Local biotechnology company Phylogica has listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, closing at a premium of 37.5 per cent over the subscription price of 20 cents on its first day.
Local biotechnology company Phylogica has listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, closing at a premium of 37.5 per cent over the subscription price of 20 cents on its first day.
The premium is seen as a positive for the biotechnology industry, which is widely regarded to be in a downturn.
Phylogica, which owns a unique collection of proteins called phylomers, is initially focusing on developing therapies for the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as asthma, acute stroke damage, and diabetes.
With the listing behind it, Phylogica chief executive Stewart Washer says the company is not far off from taking its product to market.
On the back of the announcement of its heavily oversubscribed initial public offering, Dr Washer revealed to WA Business News that Phylogica’s goals for this year are to commercially validate the technology and sign a couple of deals to secure development partners.
“The nice thing is the market believes in us as we’ve seen … that risk is over now,” Dr Washer said.
“This research has been going on for six years, starting in the Philadelphia Fox Chase Cancer Institute where we have spent $8 million in scientific research.”
The key had been the quality of people involved, he said.
The team includes a number of experienced biotech directors, among them Paul Watt as chief scientific officer. Dr Watt is also a director of InfaMed Limited, a public medical devices company he founded and which was bought by ASX-listed biotech company Visiomed Group Limited, of which he is a non-executive director.
Prior to his appointment at Phylogica Dr Washer was chief executive of Celentis Limited in New Zealand, where he managed the commercialisation of intellectual property from the Crown Research Institute in New Zealand, which employed 650 scientists and earned $130 million in revenue during his tenure.
Before this he was based in Australia where he was involved in commercial technology companies in the healthcare, food, agricultural and environmental sectors.
Current major shareholders in Phylogica include investment fund Biotech Capital, with a 27 per cent stake, and the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, which holds 19 per cent of the company.
Phylogica benefited from an Australian Research Council grant of $310,000 awarded to Murdoch University in collaboration with the biotech company to fund the application of phylomers, which are crucial to research into developing lead drugs, according to Dr Washer.
Melbourne-based bioshares analyst David Blake said the success of the Phylogica listing was due to a well-structured float combined with strong management.
“The float was not overly ambitious, and was built on strong local support for the company,” he said.
“The road ahead in the next six to 12 months is hard, but the technology is worth investing in.”
Mr Blake said the success of the float was in contrast to other recent Australian biotech IPOs, including that of Melbourne-based DiaB-Tech, which listed in January without a chief executive and is now chaired by former federal health minister Michael Wooldridge.
“Stewart [Washer] and Paul [Watt] present well together and are enthusiastic and keen in the right way. Phylogica did the proper thing and did the road shows and showed investors what they were about,” he said.
