Grunt work over, Starpharma looks to VivaGel future

Continuing development of its lead product VivaGel has boosted Starpharma's (ASX:SPL) 2004-05 losses to $5.5 million, up 38 per cent from the previous year.

VivaGel is a dendrimer-based anti-microbial which has just completed phase I trials as a preventative for HIV infection.

"This year we have done a lot of the unglamorous hard grunt work for our lead product," said Starpharma CEO John Raff. "We have done all the development activities right through to a NDA."

Starpharma ended the 2004-05 financial year with cash reserves of $8.2 million, and the company is seeking to secure additional funding for the development and commercialisation of VivaGel.

"It is a very significant product internationally and we believe we have an excellent chance of funding the very expensive larger clinical trials externally -- attracting external funding without loosing our ownership in any way is our aim in regard to VivaGel," Raff said.

"Most of our activities to date have been heavily subsidised -- at present we are investing in the planning and scale-up, chemistry and other studies required to take VivaGel through the development process.

"There is a very poor understanding from the biotechnology and investment community in Australia in regard to what is required to do serious internationally competitive drug development."

Starpharma also made equity investments totalling $1.5 million, Raff said: "We have made investments in strategically related companies DNT in the US and Dimerix Bioscience in Western Australia. DNT is giving us a high profile in the US, as seen in our ADR-1 program".