As an analyst who follows biopharma companies, I take an interest in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), while as an American/Australian, US politics, particularly, in the days of Trump, is also an interest. Then, there is an ASX-listed cellular therapy company called Mesoblast (ASX:MSB), which I have followed pretty much since it listed in 2004.
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Drugs and biologics often end up with multiple names as they travel through the development and commercialisation. It can all get very confusing and even more so after the therapeutic is on the market but turns out to have multiple different names across multiple different jurisdictions.
Read MoreLodge Corporate is currently conducting public capital raising for the unlisted Lachesis Biosciences Limited. It an unusual raising in that it lets retail investors purchase shares in an investment normally only open to institutions and high net worth individuals. As such, it allows retail investors to get in on the ground floor and participate in the uplift in value (~+30%) that Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) often bring, due to the liquidity premium associated with being a public company bring. Lachesis intends to list in the 3rd quarter of calendar 2017. The prospectus for the offering can be found here.
Read MoreListed-Australian biotechnology companies can be split into two groups, drug development companies and medical device companies.
Read MoreIt was 1999 and I had just purchased my first equity on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX); 1,000 Biota Holdings (BTA) at $4.22 a share. The stock had fallen heavily after a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee (AdCom) had recommended the FDA issue GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) a “Not Approvable” letter for its influenza drug, zanamivir (Relenza). GSK had licensed zanamivir from Biota in 1990 and Biota would receive a windfall should this blockbuster drug make it to market, or so we believed.
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