SYDNEY - Disclosure of another small step in the development schedule for PI-88, an anti-solid-tumor drug being developed by Progen Industries Ltd., proved enough to drive up the company's share price last week.

Progen reported it had reached agreement with an unnamed contract research organization in the U.K. to undertake a Phase I trial of the drug, and its share price jumped 17 percent, or A$1.25, to A$8.75.

By close of trading on the Australian exchange Monday, the share price had dropped back to A$7.80.

Progen also announced recently a $5 million after-tax operating loss for the year ending June 30, 1998. - Mark Lawson