PharmAust Ltd managing director Paul D’Sylva will relocate to the US next month to manage the integration of the company’s former drug discovery business, Mimotopes, with Nasdaq-listed Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc.
PharmAust Ltd managing director Paul D’Sylva will relocate to the US next month to manage the integration of the company’s former drug discovery business, Mimotopes, with Nasdaq-listed Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc.
PharmAust Ltd managing director Paul D’Sylva will relocate to the US next month to manage the integration of the company’s former drug discovery business, Mimotopes, with Nasdaq-listed Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc.
PharmAust last week completed the sale of its Mimotopes business to CBI for a 39.5 per cent stake in the US biotech, valued at $7.2 million when a share purchase agreement was struck in November.
Dr D’Sylva will move to San Diego on March 21 to set up new headquarters for CBI in San Diego as its director and executive officer. CBI is currently based out of Richmond, Virginia.
Dr D’Sylva is moving for an initial six-month term.
He said while CBI’s laboratory would remain in Virginia, he was keen to establish the group’s headquarters in San Diego because it was one of two biotech hubs in the US, with Boston the other.
The effective back-door US listing of Mimotopes reflects a growing trend for WA companies to build strong links offshore to gain a foothold into lucrative capital markets.
ASX and Nasdaq-listed Psivida Ltd has been raising cash from the US for years, and cemented its position outside Australia last year when it switched its headquarters from Perth to Boston.
Resonance Health and Advanced Ocular Systems have also embraced Boston as a hub from which to do business, although the latter has since closed its US office.
Dr D’Sylva said the possibility of PharmAust slipping out of WA and to the US could not be discounted.
“Our obligation is to get the best return on investment for our shareholders,” Dr D’Sylva told WA Business News.
“Mimotopes was better appreciated in the US market and we will go where the best return is.
“The difference between Australia and the US is that people have made money out of bitoechs over there. They have the Pfziers and Mercks. These were once penny stocks that are now worth billions of dollars.
“We have an understanding here about mining and how prospectors turn into processors, but it’s not the same for the biotechs.”
Dr D’Sylva will be based in San Diego for an initial six months before determining whether to make the move permanent.
He said CBI would eventually become a thriving contract services company housing both Mimotopes and PharmAust’s contract chemistry business, Epichem.
“PharmAust will be the local generic drug making business,” Dr D’Sylva said.
He said he would continue to manage PharmAust out of San Diego.