THE board of PharmAust has survived another shareholder vote on their tenure, with the majority of the pharmaceutical company’s shareholders agreeing to reinstate Simon Owen, Bryant McLarty and Henry Gulev at the company’s annual general meeting last week. A push by the company’s biggest shareholder, Chimaera Capital Ltd, to get Terrence Hyndes and Nicholas Stretch appointed to the board failed to gain enough investor support at the meeting. Chimaera said the two men were shareholders in the company and it had been keen to get greater shareholder participation on the board. The meeting followed revelations in WA Business News that PharmAust was initiating legal action against the company’s former managing director, Paul D’Sylva, over his handling of the business. The legal talk comes after Dr D’Sylva has attempted to recoup money he claimed was owed to him under the terms of his executive service agreement. PharmAust shares have significantly underperformed and have been on a downward slide since mid 2006. Its shares were trading at about five cents this week. Mr Owen told WA Business News recently that the company would switch its focus from generic drug making to manufacturing products for other businesses.