light by the end of the year or early next year.
But that date is now in doubt, with the company unable to find suitable patients for the testing process.
It has screened a total of 18 patients for the trials but none has so far met the criteria.
It is also pushing ahead with regulatory approvals in Russia and Mexico, but these milestones have been pushed back after requests for extended testing. Approval from China has also been delayed.
C3 had been depending on these markets for a major portion of its forecast 2006-07 revenues, but said yesterday it was unlikely to derive any earnings from these regions.
While it had expected to pull in revenue of between $5 million and $7 million this year, it can now probably count on only $1.1 million.
“The overall commercialisation will move forward but it’s really a timing issue,” Mr Atwill said. “It’s growing but not as rapidly as we’d like it too.”
He insisted C3 still had a future.
“The future of the company is still very bright if you look at the technology and how well the technology is working and what it can do for patients — it’s incredible,” he said.
Professor Wood stepped down from the board in late 2005, but rejoined last April to boost investor confidence after the shock resignation of then-chief executive Troels Jordansen.
Harry Karelis, managing director of C3’s biggest shareholder, BioTech Capital, said he was disappointed.
“It’s obviously disappointing but these things happen in biotechs,” he said. “I don’t have any particular insight but they need to demonstrate to the market that people that are allowed to buy the products are buying it.”
CCE Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
