Bio Briefs: Probiomics, Agenix, Prima, ImpediMed and KarmelSonix
Nick Evans Tuesday, 12 May 2009
PROBIOMICS has come to the swine flu trough late, but it doesn’t seem to matter, with the company’s shares taking off this morning on the back of an announcement that its PCC probiotic strain may boost immune response to influenza vaccines.
SFB7 for Lymphoedema Applications
Probiomics says a small double blind trial of one of its probiotics showed the product could work as an adjuvant to influenza vaccines, boosting the immune response in vaccinated patients.
According to the company, in the 47-patient double blind trial, PCC was able to significantly boost the immune response to the flu vaccine (as measured by the H1N1 titre) and to significantly reduce the number of subjects who did not respond to vaccination. Additionally, those taking PCC had significantly fewer days of respiratory symptoms (average of two days) compared to those on placebo (who experienced on average five days of illness).
Probiomics shares more than doubled in early trading after closing at 0.5c yesterday. Shares were trading at 1.2c at midday, on the exchange of just over 1 million shares.
The company’s paper – Use of probiotic bacteria as an adjuvant for influenza vaccine – was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Probiotics and Prebiotics on February 3. BTN is sure it’s just a coincidence the company has only now decided it’s important enough to release details of.
While Probiomics had only $38,000 at bank at the end of March, the company said it expected to receive more than $460,000 in sales revenue before the end of June, enough to cover its expected costs for the quarter.
Agenix payments on track
Agenix’s former Chinese partners appear to be on track to meet their commitments under the break-up deal that will see the company finally extract itself from the running disaster caused by its Chinese expansion plans.
Under the terms of a deal agreed to in late April, Agenix’s former acquisition target Shanghai Rui Guang Bio-Pharma Development (SHRG) is due to pay the Australian-listed company RMB44 million (around $A9 million) in instalments by November 30, in return for the Chinese group retaking control of hepatitis B drug YouHeDing for the Chinese market.
Agenix says SHRG has met its most recent instalment deadline, delivering RMB700,000 into the company’s bank account late last week.
Prima on US cash hunt
Prima Biomed says it’s on the hunt for US cash, with executive director Martin Rogers to begin discussions with “potential major North American institutional investment funds later this month” over funds for the development of its CVac ovarian cancer therapy vaccine.
Rogers said the company had received “significant” interest from a number of major institutional investment groups, after recently securing a $12 million funding facility from investment bank Fortrend Securities.
ImpediMed: we’re OK, cash wise
ImpediMed has been forced to reassure the ASX that its financial position is secure, after copping a query from the exchange about its last quarterly report.
The ASX asked ImpediMed, which reported having only $4 million at bank at the end of the quarter, on a cash burn of around $2.7 million, how it expected to survive the next six months if its cash burn continued at that rate.
In response, ImpediMed told the ASX it expected to reduce its outflow over the next six months, projecting revenue growth and cost cutting, and pointing to the company’s strong institutional investor base as a source of new investment if revenue didn’t grow as planned.
Full disclosure: BTN editor Nick Evans owns shares in ImpediMed.
KarmelSonix subsidiary gets UK patent
KarmelSonix says its subsidiary, PulmoSonix, has been granted a new UK patent covering the use of its AirwayClear device, which uses active acoustics to measure and monitor airway patency for diagnosis and/or treatment of various lung and airway conditions, including obstructive sleep apnoea, asthma and upper airway obstruction.
The company says the patent covers the “non-invasive measurement of airway patency”.
PRR Price at posting:
5.7¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)