Prima chairman on phenomenal stock performance

In a letter to shareholders released today, Prima BioMed chairman, Ata Gokyildirim, has commented on the company's spectacular performance on the stock market over the past 12 months, suggesting it's an indication the market is optimistic about the prospects of its CVac ovarian cancer vaccine.

Prima began the calendar year at a price of $0.005 and rocketed to peak of $0.265 earlier this month, a rise of 5,200%. The stock has since dropped back to $0.150, which still represents 2,900% of good news for the small biotech and shareholders.

"For nine month period to 30 September 2009, Prima was the best performing stock on the Intersuisse [Quarterly Biotechnology Index] with a share price increase of a massive 3,400%, which far outstripped the performance of the next best performing stocks in what was a strong performing sector in the market," said Gokyildirim in the letter.

"This provides strong a measure of recognition for the Company’s development plans for CVac and we are proud to share in this growth with our shareholders, and look forward to delivering further strong growth in the future as we continue to advance CVac towards commercialisation."

Prima's CVac is a treatment for ovarian cancer administered post-surgery and post-chemotherapy to delay relapse and control metastases.

In August the US Food and Drug Administration gave Prima the green light for a phase IIb pivotal clinical trial, which will be conducted in Seattle and managed out of the US. Following that trial, Prima intends to commence commercial treatment of ovarian cancer patients, beginning in Australia and New Zealand.

Prima estimates the global market for ovarian cancer treatments at US$2.1 billion, which is expected to rise to US$3.6 billion by 2010.

Prima's share price lost 9% today to $0.15 in moderate trading.