Benitec not likely to leave IMB: McKinley

Gene silencing specialist Benitec has denied rumours that it is to relocate from its IMB (Institute for Molecular Bioscience) base in Queensland to the US, claiming that North American media misreported the situation.

"We are setting up in California, and also looking at Washington, Philadelphia as possible new locations for us to work from," said executive chairman and CEO John McKinley. "But we are certainly not moving everything. The American press [in a report this week on GenomeWeb] misreported what I said when I spoke to them."

McKinley agreed it was likely that the company would start to expand its work in North America, noting that as company in the biotech sector, Benitec was almost obliged to be on the ground in the US.

"The US is the natural home of RNAi research, and also the home of the natural market for that, and also the centre of the investment community for that kind of research," he said.

The company has no plans at all to cut staff or to reconsider its links with local research bodies such as Sydney's Garvan Institute or the IMB.

"We are still working hard on projects with Promega, and will obviously be keeping people on that and other projects too. That's not to say we shan't be working on even bigger projects with partners in the US," he said.

Benitec is likely to set up a subsidiary company in the US, said McKinley, based either in California or the West Coast, with the intention of aiming towards a Nasdaq listing in 2004.