Autogen eyes global market after capital raising

Melbourne-based biotech Autogen plans to spend the proceeds of a $AUD6.65 million capital raising on expanding globally, including upgrading a level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) Nasdaq listing to a level 2 ADR listing during the coming year and actively seeking new partners and possible acquisitions.

CEO Prof Greg Collier said the company's R&D costs were being covered by revenues generated through its gene discovery and target validation platform technologies, and Autogen expected to become profitable in the next couple of years.

One of the driving forces behind the expansion plans is a desire to build on the company's value chain. Autogen has, to date, focused on gene discovery and target identification and validation, making deals with large pharmaceutical companies like Merck Santé to generate leads and eventually take potential drugs into the clinic.

But Collier said he wanted to broaden the company's platform technologies, allowing it to move further down the development pathway before partnering its discoveries with big pharma.

He said he believed Autogen now had an ideal opportunity to expand and add value to its platform through the acquisition of small profitable biotechnology companies, either locally or internationally.

The ADR listing would be attractive to small private companies unable to raise the capital to list on Nasdaq themselves, Collier explained, and the current financial climate meant that there were a number of excellent biotech companies available at a discount.

"Now we have the money, we're going to aggressively look at acquisitions and mergers... with companies that complement what we've already got," he said.

The company has already started the evaluation process, working with US-based Global Markets Capital Corp, which is also assisting the company with its Nasdaq ADR listing.

Collier said he expected that Autogen would move fairly quickly with its expansion plans in the year ahead, speculating that the level 2 ADR listing could be in place by the middle of 2003.

The company is also on the lookout for partnership deals for its depression and anxiety program, which utilises the same Israeli sand rat model as the successful diabetes and obesity gene discovery program.