ferret's stock to watch: apollo life sciences ltd

Ferret's Stock to Watch: APOLLO LIFE SCIENCES LIMITED
08:43, Tuesday, 16 May 2006

BIOTECH COMPANY SUPPORTED BY BIG MACQUARIE BANK NAME

Sydney - Tuesday - May 16: (RWE Aust Business News)
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OVERVIEW
********

Weakness in the shares of biopharmaceutical firm Apollo Life
Sciences Ltd (ASX:AOP) seems simply to be market forces at work after
the company signalled that the escrow period attaching to 3,672,000
options at 50c will expire on May 20.

Apollo shares were travelling around 68c early in March after
the market reacted to news that the company had placed four million
shares (worth $2 million) at 50c each to Bill Moss, head of Macquarie
Bank's banking and property group.

Mr Moss was also appointed an independent non-executive director
of Apollo at the same time.

He is a director of over 40 Macquarie companies and has
oversight of Macquarie's property funds businesses, which manage
globally in excess of $23 billion of property-related assets and a
listed market capitalisation of over $13 billion.

Mr Moss will also be issued 1.2 million options at a strike
price of 65c.

But the Macquarie aura didn't seem to last and the shares are
back in the doldrums, waiting for a research breakthrough in developing
and commercialising human proteins for treatment of disease and ageing.

John Priest, Apollo's chairman and chief executive officer,
said Mr Moss's multi-industry and international commercial expertise
will be invaluable to Apollo.

"His experience in new venture development will help us ensure
we are well prepared to introduce new products to global markets."

Mr Moss said he is excited to be joining the Apollo board as the
company prepares to enter new markets and continues its research and
development into therapeutic products.

"I look forward to contributing to the growth of the Apollo
business and to its becoming an outstanding Australian specialty
pharmaceutical and healthcare company," he declared.

SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS
*********************

Shares of Apollo sold last at 47c. Rolling for the year was
$1.03 and low 40c. The company has 64.3 million shares in issue with a
market cap of $30.5 million.

In its last progress statement to the ASX on March 22, Apollo
Life Sciences reported that the Phase 1b study of its topical psoriasis
cream ALS-00T2-0501 has demonstrated safety and tolerability in patients
with mild to moderate plaque type psoriasis using single and multiple
applications, and in healthy people using a single application.

The 20-patient, single centre, sequential study was conducted by
CMAX at Royal Adelaide Hospital and divided into three stages.

In the first two open stages of the trial, patients with mild to
moderate chronic plaque-type psoriasis and healthy subjects received a
single application of the cream.

About 80 per cent of people who develop psoriasis have plaque
psoriasis.

The third stage was a randomised, double-blind placebo
controlled study.

Nine single dose applications were made every second day over a
21-day period to patients with psoriasis.

Apollo said the results appeared to show improvement in severity
in some subjects, although the trial was primarily designed to
demonstrate safety and tolerability, and not sufficiently large to
provide statistically significant results about efficacy.

This will be directly tested in the next set of trials (Phase
II).

Mr Priest said the company is very pleased that the Phase 1b
study had demonstrated that ALS-00T2-0501 is safe and tolerable.

"This topical cream is being developed for mild to moderate
psoriasis patients, and we believe this convenient, easy to use
application will offer significant health and quality of life benefits
compared with existing injectable treatments," he added.

About three per cent of the world's population is affected by
psoriasis, which involves an over-reaction of the immune system
resulting in severely inflamed skin, and can seriously affect health and
quality of life.

Apollo's topical treatment is based on a human cell-expressed
BTM recombinant protein, a TNF blocker, that has been developed and
funded by Apollo.

TNF is a protein involved in inflammation of skin.

Apollo believes its topical TNF blocker for psoriasis will have
advantages over existing injection-based treatments, which can suppress
the immune system.

The trial was conducted in accordance with the International
Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines for good clinical practice
(GCP).

There were no serious adverse events in any subjects or events
causing withdrawal from the study.

BACKGROUND
**********

Apollo Life Sciences is a relative latecomer to the Australian
Stock Exchange, being listed on June 29, 2005.

It is an Australia-based biopharmaceutical company which is
creating, manufacturing and marketing next-generation therapeutics based
on natural human proteins to protect and improve human health.

These advanced proteins are used to treat a wide range of
disorders associated with disease and ageing.

Apollo's proteins are expressed from human cells and are
expected to offer therapeutic advantages in terms of safety and
effectiveness because they more naturally mimic proteins in the human
body.

The company has generated a unique extensive library of
human-expressed proteins that provide a platform for short and
longer-term revenue generation.

Apollo is committed to discovering and commercialising human
proteins as treatments for disease and ageing.

The company produces a large range of human-expressed proteins
and has identified methods of delivering proteins across the blood-brain
barrier and skin.

Their resulting structural characteristics are expected to allow
them to be better tolerated, work more effectively in the human body and
have fewer side effects.

Apollo began working to produce human-expressed proteins for use
as therapeutics in September 2002 through awareness of growing demand
for more effective treatments for many chronic diseases and age-related
disorders and growing research interest in the role protein sugar
structures play in therapeutic outcomes.

The company has built on its experience working with human cells
to produce natural human proteins.

ENDS