Shares in biotechnology company, Novogen, more than halved yesterday after the company unveiled disappointing phase II trial results for the ovarian cancer trial of its drug, phenoxodiol. The shares closed down 53.1% at 18.5c, a loss of 21c on the day.
They had fallen 25c, or more than 60%, at one stage to a low of 17c.
Investors abandoned the stock after the company said the drug trials had been inconclusive.
The drug is licensed to Novogen’s 70%-owned subsidiary, Marshall Edwards, and did not show a statistically significant improvement in late stage ovarian cancer patients.
“Phenoxodiol was administered orally during the trial and Novogen said the outcome contrasted with earlier results where it was administered intravenously and achieved a positive result in 30% of tumour treatments.
"Novogen intends to continue to focus on its isoflavone platform which includes triphendiol, a more potent analogue of phenoxodiol, and NV-128 which has a different pathway to achieving cancer cell death," the company said yesterday.
The failed trial and subsequent share price dive makes Novogen the latest Australian biotech to be punished by investors after reporting poor trial results.
Shares in Chemgenex plummeted after a committee of the US Food and Drug Administration questioned its cancer drug and Avexa’s HIV/AIDS drug missed its trial targets and could be discarded altogether.
CBH Resources said yesterday that its directors have accepted a proportional takeover bid by the lead, zinc and silver miner’s largest shareholder, Japan’s Toho Zinc Co.
In a statement to the ASX yesterday the company said directors Robert Willcocks and Ian Plimer accepted the offer.
CBH said in a statement on Wednesday that another CBH director, Lewis Marks, had placed his shares in the company into an institutional acceptance facility (which is a way of accepting the offer without committing finally).
The company said its managing director, Stephen Dennis, intends to lodge an acceptance for his shares shortly before July 7.
The bulk of Mr Dennis’s shares are affected by security provisions arising from funding arrangements approved at the 2008 annual general meeting, CBH said.
Toho wants to lift its stake in CBH of about 24% to a maximum of 49.9%.
Toho is offering 24c per CBH share, valuing CBH at $361.5 million if the company’s convertible notes are included.
This compares to a rival $310 million offer from Belgium’s Nyrstar – its third bid – announced in April.
Nyrstar had wanted to buy almost $100 million worth of CBH’s convertible notes and all of its ordinary shares at 19.5c a share.
CBH shares were steady at 23.5c yesterday.
And the price of Mirvac securities didn’t move yesterday after the property group reaffirmed its 2010 operating earnings at 9.2c per stapled security. The securities ended steady at $1.27, where they have lingered now for some time.
The company yesterday told the ASX in a residential sales update that residential sales activity resulted in pre-sales of $800.4 million by May 27, 16% above December 31 figure.
"We continue to see strong demand for our residential offerings across Australia from second and third home buyers as well as investors," Mirvac chief executive, Nick Collishaw, said in the statement.
"Our focused approach to the fast tracking of residential projects continues to capture this demand."
Mirvac said it sold about 70% of apartments at its Elinya site at Rhodes in Sydney and had generated about $49 million in exchanged contracts.
The company says it has sold about 32% of its Sanctuary of Moggill project in Brisbane, with $4.1 million generated in exchanged contracts.
Mirvac also said a greenfield site out of Melbourne, in which it has a 50% interest, was included in an expanded urban growth boundary set to be introduced to the Victorian parliament.
