Boron Molecular completes capital raising, considers IPO

Boron Molecular, a small Melbourne-based medicinal chemistry company, is planning to pursue listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in the next six months if market conditions are favourable, according to managing director Dr Phillip Reese.

The company recently completed a placement of $1.9 million to existing investors, including Churchill Capital, and new investors. The capital raising brings the total investment into Boron Molecular to $4.9 million in the two years since the company was formed.

Reese said the funds would provide working capital for the company to expand its core businesses, which include catalogue sales of organoboron compounds to research chemists and pharmaceutical companies, in addition to providing chemistry services to pharmaceutical companies.

Boron Molecular has seven patents licensed from CSIRO Molecular Sciences that cover improvements to organoboron chemistry. The technology provides an efficient way to synthesise complex molecules using organoboron-based Suzuki coupling reactions to create carbon-carbon bonds, and the compounds are used as building blocks in the production of pharmaceuticals.

The organoboron molecules produced by Boron Molecular are sold both directly to pharmaceutical companies and through US-based fine chemicals company Aldrich, primarily in the US and Europe. Reese noted that the company has the capacity to produce multi-kilogram quantities of the high-grade chemicals in their facility.

The chemistry services offered by the company are a more recent addition to the business, and provide medicinal chemistry skills on a contract basis to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. The company has won a number of contracts with both Australian and US-based companies, including a recent collaborative agreement with Cerylid Biosciences.

According to Reese, the company is an unusual model for the Australian biopharmaceutical industry, as it has generated early revenues from both arms of its business. The company is continuing to improve on and commercialise its intellectual property position, he said.

"It puts us in a strong position," Reese noted.