nice find planetman..hard to find though all the way dowwn the...

nice find planetman..

hard to find though all the way dowwn the page..you must have been reading and reading and reading to find it..

here it is if others cant be bothered looking through the pages..


FINANCIAL

Some people I talk to in the sector say they feel weirdly immune from the entire economic meltdown because the industry seems to be ticking along just fine in many ways continuing to be fueled by its own internal optimism and external enthusiasm for the promise of cell-based therapies...well that, and the still-growing amount of money being spent on the research side of the sector. Others, are certainly feeling the pinch. The dividing line may well be those who are trying to raise money and those who are not.

Having said that, here we go with reports of money being raised -- all from non-US investors mind you. Proving that its economy is not down and out, the first two report of fundraises come from Down Under.

There's no way I can start this first story any better then The Australian did in its March 12 report (that I only now just picked up now): "From the miracles-do-happen file comes this provident yarn of a $3.4 million market cap tiddler that has secured $12 million of funding for further development of its ovarian cancer drug, CVac."

They're talking, of course, about Prima BioMed Limited (ASX:PRR) which has been busy reinventing itself with new management and money since Biomira took a pass on its option to partner on CVac development more than a year ago. The company has been slowly bleeding money and management since. The company is still clearly on a low burn because I had to mine this information from anywhere but direct sources. The company itself has been very quiet about any of this.

The news is this: Prima Biomed has secured access to a $12-million funding facility from investment bank Fortrend Securities to help commercialize the company’s ovarian cancer treatment. The deal allows Prima to place shares with Fortrend as needed over the next three years.

Prima said it will use the cash to move through a phase IIb trial and towards a pivotal US registration trial of its dendritic cell-based ovarian cancer therapy, which the company says is designed to stimulate the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells. The company said it now hopes to begin a US trial by mid-year, after the company reported positive feedback on its pre-investigational new drug meeting with the US Food and Drug Administration last year.