”You are most welcome. If you are feeling appreciative, I would...

”You are most welcome. If you are feeling appreciative, I would be very interested in your short and long term rankings for DIA, EPT, CVN, AQD and LFE.”

DIA:

I hold. The options are great value due to the exercise date (2010). As DIA is a bio it is very hard for me to speculate on the long tern SP but she looks a lovely hold at current prices as long as the market continues on, as on any correction, she will be punished and fall under 10c again. Enough cash for most of 2006:

"Dr Wooldridge said that the company was unable to divulge full details of this latest patent as any release could jeopardise the company's patent protection as it passes through the provisional application phase."

Mr Smith said the company could not reveal any more details about the treatment until it had been through the full patent process.

"In 12 months time, in theory, the world will find out what our discovery is," he said.

LOCAL BIOTECH MAKES IMPORTANT DISCOVERY FOR DIABETIC SUFFERERS

Sydney - Monday - December 12: (RWE Aust Business News)
*******************************************************

OVERVIEW
********

Biotech stocks are a breed of their own.
The share price should not influence investors unduly while
research can produce breakthroughs when least expected.
The time frame of success is never the same for any one company,
and often it takes years to produce a commercial product.
Dia-B Tech Ltd (DIA) fits much of this criteria.
The company last week reported progress towards a new drug for
diabetes and has filed a new provisional patent covering the discovery.
It involves a new approach to treatment of diabetes.
The patent covers a mechanism whereby insulin in its native
complex state is dispersed more rapidly to make a much more efficient
fast-acting form of the single molecule in the treatment of diabetes.
Dia-B chairman, former Health Minister Dr Michael Wooldridge,
says the company, which only listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in
January, has established another plank in its expanding intellectual
property portfolio with this important find.
Dr Wooldridge said that the company was unable to divulge full
details of this latest patent as any release could jeopardise the
company's patent protection as it passes through the provisional
application phase.
"We believe this discovery is a totally new concept in
understanding how insulin normally works and that an abnormality in this
process may lead to type 2 diabetes," he said.
"It is certainly a very significant event in our short history.
"Our scientists at Monash University and the International
Diabetes Institute have placed us in a terrific position as we look to
commercialise our research," said Dr Wooldridge.
The International Diabetes Institute, working with the
International Diabetes Federation, has identified diabetes as the world's
fastest growing disease, with an estimated one million Australians as
sufferers.
The disease is expected to have more than 320 million worldwide
sufferers by 2025, up from the estimated 190 million in 2003.
Features of the development are substantial.
It speeds up the breakdown of insulin to more rapidly lower high
blood glucose levels, which is the major problem for diabetes sufferers.
Dia-B says the process is a totally new concept in understanding
how insulin normally works, and how it reduces sugar in the blood.
This discovery has been subjected to animal trials.
Dia-B's overall strategy is to develop drugs for the treatment of
diabetes that can be taken orally and assist the body's natural insulin
to work more effectively and reduce dependence on synthetic insulin.

SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS
*********************

Shares of Dia-B on Friday crept up 1.5c to 13c. Rolling high for
the year has been 20c and low 6.2c.The company has 75.6 million shares on
issue worth $8.7 million.
Directors say they are disappointed in the market reaction
subsequent to listing after successfully making a $6 million IPO.
The company incurred a loss for the year to June 30, after nil
tax provisions, of $997,786 ($438,121 in 2004).
The result was achieved after fully expensing all research,
development and patent costs amounting to $1 million. Income for the
period totalled $672,162 including interest income of $138,476.
The company has no borrowings.
However, directors are pleased with the progress of its other
projects, Bafilomycin, CDAI and IMO14, which are meeting milestone
targets and are at a much earlier stage of development.
Insulin forms into groups of six insulin molecules (hexamers)
that are held together (or stabilised) by zinc. However, only single
insulin molecules (monomers) bind to insulin receptors in the body.
For the insulin to work, the hexamers have to break up (or
disperse) to provide monomers.
Dispersal of insulin hexamers to monomers occurs naturally in the
body, but when diabetics inject insulin it can take some time for the
hexamers to disperse, so the insulin is considered slow acting.
Some fast-acting insulin analogues that have been altered
structurally so that they do not form hexamers are already available.
These are synthetically produced, and are useful for diabetics to
take close to mealtimes when insulin is needed to act quickly and signal
the body to take up glucose.
What Dia-B has discovered is a new combination in which hexamers
of unmodified (natural) insulin are rapidly dispersed, so making
fast-acting compositions of natural insulin for the treatment of
diabetes.

BACKGROUND
**********

Dia-B was listed only this year but has been researching for a
much longer period.
The company is working on development of diagnostics,
pharmaceuticals and treatment methods for diabetes and its related
diseases.
Dia-B's projects include development of therapeutics for the
treatment of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
The ISF402 project is being conducted by the International
diabetes Institute (IDI) and Monash University to develop an oral drug
which can be taken with, or instead of insulin injections.
The drug has been identified in human biological fluids that can
be synthesised to produce a compound that enhances insulin action.
The MI04 project is being conducted by Intramed Ltd and Deakin
University, targeting a traditional therapy that identifies the actives
derived from the bark of a Pacific Island tree used by indigenous people
to lower glucose in the body.
Bafilomycin covers research into development of a diagnostic kit
to identify food toxins which may be linked with Type 1 diabetes.
Using a mouse model of human Type 1 diabetes, studies have shown
that exposure early in life to bafilomycin and related toxins can
markedly accelerate the onset of diabetes.
The CDA1 protein promotes accumulation of collagens within
various tissues that are susceptible to the development of diabetic
complications.
The CDA1 protein has been identified at sites of injury in
diabetes and is shown to increase over time in organs that are
susceptible to diabetes-associated damage.

EPT:

I hold. EPT now has 20 million in cash, which should be enough for the completion of phase 3 trials. The T/A look fabulous at under 35c IMO. Recently, Mad macs posted a chart on it (could be in the general forum) and he tends to agree. As it is another bio, you can only speculate on the SP, but I suspect once European contacts have been further established through their new business strategy, we could se 50c plus anytime soon.

http://www.epitan.com.au/IRM/content/default.htm

CVN:

I don't hold. I held these a couple of years ago and traded them between 2.7 and 3.3. I do not follow CVN now and IMHO, she looks very expensive. Yogi, Sandybeaches may disagree, but she has had a good
run. The litigation has been settled and management has been changed but is this enough? Your call on that one. CVNO may be okay I suppose for a spec.

AQD:

I hold and love this stock. I accumulated it as she fell from 35c to 28c after the panic buying after the MOU with Rio. The announcements tell the story and given both IOH and CAZ's run of late, she could get up to $1.00 plus in a matter of months on sentiment alone.

LFE:

I sold for a loss on Gradipore a few years ago and will not follow this one again. LOL Best of luck with it.

This is just all IMO of course. KBO looks great.