Living Cell Technologies Limited's share price has surged to A26 cents per share in the wake of its recent share offer of A16.5 cents per share.

The successful A$4.2 million capital raising involved the placement of 25.5 million ordinary LCT shares at A16.5 cents per share with options attached to purchase two shares attached to every five shares unit.

Pacific Channel managed the New Zealand side of the trans-Tasman capital raising for LCT (ASX:LCT), a New Zealand global leader in cell-based therapy that is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX").

Source the-scientist.com Image - Wikimedia commons

Though a worrisome flu season is knocking at the Northern Hemisphere's door, the five biopharmaceutical companies awarded massive contracts by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for development and production of more than 195 million doses of swine flu vaccine can't really complain.

The companies -- Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune, Australian drug maker CSL, and Sanofi-Pasteur -- have been hard at work developing and testing vaccines since the H1N1 surfaced in the US, Mexico, and Canada early this spring. Though drug companies don't tend to make production costs public, these five will likely make a pretty penny as swine flu hits in earnest this fall.

https://rodman.bluematrix.com/docs/pdf/36d81d3c-d822-451e-afde-5a5339c30...

The BTK index had a change of -1.15% last week, closing at 860.36, compared to the NASDAQ’s change of 1.10%, while the NBI was down -2.31%, closing at 792.47 The profitable biotechs trade at 21 times the FY09 consensus EPS estimates, vs. the historical mean of 44.6 times forward earnings. The PEG on FY09 earnings is 1, below the historical mean of 1.6 and well below the historical high of 2.9, while the group’s 2008-2011 CAGR is 18.7%.

By: Robert J. Beckman -- Image Source - Wikimedia Commons

By: Robert J. Beckman
Managing Partner
BioMed Transition Partners

Companies in the Biomedical / Life Sciences industry having less than one year’s worth of cash are often referred to as “distressed.” The most common definition of a distressed company is one in which its financial position can no longer support its ability to pay debts as they occur and the value of its assets might be close to or less than its liabilities, contingent liabilities, and prospective liabilities. Interestingly, a company might find itself to be in distress or in a downward spiral with little prospects for maintaining or growing shareholder value long before its balance sheet indicates that the company requires external assistance. Boards and management have had a long history of ‘pulling the rabbit out of the hat” by completing a last minute financing or a strategic alliance often under terms that might save the company but offers little to support its long-term health, viability, and value creation desired by its shareholders. Nonetheless, the leadership of such companies often does little to fix the strategic and systemic conditions that infect the company.

By Andrew Jack

Goldman Sachs is in talks to provide hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to a large pharmaceutical company, in the first evidence of a new business model for the sector that will see financing shifted away from funding companies and towards targeted co-development of specific medicines.

By Felix Salmon, portfolio.com

Should Lehman Have Been Rescued?

I have to get on plane to Chicago, so don't expect much more here any time soon. In the meantime, here's an IM I just had with John Carney of Clusterstock about whether Treasury was right to let Lehman fail.

I thought it was the right decision at the time, but with hindsight I think it was clearly a mistake. Even Hank Paulson seems to think that it would have been a good idea to rescue Lehman, if only he'd been capable of doing so. But Carney still thinks that letting Lehman fail was the right thing to do.

By Gill Eapen, decisionoptions.blogspot.com

Predictions with power and magic
The number of experts who are able to predict the stock market’s every move has been puzzling. I have been watching the business news TV with great interest in a desperate attempt to learn how the experts are able to predict market moves. There appears to be some common themes in these predictions. For example consider the following predictions:

It's interesting how just a few years ago the investor relations industry was using faxes, email and phone calls to get company news and information out to the street.

Most of this effort and attention never reached its intended audience. The Web has changed all that, and it is now the ultimate tool for communication. Most people do their research on the internet now, and they come to you. The days of blasting unwanted information are gone.

It's Tangible, Not Tangential

By Nick Hodge

Many people are under the misguided preconception that green is a ghost—an unattainable ideal that can be discussed and wished for, but never actually executed.

They're wrong. Really wrong.

Government-Guaranteed Energy Profits

I've been saying this day would come.

I called for it back in February. Again in March. Once more in July. And twice again this month.

Late yesterday, it finally happened.

After eight failed attempts so far this year, members of the Senate extended renewable energy tax credits for the wind and solar industries.

Tons of Cash from Tons of Trash

In the fight for energy independence all options are on the table.

Nowhere is that more evident than in San Antonio, Texas, where officials have unveiled a plan that will make it the first U.S. city to harvest methane gas from human waste on a commercial scale and turn it into clean-burning fuel.

According to Steve Clouse, COO of the city's water system, "More than 90 percent of materials flushed down the toilets and sinks of San Antonio will be recycled."

The Dow's taken a 2% hit in the past five days. Now what?

By now you know that only two of the five major Wall Street investment banks are still in existence.

Bear Stearns made its exit a few months back. And this week we saw 94-year old Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) got swallowed up by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) while Lehman's (NYSE: LEH) financial state was so repulsive even the U.S. government wasn't willing to help them out.

By Nick Hodge

Going over the numbers from the last few days, it's easy to become a bit manic. Even the best solar stocks have taken about a 10% hit over the last four trading days.

We've been talking about cellulosic ethanol as a way of investing in renewable fuels for over a year now.

By now, anyone who follows the ethanol industry even semi-closely knows that cellulosic ethanol is the future of renewable transportation fuels.

But for all the talk and ballyhoo, a commercial plant has yet to be opened here in the U.S., though there are at least two under construction. Many claim to be the first, but here's what I found.

The first was announced in November 2006, is being built by the Broin Companies in Iowa, and will produce 125-million gallons per year (GPY) from corn fiber and corn stover.

Global Life Sciences Conference

Grand Hyatt New York
Park Avenue at Grand Central
New York City

We are pleased to announce the Global Life Sciences Conference scheduled on Monday, September 22 through Thursday, September 25, 2008.

Playing Energy Tax Legislation for Solar Stock Profits

By Nick Hodge

The buzz surrounding the extension of federal investment and production tax credits has reached a fever pitch.

And that's good news for your portfolio.

If you're not familiar with the situation, here's a one-sentence rundown:

A Snapshot of the Global Wind Industry

I've discussed wind energy in these pages many times before, but the conversation seems to have always turned to a discussion of wind turbine stocks.

Today, I want to take a step back, look at the industry as a whole, and focus more broadly on wind energy companies.

The Wind Energy Industry

First, let's get a quick rundown of the growth of the domestic and international wind markets out of the way.

By: Chris O'Brien, mercurynews.com news service

MANY BLAME SARBANES-OXLEY ACT, BUT THEY'RE WRONG
Sarbanes-Oxley turned 6 on July 30 and I didn't get invited to a single Silicon Valley party.

There are a few possible reasons: Either I'm a total loser and nobody loves me (possible); my Evite account is screwed up (less likely); or because the corporate reform measure remains widely vilified throughout Silicon Valley.

"There's really nothing illegal about it" is a phrase often heard in descriptions of the practice of shorting, or short-selling, which are essentially bets that a stock price will decline. But after some market watchers accused short-sellers of unfairly depressing the stock prices of several key financial institutions, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed new rules. Wharton finance professors Marshall Blume and Franklin Allen suggest the impact will be minimal.
IDEA will ensure that both the SEC and the investors who rely upon the financial reporting the agency demands are ready for the new world of financial disclosure that will soon arrive when financial information is presented in interactive data format. The SEC has formally proposed requiring U.S. companies to provide financial information using interactive data beginning as early as next year, and separately has proposed requiring mutual funds to submit their public filings using interactive data.