Cryptome Pharma files for IPO

Melbourne-based Cryptome Pharmaceuticals has launched its first public share offer, filing a prospectus to list on the ASX in October.

The company, which was formed in late 2001 to commercialise technology to speed drugs to market, will offer 26,400,000 shares at an application price of AUD$0.25 each to raise an expected $6.6 million.

At issue price, the company is expected to have a market capitalisation of $12.6 million.

Acting CEO Dr Warren Kinston, who, along with fellow board member Dr Matthew Vadas was one of the founders of Adelaide company Bionomics (ASX:BNO), said the distinguishing feature of Cryptome was that it was launched as a commercial scientific enterprise from day one.

"It had to be 100 per cent top class, scientifically, but also commercially solid," he said. "It's not like a typical biotech, where someone has a eureka moment in the lab, and the company grows out of scientific discovery.

"For me, the issue is, 'What is the market, and how can we create a company that responds to the market's needs?'"

Kinston said Cryptome -- which takes its name from its discovery of 'cryptic', or hidden, properties within proteins in the body -- aimed to generate drug candidates more quickly, more cheaply and with less risk.

In July, it filed for its first patent, an anti-coagulant molecule said to be useful for conditions like heart attack and thrombosis, which it is assessing to determine whether it is worthy of development.

The company is based at the Baker Heart Research Institute. Its scientists include Dr Vadas, who is head of the division of human immunology at the University of Adelaide, Prof Michael Berndt, senior principal research fellow at Monash University's department of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Prof Ian Smith, associate director of the Baker.

Its scientific advisory board includes Ludwig Institute associate director Prof Ashley Dunn, and Prof Grant Sutherland of the University of Adelaide.

Cryptome has applied for a patent on its platform technology, a suite of proteomics-based tools for analysing biological material.

Kinston said the company's location was chosen after the business concept was developed. He said that once the principal scientists and the laboratories were on board, he raised an initial $2 million.

He said the company had "dipped its toe in the water" of the venture capital market, but decided on final analysis that the company was best suited to the public markets.

As well as Kinston and Vadas, the company's board of directors includes heavy-hitters Denis Wade, formerly managing director of Johnson & Johnson Research, Graham Watman, executive chairman of Grant Thornton, and Prof Axel Ullrich, director of the department of molecular biology at the Max Planck Institute in Munich. It is chaired by Graham Kelly, the chairman of TAB and Colonial First State Private Capital.

The company has applied for the stock code of CRP. Its prospectus is available at its web site.