Prima swooped on by Peregrine

Investment bank Peregrine Corporate has upped its stake in Prima BioMed to around 14 per cent on the back of a AUD$7.2 million share placement of 11.62 million ordinary shares.

The issue has raised around $4.5 million to be used directly for the instigation of Phase II trials on its Cancer Vac dendritic cell priming immunotherapy compound. According to Prima executive chairman Bryan Frost, the remainder will be allocated to the company's other R&D areas, including its work on arthritis therapeutics.

"We are off to the races now -- it has not been easy for the last six months, but this raising shows the market is changing and that's good for us and good for the biotech sector. More investors are coming in to the industry now," he said.

The Phase II trials will build on the positive results from Ib, when four advanced cancer patients were successfully treated with the CancerVac therapeutics.

Frost said the company was in ongoing negotiations with big pharma about commercialisation of the compound, and that talks were also being held on the future of the arthritis treatment.

"We have four major research projects all alive and well, and this money will allow us to investigate joint ventures with overseas companies too. The extra money reflects a significant turnaround in the market, and will let our guys get on with the job," he asserted.