Tissue Therapies closes IPO early, oversubscribed

Brisbane-based Tissue Therapies looks set to list on the ASX as early as this Friday, after closing its AUD$3.5 million initial public offering two weeks early, as the offer was oversubscribed.

Shares will debut at $0.50, giving the company a market capitalisation of $6.75 million.

The company's chairman, Roger Clarke, said the offer had attracted substantial demand from retail investors and fund managers.

The company expects initial revenues to be from cell culture products, including coated tissue culture plates and tubes. Medium-term revenues are anticipated from wound care products and licensing arrangements with industry partners. Industrial cell cultures and 'cosmeceuticals' are also on the cards.

Tissue Therapies has already touted two partnerships -- a possible collaboration with the Royal Children's Hospital regarding collaboration to develop the company's VitroGro products for treatment of paediatric burns, and the Australian Red Cross is funding research to look at using VitroGro as a spray-on skin formulation for skin graft growth.

The basis of the VitroGro technology is the ability of the vitronectin protein -- a major glycoprotein found in the blood, plasma and the extracellular matrix of many tissues -- to bind and deliver multiple growth factors to cells.

Tissue Therapies was spun out of the Queensland University of Technology, where it was formed by founding scientific and business staff. QUT -- which licensed the VitroGro intellectual property to Tissue Therapies -- will remain the majority shareholder in the company, with 16.7 per cent of issued shares.