Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest moves to take control of Coridon

Iron ore magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forest is poised to make his foray into the Australian biotech industry with his medical devices company Allied Medical announcing it is undertaking a rights issue to buy a controlling interest in Brisbane vaccine specialists Coridon.

Coridon is chaired by cervical cancer vaccine co-inventor and Australian of the year Professor Ian Frazer and is backed by the University of Queensland’s commercialisation arm UniQuest as well as the high profile Lieberman family.

Perth-based Allied Medical is one of Australia’s fastest growing medical devices companies, distributing a range of multi-flow connectors, catheters and epidural devices nationwide. An unlisted public company, just over half of its shares are owned by Forest.

The company plans to raise $4.41 million, $3 million of which will fund a 38.6 percent interest in Coridon with a view to developing vaccines targeting diseases including cancer, hepatitis C and influenza.

Under the terms of the agreemnt between the two companies Allied Medical could end up with a controlling stake in Coridon of up to 55.7 percent. Coridon’s proprietary DNA technology underpinned development of the revolutionary cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil and it is hoped that this new partnership will support development of treatments for a range of other diseases.

Coridon recently applied its technology platform as part of a proof of concept animal study targeting the Herpes Simplex Virus 2 for which it now hopes to develop both a preventative and a therapeutic vaccine.