can key man millen emulate success at cuv?

Virax key man, Dr Wayne Millen (pic), would be pleased with VHL's market performance in the last three months - he's trebled the worth of his investment.

Millen controls Weighton Pty Ltd, the company's third largest shareholder with 25m units equaling 4.56pc of capital.

At the current VHL market price of $0.015, the parcel is worth $375,000 - signalling a paper profit of $250,000.

While Millen may be strategizing in the background as VHL chairman, he's chosen not to adopt a high public profile…yet.

This may be because he needs to become familiar with the value and potential of Virax's lung cancer-related IP portfolio - which is why he's recruited an independent reviewer to conduct a thorough study.

The results of this study project are expected to be unveiled within the next week or so.

Then Millen may become VHL-busy…and visibly so.

While Millen assumed the chair at Virax last November - after the recapitalization engineered by Perth's Otsana Capital - he had been eyeing Virax for at least 18 months.

In mid 2012, Millen's Melbourne-based biotech, Broadvector, tried to organize a reverse takeover of cash-starved Virax but the proposed deal didn't eventuate and Virax went into an administration arranged by then then chairman, Michael Humphris.

At the time, Humphris was a consultant to Grant Thornton.

Grant Thornton partners Laurie Fitzgerald and Stephen Dixon were anointed administrators…and rewarded accordingly.

Broadvector - then engaged in treatments for hip implant failure and prostate cancer - morphed into Elk Orthobiologics.

Millen remains non executive chairman and, along with CSIRO, a shareholder.

While Millen is acknowledged as a veteran venture capitalist, his role at Clinuvel afforded him industry renown.

In 1995, Millen began developing a drug aimed at reducing damage to the body caused by ultraviolet radiation.

He established Epitan Ltd to develop this technology further.

The company floated in 2001.

Five years later the company's name changed to Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Today, CUV has a market cap of $59m.

Dr Millen was founding managing director and then chairman.

Clinuvel has sought to commercialize first-in-class drug SCENESSE (afamelanotide) in Europe, with Phase III clinical trials progressing in the US.

Millen retired from the CUV board in November 2006 and remained as a consultant until November 2008.

Millen has a PhD in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Western Australia and as a Fulbright scholar worked in the Molecular Biology Institute of UCLA with Nobel Prize Laureate, Professor Paul Boyer.

Internationally, Wayne Millen has been involved in listings, structuring joint ventures, marketing agreements and strategic alliances with companies in China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Africa, USA, the UK and Europe.

Again this background, Virax holders will be hoping Millen can nuture precious relationships with Transgene and other pharmas as he demonstrates that trebling his investment in three months is just the start of something more spectacular.