Marie Stoner, scientific director of bio-medical company Clinical Cell Culture (C3), has grown her once hospital laboratory into an extremely profitable operation which could soon float on the stock exchange.
Ms Stoner left her laboratory at Princess Margaret Hospital to start up McComb Research in 1998 and the commercial arm, C3, in 2000.
Last year, C3 had serious mismanagement issues and, after many sleepless nights, Ms Stoner said the decision was to capital raise in order to keep the business.
ECAT, a development fund, invested $1 million dollars, which was enough to keep the company stable. This has opened the door for ECAT, which has the opportunity to invest a further $1.5 million to take its stake in C3 to 35 per cent next month – part of the initial agreement between Ms Stoner and the company.
If ECAT decides to invest by the end of the month, it will gain an option to acquire all the shares
in C3, courtesy of a share swap. Ms Stoner would become a major shareholder of ECAT and C3 would get a backdoor listing.
The technology Ms Stoner has helped develop has generated a lot of international interest, particularly the ReCell Kit, which uses CellSpray, one of the company’s technological products, on small areas of burnt skin.
“ReCell is a mini laboratory kit which can grow skin cells. A surgeon can process a small piece of skin from an uninjured tissue and spray cells onto the burnt section,” Ms Stoner said.
Her laboratory has the capability of growing cells for large regions at a much faster rate than other techniques on the market.
The winners of the 40 under 40 awards will be announced at a function at Fraser’s Restaurant on Wednesday February 13.
