amongst best corporate governance on asx, page-18

We're in good company. Looks like the hare is running. This Saturday's Australian.



Article from: The Australian
LUCY Turnbull, wife of the federal Opposition Leader, has made a substantial paper profit on a listed biotechnology stock backed just four months ago.

Shares in cancer vaccine developer Prima Biomed have rallied more than eightfold, from less than 1c to 6.9c, since Ms Turnbull agreed to provide a $125,000 convertible loan on January 27. The investment was disclosed yesterday in sharemarket documents released before a meeting at which Prima investors will vote on whether to approve Ms Turnbull converting the loan into shares.

If the meeting agrees, the former lawyer and one-time lord mayor of Sydney could end up owning up to 5.3 million shares in the company. If the plan is rejected, Prima will be required to repay Ms Turnbull $312,500, plus interest, by January 27 next year.

The investment came at a critical time for the Melbourne-based company, which had less than $500,000 in the bank at the end of December. Ms Turnbull said she was not a "professional biotechnology investor" but had found the company's research and development work on ovarian cancer "very promising".

She said the company had been struggling to raise capital in a difficult environment.

"I really hope it does well," she said yesterday.

She would consider converting the loan, or part of it, to shares should investors agree to that at a meeting on June 26, she said.

In the past few months, Prima, which is advised by the Gardasil vaccine's inventor, acclaimed scientist Ian Frazer, has attracted a further $12 million in funding from investors, including businessman and philanthropist Laurence Freedman. It is seeking US Food and Drug Administration approval to start a planned 60-patient phase II trial of its CancerVac product.

A previous study of 28 patients revealed that the vaccine was able to shrink or clear ovarian tumours in 21 per cent of cases.

Prima managing director Martin Rogers said he approached Ms Turnbull late last year to pitch the company.

"I told her we needed some help and she said she didn't want it to be about charity, she wanted to make some money," Mr Rogers said. "The share price has risen as much as 1400 per cent since we first spoke."

The funding was used to provide treatment for two ovarian cancer patients through a special access scheme run by the US Therapeutic Goods Administration. Mr Rogers said an effective vaccine for treating ovarian cancer patients after surgery and chemotherapy would be important. The disease was typically well advanced when diagnosed and had high morbidity.

Prima's share price has been buoyed by positive clinical data from an experimental prostate cancer vaccine being developed by US company Dendreon.