selective reporting

Chemeq released this quote as part of an ASX release today on McDonalds decision to phase out antibiotics:

"With regulatory authorities around the world and major international
corporations such as McDonald's banning the use of antibiotics for
growth purposes in chickens and pigs, our patented polymeric
antimicrobial will become the first choice for control of
gastro-intestinal disease by primary producers," said Dr Graham
Melrose, CEO and Chairman of Chemeq. "CHEMEQ(RTM) polymeric
antimicrobial provides a viable alternative to this antibiotic use
that works."


The actual Reuters release for the McDonalds story contained the additional information:

"But the impact of McDonald's action on the U.S. beef, pork, and poultry industries may be minimal because many producers either no longer use these antibiotics or have alternative treatments, industry sources said."

And further:

"In 2000, McDonald's Europe began phasing out growth-promoting antibiotics, and by the end of 2001 all European-based poultry suppliers had eliminated such use in chicken feed."

This raises the question of the marketing difficulties that face CMQ if the meat industry has already moved on.

At this stage CMQ have a $A20 million production plant coming on stream later this year. I think CMQ are claiming a $9 billion market so this is less than 1/4% of the market so it can have only a very small impact.

A larger plant say 200 tonnes/annum must be two years away and the market will have changed again.

CMQ have an intereresting compound but one should not underestimate the marketing challenges.

I do not like this type of ASX report which leaves out as much of the source material as it includes.