BioWorld International Correspondent

SYDNEY, Australia - BresaGen Ltd. in Melbourne removed a major obstacle to the commercialization of a treatment for Parkinson's disease it is developing using stem cells by buying a set of U.S.-held patents for about A$8.7 million (US$4.9 million) in shares and options.

The company announced last week that in a deal with Plurion, of Atlanta, it has bought a set of patent rights from both Plurion and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, in exchange for 18.68 million shares plus 5.685 million options at an exercise price of A$0.41.

At Friday's share price close of A$0.45 the package is worth about A$8.7 million, although BresaGen's share price has proved erratic this year. In June it was worth close to A$0.95 before recently falling to A$0.22. The news of the deal pushed its share price back up to A$0.65 last week before falling again.

The rights bought by BresaGen, referred to by the company as the Hogan patents and dating between 1992 and 1995, cover the isolation of pluripotent stem cells (cells that can be transformed into different types of cells such as skin, liver, heart, etc.), as well as the means of differentiating those pluripotent cells into cells of different organs and the technology for delivering those cells to the central nervous system.

As part of the deal, which must be approved by shareholders, two Plurion directors will be appointed to the BresaGen board.

BresaGen CEO and President John Smeaton said the deal has given the company a "clear path" to market for its treatments for Parkinson's disease and other disorders of the central nervous system.

He said the company's treatment was now being tested on rats, and after passing that stage would be tested on primates.

The company said in August that it had used its technology to create dopamine-producing neural cells from human embryo stem cells. (See BioWorld International, Aug. 7, 2002.)