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RENT.COM.AU LIMITED — AGM Information 2009
May 27, 2009
65722_rns_2009-05-27_10dedc55-8556-4b65-bc4d-7e63450e3cd2.pdf
AGM Information
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ABN 25 062 063 692
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Level 10 South Tower, 479 Collins St Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia Telephone +613 9613 4100 Facsimile +613 9613 4111 www.selectvaccines.com.au
May 28, 2009
Chairman’s Address
Shareholders will be aware of the extraordinary financial conditions which have confronted us all over the last 12 months. Exactly 12 months ago, the present government’s first budget axed the most significant grant funding program for biotechnology companies in Australia. This was done without any warning. Select had planned to raise funds in mid-2008 to continue development of our VLP program, and had built access to the grant scheme into the calculation of new capital which we required from the raising. In the event, and also in the light of the failure of our contract-manufactured hepatitis C vaccine candidate, we were not able to secure the necessary underwriting for a capital raising.
Thereafter market conditions worsened and the board took a decision to review and prioritise the company’s projects and slash all costs while investigating other sources of funding for our projects. In addition, the board has been investigating alternative strategic options and potential M&A transactions.
The result of this decision has been to wind back the operational activities of the company while we seek partners to help fund our activities. This has involved
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staff reduction;
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not renewing the research agreement with the Burnet Institute;
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halving of directors’ fees; and
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reviewing our intellectual property coverage.
Our current forecasts indicate that the company’s cash will last well into 2010 at the current burn rate, however we expect to have finalised plans for the future direction of the company within the next few months.
I am delighted to inform shareholders, that royalties, albeit small, are beginning to flow from the hepatitis E diagnostics which were outlicensed to MP Biomedical Asia Pacific in 2004. It is unfortunate that our licensee is still experiencing delays with the regulatory process in China, but heartening that sales have started to grow elsewhere in Asia and in Europe.
During the year we commissioned a contract manufacturer to produce our HCV vaccine candidate in a GMPcompliant mammalian cell manufacturing system. It was anticipated that this would lead to material which would be used in the final preclinical work and later in clinical trials. As announced in December the preliminary samples of material produced in this process failed to elicit an immune response, in contrast to the strong immune response produced by material produced in-house at the Burnet Institute. The reason for his result is not clear, and we have been unable to investigate and resolve the issue because of our lack of resources.
The yeast-based production method for the influenza target remains a viable approach, however as mentioned, this program as well as the malaria VLP program are suspended. There have been a number of shareholder queries with regard to swine influenza. The company has not conducted any work into VLP use for swine influenza, however this would be a potential strong area of interest for our potential partners.
Research work which had been undertaken during 2008 at the Burnet Institute in researching the influenza, hepatitis C and malaria disease targets for the VLP technology was wound down and the results collated in preparation for discussions with potential partners.
Since the close of 2008 our focus has been to seek co-development or licensing opportunities for the company’s vaccine and antiviral technologies, while other corporate alternatives are explored. The VLP technology offers a potential platform for antigen delivery for a range of diseases therefore many outlicensing opportunities are possible. Discussions along these lines have begun.
As part of our plan, Julie Nutting will step down from the position of interim CEO from 31 May, however she will be retained by Select to continue our commercialisation efforts. From 1 June, I will become Executive Chairman until be resolve our path forward. The Board would like to thank Julie for her very valuable work with Select Vaccines in the past nine months.
In closing, I would like to add my thanks to each of the directors, Mr Richard Wadley, Prof David Anderson and Dr Fan Li for assisting the company so ably during very difficult times. While shareholders can be assured that the board is working diligently on their behalf, I look forward very much to being able to deliver some news of good progress in the future.
Robin Beaumont.