The entire payment for these orders have been received by Rockeby, and the bird flu tests have been delivered or are in the process of delivery over the next few weeks, said Rockeby Chief Executive Dr Sze-Wee Tan.
“We are pleased to continue to be recognised by governments around the globe for supplying a cost effective and reliable form of monitoring of bird flu,” Dr Tan said.
The bird flu test orders announcement comes as another H5N1 avian influenza death is reported in Indonesia. A 38 year old Indonesian man from a town near Jakarta recently died of H5N1, according to an Associated Press (AP) report citing his family and health workers. If the World Health Organisation recognizes the man's infection, it will be listed as Indonesia's 136th H5N1 case and 111th death.
There have also been reports of avian flu outbreaks amongst chickens in South East Asia that were thought to be vaccinated against the disease. Since June 2008, several hundred of a flock of 3000 vaccinated chickens have died at a farm in Tan Lan commune in Long An province, 50 km west of Ho Chi Minh City.
The Company would like to inform shareholders that it has decided to withdraw from the non-binding MOU for the supply of bird flu tests with a South East Asian country as announced on January 31 2008. This decision was made on the basis that to date, Rockeby has not received any payments in advance for the first purchase order, as stipulated under the MOU. The Company has endeavored over the past few months to progress the first order from the customer, but the Company has now resolved to withdraw from the MOU. The Company would like to assure shareholders that the Company has suffered no financial loss as a consequence of this decision as no stock had been purchased to fulfill the first order.
About Rockeby biomed:
Rockeby biomed Limited is a Singapore-based, ASX-listed (ASX: RBY) healthcare company specialising in research, development and marketing of rapid testing technologies for infectious disease in humans and animals and lifestyle health products including CanDia5®, Avian Influenza Virus test kits and Pepp®.