28 May 2009 – Melbourne, Australia: Pallane Medical Pty Ltd through its merger with Dia-B Tech Ltd (ASX:DIA) announced on February 12, 2009, has lodged a prospectus with the ASX and ASIC to raise up to $15 million. The capital raising is conditional upon Dia-B Tech shareholder approval of the merger with Pallane Medical. The funds will be used for worldwide commercialisation of the RETCIFTM (Rapid Enhanced Tissue Culture ImmunoFlourescence) test that can identify viruses more accurately and quickly than current tests on the market.
The RETCIFTM test is inexpensive and expected to be commercially available around the world within 24 months. It is based on a simple test from any specimen containing a live virus and can diagnose individual or multiple viral infections simultaneously. RETCIFTM has achieved success in hospitals such as Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital where it has been used as the “gold standard” test for over ten years.
RETCIFTM has been approved for marketing and sales in the United States via a pre-IDE review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008.
The Offer opens today to raise $12.5 million by offering 50 million shares at 25 cents per share, with the Offer being underwritten by Winteray Capital Ltd. The Company reserves the right to accept oversubscriptions of up to a further 10 million shares at the issue price of 25 cents per share. The offer is due to close on 27 June 2009, with trading in the new shares expected to commence on 10 July 2009, after the Dia-B Tech Extraordinary General Meeting to approve the acquisition of Pallane Medical and this capital raising.
“RETCIFTM is a compelling product as it diagnoses viruses faster, more accurately and more cost effectively than other products on the market,” said Peter King, incoming Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pallane Medical. “Over one million tests have already been successfully conducted over the past ten years.
“Recent swine flu experiences saw people quarantined for days and in some cases over a week to establish if they had been infected with the virus. We can accurately diagnose viral infections such as the swine flu simultaneously with other viruses within 24 hours.”
As recently as April 2009, the US FDA indicated that the current molecular test for swine flu suggests a positive result indicates that the patient is presumptively infected with swine flu virus but not the stage of infection. However, a negative result does not, by itself, exclude the possibility of swine flu virus infection. A standard test such as RETCIFTM could provide the medical community an increased level of certainty in diagnosis when fighting this possible pandemic.
Pallane Medical’s RETCIF technology could be used in any event of viral threats (such as influenza) so at-risk people who are yet to show symptoms could be tested and released quickly rather than quarantined for days.
If the result of the test is achieved within 72 hours of infection and a person is yet to show symptoms, anti-viral medication (such as Relenza or Tamiflu for influenza) could be immediately prescribed to mitigate serious illness.
Enquiries Peter King Rudi Michelson Pallane Medical Pty Ltd Monsoon Communications +61 3 8506 0158 + 61 411 402 737 www.pallanemedical.com
Dr Andrew P. O’Brien Ken Smith Grannus Securities Pty Ltd Dia-B Tech Ltd Ph: +61 3 9671 3016 Ph: + 61 8862 6319 Mob: +61 438 550 893 www.dia-btech.com.au www.grannussecurities.com
Monsoon Communications Level 1 350 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Ph: 03 9620 3333 www.monsoon.com.au
