Embattled WA biotech Chemeq has finally folded after several years of disastrous financial performance.

A private financier may have come to the rescue of embattled animal health company Chemeq.

The last couple of years have been rather disastrous for West Australian biotech Chemeq, manufacturer of polymer microbials for pigs and poultry. However, a new management team has come up with a plan to turn its fortunes around, as Kate McDonald reports.

Regulatory approval for Chemeq's (ASX:CMQ) polymeric antimicrobial CHEMEQ has been delayed in some jurisdictions, pushing expected registrations out in some cases to 2007.

Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) has upped the production capability of its Rockingham manufacturing facility, announcing today that it can now produce as much as 280,000 litres of the company's polymeric antimicrobial each year.

Melbourne-based Eqitx (ASX:EQX) has invested a further AUD$500,000 in equity in VacTX, making its total investment in the vaccine developer $2.3 million to date.

Australian biotech stocks underperformed both the All Ordinaries and the Nasdaq Biotech Index in 2005, but the second half of the year was brighter with stocks gaining 23.2 per cent, according to the Intersuisse Biotechnology Index.

Perth-based antimicrobial specialist Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) has agreed to vary the terms of the AUD$60 million convertible bonds issued to the company earlier this year, requiring the company to make revenues of at least $4 million in 2005-06 and to have liquid assets of $24 million or more.

Perth-based Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) has signed a new sales order for the shipment of CHEMEQ polymeric antimicrobial worth AUD$1.4 million over the next nine months.

Antimicrobial specialist Chemeq (ASX:CMQ) posted a $60.7 million loss for 2004-04, 509 per cent greater than the $9.9 million it posted in the previous financial year.

Select Vaccines' (ASX:SLT) executive chairman Jeremy Cooper has retired as a director and will be replaced by Robin Beaumont as non-executive chairman. Dr Martin Soust has become the Select Vaccines' full-time managing director, relinquishing his role as part-time CEO at Premier Bionics (ASX:PBI) but remaining with the company as a non-executive director. Peter Marks has been appointed as a non-executive director for Select Vaccines.