Avastra plans $8 million IPO for BioWeld
Wednesday, 05 May, 2004
Sydney-based biotechnology company Avastra has announced it will open its $8 million share offer this Friday. Avastra will offer eight million shares at $1 per share, equivalent to 29 per cent of the company. Managing Director Paul Ralph said that with oversubscriptions this may rise to 33 per cent.
Avastra’s BioWeld technology – developed at Macquarie University and the Microsearch Foundation of Australia – uses a protein solder which is activated by laser light to join arteries and veins.
The company plans to commence clinical trials in September with a 24 patient study. The regulatory approval process for a therapeutic such as BioWeld is less onerous than for a drug, and Ralph anticipates regulatory approval and its first sales in non-US markets by 2005.
Avastra has lodged a pre-IDE investigational device exemption submission with FDA and expects approval in 2006. European CE Mark approval is also on the cards.
Packaged as a small hard tube, BioWeld becomes flexible and pliable in vivo, and is absorbed into the body around six weeks after surgery.
“The Bioweld tube will be used to replace sutures in surgery,” said Ralph. “The protein solder is impregnated with a green dye which is excited by the laser wavelength causing the protein to denature and become sticky and bond with the adjacent tissue.”
“[The laser light] will pass through any other tissue, leaving it unharmed.”
According to Ralph, current surgical sutures are permanent, inelastic and leak. They also puncture the vessel wall and can lead to internal scarring. Time savings may also be possible – BioWeld bonds can take as little as 3 minutes, whilst normal sutures take around 25 minutes.
The first applications of BioWeld will be ‘free-flap transfers’, where a piece of tissue from a donor site is patched in to arteries and veins at the site of the graft, providing blood flow and drainage. Procedures where this technique is used include breast reconstructions, surgery on head and neck cancers, burns and cosmetic surgery.
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