Here's the full article folks... Cheers, DLAVEXA GETTING SET...

Here's the full article folks... Cheers, DL


AVEXA GETTING SET
AFR: Street Talk – Jemma Whyte (July 19-20, 2008)

It’s no secret Sydney biotech Avexa has been looking for a senior partner as it continues to develop its lead product, HIV drug apricitabine.

Late last month Avexa announced the appointment of US based investment banker Nathan Drona as non-exec director. Drona is the managing director of independent mergers and acquisitions firm Challis, which is headquartered in New York and also has an office in Sydney.

The question is whether the hunt for a partner has effectively made Avexa a takeover target.

There’s some talk the company is expecting to attract offers from international players by October this year. Likely buyers include Pfizer, Merck and Johnson and Johnson.

It’s thought the company could attract and offer a 100% premium to the share price, given the market opportunity for it’s HIV drug could be as much as $US500 million ($515 million). But there’s still some way to go.

Avexa was one of the star performers in the high-risk biotech sector last year, although the stock has been hammered in the past 12 months, by nervous investors.

It is doing the first of two final stage trials in apricitabine, with results expected by next March. Analysts have high hopes for the product, and ABN Amro notes all HIV drugs to enter the final Phase III trials have made it to market.

The stock closed at 30c yesterday, but ABN AMRO who rates it as a ‘buy’, has a price target of 92c. The broker is forecasting a $33.4 million loss for 2008.