Prima: we're OK until 2004

Despite dwindling cash reserves, Prima BioMed has reassured the Australian Stock Exchange that it has enough resources to support it at least through the first quarter of 2004.

According to a response to a query from the ASX after release of the fourth quarter results, the company's recent expenditure has been in line with budget expectations and will be significantly reduced over the next two quarters as a number of milestones for the company have been achieved. As a result, the company has decreased expenditure in certain programs.

In his response to the ASX, Prima director Richard Revelins also noted that ongoing commercial negotiations with pharmaceutical companies suggested the company would soon be in a position to earn revenue from its commercialisation initiatives, leading to a positive effect on the company's cash flow.

But CEO Marcus Clark noted that it would be premature to comment further about ongoing commercialisation negotiations at this stage.

Among the milestones noted by Clark were the completion of the recent Phase Ib clinical trial of Prima subsidiary CancerVac's cancer vaccine, which demonstrated safety and tumour stabilisation, as well as development of freeze and thaw methods for the cells required in the treatment.

In addition, Clark said that positive results would be forthcoming from another subsidiary company, PanVac, shortly.

Prima also announced today that its subsidiary Arthron had been granted an Australian patent protecting the three-dimensional structure of the Fc receptor and its use in designing drugs targeted at diseases involving the receptor, such as rheumatoid arthritis. The US patent for the structure is currently under prosecution.

The patent is one of a series licensed from the Austin Research Institute surrounding the Fc receptor. The company has already been granted a US patent covering drugs designed to target the receptor, and pre-clinical testing is ongoing.

"This is particularly important in a business sense as it provides a block for other people using the structure to design drugs," said Clark. "It's an important patent for us to have in place."

Two new patent applications have also been filed by Arthron covering second-generation drugs and a mouse model containing the human Fc gamma receptor for use in testing drugs.