those were the days

PharmaNet soars as market picks up
By Anna Krien
July 17, 2004

The superstar of the week - after a gallery of online investors traded almost every share three times over - is biotech company PharmaNet Group.

PharmaNet Group was at a record low of 1� on Tuesday before it underwent a violent mood swing that yesterday took it to a record high of 13.5

After the company had announced the isolation and patent of a pain-killing compound called Tripeptofen - now dubbed by brokers as "Triplewonder" - the shares of the West Australian company rose 1.6 to 2.6 on Wednesday.

The next day they leapt 6 to 8.6, and yesterday hit their peak soon after the market opened. Despite pulling back, they closed 2.9 higher on the day at 11.5

"Everyone's sitting here at the desk saying, 'have a look at this' - 12 times your money in a week," said Sean Conlan, senior adviser at Macquarie Equities.

Brokers were in agreement that online trading was at the bottom of the company's swift rise. "They're day traders that are just pushing it up and throwing it around, I bet you it's all over the internet and chat sites," said Lachlan Hughes, a senior client adviser at Shaw Stockbroking.

Dr Glen Koski, of PharmaNet's development team, said: "I think the day traders have gotten in and driven that . . . but there is substantive scientific data behind it and it's a good story."

The new drug is to be aimed at the lucrative sporting and ageing markets. "Why the biotech market has gotten so excited, for those who can read between the lines, (is that) it (Tripeptofen) is part of an existing product which is in use, so the usual hurdle . . . won't apply to this," said Dr Koski.