Avantogen and Hawaii Biotech merger goes ahead
The Australian biotechnology company Avantogen and Hawaii Biotech, a privately held company based in Hawaii, are going ahead with the merger of their vaccine businesses proposed in March, follwing the approval of shareholders.
The Australian biotechnology company Avantogen and Hawaii Biotech, a privately held company based in Hawaii, are going ahead with the merger of their vaccine businesses proposed in March, follwing the approval of shareholders.
The new company will be known as Hawaii Biotech and both parties will own a 50% share. The business will maintain the existing corporate headquarters and vaccine development laboratories in Oahu, Hawaii, as well as an office in California.
Avantogen contributed US $3.5m in cash, its vaccine adjuvant programme (currently in Phase I human trials) and Pentrys vaccine programme (currently in Phase II human trials), and its senior management team, while Hawaii Biotech contributed its vaccine research and development team, its pre-clinical vaccine programmes and facilities, its vaccine grant funding, and US$1m in cash.
Leonard Firestone, an experienced biotech executive, was named ceo of the new company, while Carolyn Weeks-Levy, current vice-president of r&d and regulatory affairs and leader of Hawaii Biotech's vaccine programmes, was named its chief scientific officer. David Watumull, Hawaii Biotech's former ceo, has become ceo of Cardax Pharmaceuticals, an anti-inflammatory small molecule development business in Honolulu, which was spun out of Hawaii Biotech and is wholly-owned by the pre-combination Hawaii Biotech shareholders.
Dr Firestone said the company's capabilities with recombinant technology will enable it to delver the quality and quantity of vaccine product needed for viral pandemics such as Influenza.' These same manufacturing methods will also support the development of our valuable West Nile and Dengue Fever vaccine products, both of which we expect to enter the clinic in 200," he said.
Avantogen (formerly Australian Cancer Technology) also has North American marketing rights for RP101, a promising pancreatic cancer drug currently in Phase II clinical studies through a subsidiary company, Resistys Inc, a joint-venture with Bioaccelerate of New York.