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Australasian Biotechnology, Vol. 11, No. 5, 2001, pp. 16-21 BIOTECH BUSINESS Code Number: au01051
ALCHEMIA GETS NEW R&D GRANTAn Australian biotechnology firm that has just completed a major R&D project has recently announced in Brisbane the award of a new $4.3 million dollar AusIndustry Start Grant. Alchemia, based in Brisbane, Queensland, will use the new grant to focus on automating new chemistries that have been developed over the past three years to produce a very high number of compounds for testing as potential drug candidates. The "libraries" of 100's of different sugar-based compounds can be screened for biological activity, and promising candidates can be modified to fine-tune biological activity using Alchemia's technology and automation capabilities. The world-leading carbohydrate technology that that has been developed at Alchemia can now be effectively utilised by developing the automation required for the parallel synthesis of 100's and 1000's of related compounds for drug screening. NEW BIOTECHNOLOGY FUND TO ASSIST BIOMEDICAL RESEARCHSciCapital Pty Ltd, a new Australian venture capital company with extensive scientific management and investment capabilities, offers biomedical researchers the opportunity to commercialise their technology in the biomedical sector by providing high quality scientific input, in addition to capital, for early to later stage biomedical research projects. With first-round funding from Carnegie, Wylie & Co., and Wentworth Associates, SciCapital has already made a $2 million commitment towards Inhalix Pty Ltd and an allergy diagnostic/preventative. Over the next two years, SciCapital aims to build an investment portfolio spread across the pharmaceutical, medical device and medical diagnostic areas. Professor David Celermajer, chairs SciCapital's Scientific Advisory Council. He is Director of research at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney. Further information: SciCapital CEO Mr Matt McNamara Tel: (02) 9328 1120; Email: mm@SciCapital.com US/AUSTRALIA DENDRIMER NANOTECHNOLOGY VENTUREDr Donald A Tomalia, the pioneer of dendrimer technology, and listed Australian company Starpharma Pooled Development Ltd (ASX: SPL) have agreed to establish a new venture to develop products using dendrimer nanotechnology. Under the proposed new venture, Starpharma intends to invest up to US$2.18 million over the next three years in Dendritic Nanotechnologies Limited, a new Australian company which will have its head office in Melbourne and a branch office and laboratory at Central Michigan University, Michigan, USA. Dr Tomalia's team of experienced dendritic polymer scientists will be employed by the new company. Dendrimers are a novel class of precisely defined nanoscale (1 billionth to 100 billionths of a metre) synthetic compounds with structures that can be precisely designed for a wide range of applications. Nanotechnology (the fabrication of nanoscale structures) is receiving worldwide attention as a new frontier of science, with strategic implications for the life sciences, electronics and materials industries. The USA, Japan and Korea have all made large commitments to investment in nanotechnology. AGENIX TO PURSUE NASDAQ LISTINGBlood-clot diagnostic and medical imaging development capital, Agenix Limited (ASX: AGX), announced on 30 July it had appointed GTH Capital, Inc. of New York to establish an American Depository Receipt program for the company and to advise it in relation to a listing on NASDAQ. BIONOMICS TO MAKE $4.04 MILLION PLACEMENTBionomics Limited (ASX:BNO), the Adelaide-based genomics company, advises that it proposes to raise $4.04 million by way of a placement of 3.84 million new ordinary shares. The funds raised by this placement will be used to build upon and broaden Bionomics" intellectual property in the areas of breast cancer, epilepsy and the recently announced angiogenesis project. CHEMEQ LTD MAKES ITS FIRST SALEChemeq Ltd (ASX: CMQ) has made its first sale of CHEMEQRTM polymeric antimicrobial for pigs. The sale of the polymeric antimicrobial to a large offshore piggery signals an important new phase in Chemeq's commercialisation strategy. During the next 12 months, Chemeq Ltd intends to sell further limited quantities of the polymeric antimicrobial to a selected number of commercial piggeries within Asia, to assess use-patterns of the antimicrobial under commercial and field conditions whilst under Chemeq Ltd's supervision. This is being done to ensure control during this important opinion-forming stage, prior to expanded commercialisation. Currently, Chemeq Ltd is in negotiation with LandCorp to acquire land to build new production facilities in Western Australia. "Chemeq differentiates itself from many other Australian biotechnology companies in that we manufacture our own products rather than issue licences to other producers. This will ensure that we maintain high profit margins, and better control of our business" Dr Melrose added. CHEMEQRTM polymeric antimicrobial is fully patented in 25 countries and following five trials, it has been shown to be superior against world-wide disease from E.coli bacteria, than either a market leading antibiotic or a commercial vaccine PROGEN'S FIRST US CLINICAL TRIAL WITH ANTI-CANCER DRUGThe first two patients were enrolled in Progen Industries Limited Phase I/II trial of anti-cancer drug PI-88 on July 30. The trial will be conducted in two phases at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (CUHSC) in the United States. The first phase (Phase I) will determine the appropriate dose and safety of the drug when administered subcutaneously (injected under the skin) to patients with advanced malignancies. The second phase (Phase II) will evaluate the drug's effect on tumour progression in patients with advanced melanoma, and gather information about PI-88's ability to inhibit the formation of blood vessels (angiogenesis) feeding the tumours. This phase will involve patients who have received therapies that have failed or do not have any other treatment options available. The PI-88 trial at the CHSC follows the completion of a Phase Ib trial of the drug in cancer patients in February this year at the Centre for Developmental Cancer Therapeutics involving the Peter McCallum Cancer Institute and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. A Phase I trial examining subcutaneous administration of PI-88 in healthy volunteers is nearing completion at the specialist clinical research organisation, Medeval, in the United Kingdom. Progen's strategic alliance partner, Medigen Biotechnology Corporation, is currently conducting an independent Phase Ib trial of PI-88 in Taiwanese patients suffering advanced forms of cancer. DEAL TO BOOST BREAST CANCER RESEARCHBionomics Limited recently announced it had formed a strategic alliance with Ozgene Pty Ltd, which would speed up and strengthen its breast cancer research project. The deal with Ozgene, a leading Australian drug target validation and functional genomics company based in Perth, will give Bionomics access to unique and internationally recognised genetic tools. Initial work will focus on three of Bionomics" breast cancer genes. Bionomics will own and retain all commercial rights to the intellectual property, including the genetic models, generated by this strategic alliance. Ozgene will receive a royalty upon commercialisation under an greed formula. Dr Deborah Rathjen, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Bionomics Limited, said breast cancer affects one in ten women in the western world, with only five per cent of all cases resulting from an inherited disposition. PANBIO SIGNS MAJOR RESEARCH AGREEMENTInternational medical diagnostics company, PanBio Limited, on 7 August announced the signing of a renewed seven-year research agreement with the Cooperative research Centre (CRC) for Diagnostics which will lead to improved disease diagnosis and new products for export. The CRC of which PanBio is the sole commercial manufacturing partner, will receive $16.3 million over the next seven years from the Australian Government department of AusIndustry to fund medical diagnostic research programs. The research programs of this CRC are highly collaborative, capitalising on the synergies of several partners including CSIRO, Queensland University of Technology, LaTrobe University, Child Health Research Institute, Queensland Medical Laboratories and PanBio Limited. These partners will contribute a further $12 million in funding to the programs. According to PanBio Chief Executive Officer, Mel Bridges, the CRC's research program would enable more patient-specific screening for the predisposition of selected diseases and medical conditions and provide better-targeted therapeutics. Australian Biotech Company Poised for a Global FutureLeading Australian biotechnology company, Gradipore Limited, is extending the reach of its patented Gradiflow technology platform into the worldwide biotechnology sector. Gradipore researches, develops and manufactures separation technologies for the life-science market. The company's key technology is Gradiflow, a patented process for the separation and purification of biological materials. Gradipore has committed more than 14 years to research and development of the technology. In 1998, with the support of a major R&D Start Grant of $3.2 million from the Commonwealth Government, the company gained the resources to exploit more fully the potential of the Gradiflow technology, investigating its use in large-scale blood purification and in kidney dialysis. As Tim Wawn, Managing Director of Gradipore explains: "Unlike other large-scale blood purification technologies, Gradiflow provides bacteria and virus-free product when used for biological separations. "The Gradiflow's capacity to remove viruses from blood is a major advance on existing technology, particularly the removal of small non-enveloped viruses such as parvo B19, which are very difficult to remove by other currently used technologies. The Gradiflow has also been shown to remove spiked non-infectious bovine prions from plasma. Experiments have clearly demonstrated the potential of the technology to provide essentially prion-free purification of human albumin and human IgC from plasma" Mr Wawn said. During 2000, Gradipore secured a collaborative research agreement with two of the world's major blood fractionation companies - Baxter AG, the Austrian subsidiary of Baxter International, and Bayer Corporation, the US-based member of the worldwide Bayer Group, based in Germany. PROGEN LODGES PROVISIONAL PATENT FOR DRUG DESIGNProgen Industries Limited and the Australian National University (ANU) announced on 9 August that the Australian Patent Office had accepted a provisional patent application describing novel chemistries to be used in the design and synthesis of new drugs. The provisional patent "Linked cyclitols and their polysulfated derivatives" covers new chemistries for building (synthesising) compounds that mimic the shape of carbohydrates. According to Progen's Vice President of research and Development, Dr Robert Don, Progen plans to use the new chemistries to develop drugs that block the action of specific targets such as growth factors produced by cancers. GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES EXPANDS INTEREST IN DNA-TESTINGGenetic Technologies Limited has announced the acquisition of the Perth-based DNA testing business, DNA-ID LABS. "In addition to the acquisition of DNA-ID LABS, we have also formed a recent partnership with Curtin University via Curtin Genetics, giving Genetic Technologies ownership or major holding in the only two companies based in Perth that perform paternity testing," said Dr Mervyn Jacobson, Executive Director for Genetic Technologies. The purchase forms a major part of the company's strategy to expand its paternity testing business. Before the purchase of DNA-ID LABS, Genetic Technologies Limited already controlled the largest accredited DNA paternity testing group in Australia. Genetic Technologies Limited has also announced it had engaged GTH Capital, a corporate advisory group based in New York, to progress its plans to list on NASDAQ. GROPEP'S NEW CLINICAL TRIALThe Adelaide biopharmaceutical company GroPep has commenced a new clinical trial of its drug candidate WGFE-a as a possible treatment for severe mouth ulcers, one of the major side effects of high-dose chemotherapy in cancer patients. The clinical trial is being conducted at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute in Melbourne. GroPep's Managing Director, Dr John Ballard, said that the purpose of the trial was to learn more about the safety and tolerability of WGFE-a when administered as liquid mouthwash in different doses to patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy and stem-cell transplantation. An earlier Phase I clinical trial had demonstrated safety and acceptability of the WGFE-a mouthwash over a range of doses in healthy adult volunteers. Dr Ballard said that once dose tolerance and safety of the WFGE-a mouthwash had been established in the new patient group, a multi-centre trial would commence to investigate its efficacy. "Oral mucositis (mouth ulceration) is a highly unpleasant side effect which afflicts between 40% and 70% of patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments for cancer," he said. "Based on the number of patients receiving chemotherapy annually, it is estimated that approximately one million episodes of the condition occur each year in the United States. "If mucositis is severe, cancer treatment may be delayed or ceased." PRANA WINS GRANT TO TREAT ALZHEIMER'SPrana Biotechnology Ltd. announced recently a $1.74 million START grant from the Australian Industry Research and Development Board to expand the company's platform technology for drug treatment of neuro-degenerative diseases. Prana Executive Chairman, Geoffrey Kempler, said that the START funds will be used to develop Prana's pipeline of drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. "The START grant markedly accelerates Prana's rational drug design program to identify and synthesise new chemical entities as Alzheimer's Disease therapies. Its advances our efforts to progress these compounds through in vitro screening assays and preclinical development prior to further trials in patients suffering the disease. This grant substantially expands and accelerates Prana's business strategy," Mr Kempler declared. PEPLIN BIOTECH ANNOUNCES CANCER BREAKTHROUGHBrisbane-based biotechnology company Peplin Biotech (ASX: PEP) today announced the filing of three new international patent applications for new compounds affecting the human immune system. The applications are the result of intense testing of thousands of molecules from a wide variety of sources. Since its ASX listing in September 2000, the company has deployed its proprietary screening technology to search for promising compounds to add to its stable of candidates for development as new generation anti-cancer drugs. In laboratory tests, Peplin's new drug stimulates the immune system to mount a full-scale attack on cancers which otherwise are camouflaged or survive unnoticed. The company has now patented these discoveries and hopes to use them in the development of an immune-system-based anti-cancer drug with Australian and international pharmaceutical companies. "From the start our scientists and clinicians believed that our compounds were potent stimulators of the body's innate defences found in the immune system," said Garry Redlich, Peplin Biotech's Managing Director. "This was the most obvious explanation for the high cure rates we were seeing in the lab, and with our skin cancer patients in the clinic." Further research is now demonstrating the potential of the compounds in a range of diseases from inflammatory and immune disorders to viral and bacterial diseases. A recently isolated prototype immune system drug, PEP 003, has demonstrated in the laboratory an ability to expose hidden or "latent" HIV virus, making it potentially vulnerable to current anti-HIV drugs. Latent virus, which lies undetected and therefore invulnerable to current drugs, is the cause of patient relapse, and is probably the most difficult hurdle in developing an enduring cure for HIV, currently the fourth-biggest killer of humans worldwide. "While the development of this compound into a drug may take many years, we are very excited about its prospects," said Mr Redlich. "Having protected our patent position, we will now seek Australian and international research and commercial collaborations to move the project to its next stage. This research is expected to further strengthen our patent claims around immune system drugs for the treatment of cancer." BIOTECHNOLOGY TRADE MISSION TO ISRAELAn Australian biotechnology mission, led by Professor Adrienne Clark will visit Israel from the 19 24h October to assess developments within the Israel biotechnology sector. Organised by the Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce, it is expected that participants on this mission will include biotechnology companies, universities, and research institutions. The mission will look at all aspects of Israeli biotechnology, including technological incubators, companies as well as start ups and programmes designed to commercialise research. Mr Steven Kerlander, a spokesperson for the Australian-Israel Chamber of Commerce, said that the mission is "an excellent opportunity to build relationships and form strategic alliances with Israeli companies, research institutions, and other related organisations." Particular focus will be given to medical technologies and instrumentation, pharmaceuticals, the food industry, agri technologies, commercialisation of R&D and venture capital. The Israeli biotech sector is experiencing strong growth in the area's of pharmaceuticals, agri-technology and plant cell Research. There are estimated to be more that 100 commercial and related entities engaged in biotechnology research and development in Israel, with many products already being produced and marketed throughout the world. Some of these companies have already become internationally known players, including XTL, Compugen, Hazera, Teva, Pharmos, and D-Pharm. Mission leader, Professor Clarke is a former chairman of the CSIRO and is the Victorian Government's Ambassador for Biotechnology. Steven Kerlander can be contacted on 02 9326 1700 or email steve@aicc.org.au
CSIRO APPOINTS COMMERCIAL DIRECTORAustralian venture capitalist Mr John Read has been appointed Executive Director, Commercial and Finance, for the national science agency CSIRO. Announcing the appointment, Chief Executive Dr Geoff Garrett said Mr Read would be a key player in CSIRO's renewed thrust to deliver more leading-edge R&D to its customers in industry, government and the community. Mr Read, 43, is a director of Continental Venture Capital (CVC) Ltd, one of Australia's oldest and most successful venture capital firms, which is listed amongst the Australian Stock Exchange's (ASX) top 500 companies. He is also a director of fund manager CVC Investment Managers Pty Ltd, the manager of the registered pooled development fund CVC Biz Vision Ltd, and the Federal Government-sponsored Renewable Energy Equity Fund (REEF). NEW DIRECTOR AT FORT DODGEJohn D Grew has been appointed as Site Director - Operations and Manufacturing at Fort Dodge Aust P/L following 11 years with Progen Industries Ltd. John was start-up manager at Progen (VP-Operations) before leaving as General Manager-Commercial Services and having many notable achievements to his credit. Prior to Progen, John spent 17 years with CSR Ltd holding senior positions in R&D, Operations and New Business Development. John is well known to the Australian biotech scene having been a start-up member of the Qld ABA chapter and subsequently serving as Chairman and National Director. Concurrently over six years as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Griffith University, John has also imparted his industry experience to many local university post and undergraduate students by teaching biotech business and regulatory affairs. INTERNATIONAL BIOSCIENCE EXPERT TO LEAD LOCAL INDUSTRYA leading international manager will head South Australia's push to become a key Australian hub for the bioscience industry.
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have
particular strengths in development and taking discovery research through
to commercialisation. The company will establish a platform discovery
program based on high-throughput screening assays and proteomics to identify
novel bioactive factors, with particular input from the expertise of one
of its shareholders, the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility at Macquarie
University.