Avax goes into liquidation

Creditors of comatose Avax Group put the would-be cancer vaccine distributor into liquidation on Tuesday, making it the second biotech to exit the scene in as many months.

The Sydney company follows in the footsteps of Perth's Q-Vis, which is in the hands of administrators Ferrier Hodgson.

But the fate of Avax has been predictable since last September when US parent company Avax Technologies started winding up operations here after it failed to obtain approval from the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee for its melanoma vaccine M-VAX.

M-VAX treatments reportedly cost $30,000 per patient and the vaccine's commercialisation was not feasible without MSAC approval, which carried with it Federal government-funded price reimbursement.

The US parent, itself now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, suffered a lasting jolt in 2001 when clinical trials of M-VAX were ended by the US Food and Drug Administration for reported irregularities.

Avax Group goes into liquidation owing about $AUD1.1 million, with unsecured creditors likely to receive 9 to 13 cents on the dollar, according to voluntary administrator Mark Robinson of bankruptcy specialists Prentice Parbery Barilla.

The Australian subsidiary employed less than half a dozen staff who received full entitlements when the parent company decided to wind up operations here, Robinson said.

Former general manager Roger Hemingway could not be contacted for comment.