It seems that Virax is still emerging from a documentation mess...

It seems that Virax is still emerging from a documentation mess arising from the time it went into administration on August 24, 2012.

Then, some personnel were not being paid to do what they should have been doing, resulting in paperwork and other lapses.

When company doctor and former VHL director, Michael Humphris, introduced Virax to Grant Thornton administrators, Lawrence Fitzgerald and Stephen Dixon, there was much to be done.

It seems the administrators focused on high level issues such as the licensing relationships Virax had with Strasbourg-based Transgene.

These arrangements flowed two ways.

On one hand Virax was a licensor for VG4010, platform for a potential blockbuster lung cancer drug.

On the other hand Virax was a licensee for TG1042, a Transgene platform aimed at the basal cell skin cancer market.

At present, basal cell carcinoma affects 2m people world-wide. Many of these reside in sunlit Australia.

As I understand it, the Grant Thornton men told Transgene that, as administrators, they weren't able to progress TG1042.

Result: Transgene terminated the licence arrangement.

On July 13, 2013 the French pharma announced that it was granting the TG1042 licence to Virax competitor, Melbourne-based Ascend Biopharmaceuticals.

Ascend, an IPO prospect, intends commercializing TG1042/ASN-002 forthwith.

Having renounced the TG1042 opportunity, Virax will concentrate on TG4010, TG4001, a cervical cancer vaccine and VIR201, a proposed HIV/AIS vaccine.

An expert is currently assessing the value and potential of these drug assets.

But her work has been affected by issues relating to incomplete drug testing and other documentation.

She's expected to report to chairman Dr Wayne Millen by the end of February.

Meantime, the ASX has issued a rare "Aware" letter.

It wants to know why Virax didn't advise the market when Transgene announced in France on January 8 that Phase 11B trials of 4010 had been successful.

Virax has responded by saying it didn't become aware of the announcement until three weeks later.

On January 31, Grant Thornton's Lawrence Fitzgerald contacted the company about the implications of the Transgene announcement.

While he retired as an administrator on November 13, he still has a role in supervising a Creditors Trust owed $8.2m.

After the Fitzgerald contact, Virax approached Norton Rose Fulbright, its corporate/IP legal adviser.

Together they needed to inspect and verify Virax records and to formulate a public response to the Transgene developments.

This took time - almost a week.

I expect Virax to implement systems that allow it to respond quickly to anything relevant that Transgene says or does.

Media monitors may help.

I believe Virax is now starting to understand the need to take the Transgene relationship to another level.

And in terms of Virax's future prosperity, this relationship is absolutely precious.