PERTH, as anybody with a scintilla of scientific awareness will know, is the biotechnology capital of the world.
It is here, amid the slew of junior mineral explorers, that dozens of high-technology companies are domiciled.
Lest readers be deluded by the notion that most ASX companies be headquartered in Sydney or Melbourne, it is not so. Here are their homes, state by state: Adelaide, 86; Brisbane, 198; Melbourne (including Tasmania), 366; Sydney, 710; and Perth, 866.
A great deal of these West Australian entities – if they are not in the swing of appointing a voluntary administrator to backdoor-list another exciting opportunity into a gutted shell – are poised for a big breakthrough.
Some stand at the cusp of a great mineral discovery, others a giant leap of technology. And we are proud today to share one story that we have personally followed for many years, a company which has discovered a cure for humanity’s greatest affliction … pain.
We speak of Pharmanet Ltd, which announced six years ago, to jubilant accolades, that it was on the verge of a cure for none other than pain itself. At the time, there was some confusion as to whether this might have included all pain, both mental trauma and broken-leg style.
That has since been clarified. Six years later, in the wake of umpteen quick-fire stock rallies, executive options exercises, capital raisings and even an “international forum” – attended exclusively by the Pharmanet scientific team – we have an actual product about to hit an actual market, which is not the sharemarket.
We applaud the vision of executive chairman, the mining entrepreneur John Palermo, for persevering with his cure for pain. The world applauds him! After $25 million of accumulated losses – much of it through consultants’ fees and directors’ benefits and virtually nothing in R&D – the topical cream Thermalife is soon to hit pharmacy shelves.
The cure has been narrowed down from universal pain to “temporary relief of muscular and arthritic pain”. Nonetheless, your humble essayist is in a unique position to conduct phase III clinical trials of his own as he suffers from arthritis of the pointer finger. This is true, and yes, we will report the findings.
In developing a product which is visible to the human eye, Palermo has confounded the critics. Perth really is the citadel of scientific achievement, not just a horror show of zombie phoenix companies staggering about trying to drink the blood of minority shareholders.
IT WAS the antepenultimate week of pay season and, if you thought you had heard it all, think again. BlueScope Steel director Diane Grady told the annual meeting the law was to blame for executive bonuses. BlueScope – which blew a billion dollars off its bottom line, canned its dividend, suffered a 40 per cent share price fall, put its hand out for $180 million in taxpayer support, sacked a thousand workers and still splashed $3.1 million on executive bonuses – copped a 39 per cent vote against its remuneration report on Thursday.
But executives had “worn the pain”, she said. Things were “tough”, “a perfect storm”. The managers might leave. “It was in the best interests of the company, and by law directors have to act in the best interests of the company.”
Grady and her chairman Graham Kraehe – who also backed up with a stout plea on pay – proved yet again that shame is no regulator of corporate behaviour.
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.