Dow Jones Says Viragen's 'BreakThru' Very 'Timely'
May 23, 2003 (financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- (FinancialWire) For the third
day in a row, Viragen (AMEX: VRA) was among the volume leaders for all three
boards, finishing Thursday with “only" 56 million shares traded, spurting
over 300 per cent, but most individual momentum investors and traders were
unaware of the volume and price surge because Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY) which
feeds quotes to Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and other sites, has a policy that prevents
it from channeling this data to its customers and ultimately, to the public.
Carol S. Remond, writing in the Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) Newswires, noted that the
spike in price and volume has come after Viragen “ announced that it filed
a patent application covering the use of one of its drugs for the treatment and
prevention of SARS."
She pointed out, however, that after the company filed the application with the
British patent office, Douglas Calder, Viragen's director of communications,
“declined to provide any more details about the content or timing of the
application."
The announcement, she hinted, couldn't be more timely, as the company is
“cash-strapped" and has been “raising much needed financing through
three stock and debt deals so far this year." She said the company's auditors
have issued a “going concern statement" regarding its viability without
raising substantial additional funding. The Dow Jones Newswires stated that as
of March 31, the company had only $69,000, and had a net loss for nine months of
$11.2 million.
“Most recently the company announced it raised $2.27 million from the sale
of secured convertible bonds in a private placement. The debentures are
convertible into Viragen's common stock. Details of the deal and that of a $12
million equity line of credit announced in early June will be provided in an S1
filing with the SEC likely to be filed by the end of the week," Remond quoted
Calder as stating.