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Auckland, New Zealand
August 6, 2003
Genesis Research and
Development Corporation Ltd (NZX/ASX: GEN) today announced
its financial results for the six-month period to June 30.
The company ended the period with a cash balance of $28.6
million (2002: $42.2 million), which, with ongoing revenues, is
expected to be sufficient to fund planned research and
development programmes for a number of years. Revenue from
collaborations, licence fees and interest for the six months to
30 June 2003 was $5.8 million (2002: $8.7 million). The net
deficit for the period was $6.5 million (2002 deficit: $5.3
million), reflecting the level of investment in research and
development programmes which are not funded by income from
collaborations.
“Genesis is in a sound financial position and is pleased with
the progress achieved in its research programmes,” said Chief
Executive Dr Jim Watson. “Our strategy remains one of building
long term value by developing a selection of product targets in
both health and plant sciences.”
Clinical and preclinical research projects are continuing on
programme, with results from two psoriasis trials due later in
the year, and initiation of a Phase II trial of AVAC™ for the
treatment of atopic dermatitis due shortly.
The Plant
Division collaborative research programmes with ArborGen, LLC
for forestry, and Wrightson Ltd (NZX: WRI) for grasses,
continued to achieve good progress. The recently announced $0.8
million grant from Technology NZ to fund a software development
programme will allow the company to capitalise on its investment
in plant gene databases. Plans for the transfer of the Plant
Division to a new subsidiary (AgriGenesis Biosciences Limited)
are well advanced, and will be progressed with the appointment
of Dr Peter Lee as Chief Executive of AgriGenesis.
Genesis
now has 78 issued patents. The US Patent and Trademark Office
allowed claims for 36 of these, and the rest are from a number
of other countries, including nine from New Zealand. There are
52 applications pending in the US, and more than 230 pending in
other countries. Genesis had 140 staff at 30 June 2003.
Expenditure in the second half of 2003 is expected to be similar
to the period just completed. NZSE Preliminary
Announcement July 2003
Founded in 1994,
Genesis is a New Zealand based biotechnology company with 140
staff. It is committed to the building of a broad genomic
platform for the development of innovative products in health
and plant biotechnology. Genesis partners with industry leaders
to develop products that have global market potential through
the mining of its extensive microbe, plant and mammalian EST
databases.
The Health Division focuses on the immune system and has two
programmes in human clinical development for the treatment of
psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (eczema), with additional
programmes for cancer and other indications in pre-clinical
development. The patented BioStore solutions for storage of
tissues and living cells are also in pre-clinical development.
Collaborations are maintained with Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN),
Corixa Corporation (NASDAQ: CRXA), SR Pharma (LSE: SPA), Jurox
Pty Ltd, and EvoGenix Pty Ltd.
The Plant Sciences division is focusing on key cell signalling
genes – novel hormones and transcription factors - to control
commercial traits including growth rates and wood fibre quality
in trees, nutritional content of forage grasses, flowering
control and stress tolerance. It has research collaborations
with ArborGen, LLC, Wrightson Ltd (NZX: WRI), HortResearch,
AgResearch and Landcare. Genesis is also undertaking significant
unpartnered research programmes in novel
plant hormones.
The company has an extensive health and plant patent portfolio. |
