It hasn't been the best year on record for the Australian biotechnology industry but things should improve somewhat next year. Kate McDonald reports that the fragility of the sector is sure to be a topic of discussion at this year's AusBiotech conference.

Adelaide-based GroPep (ASX:GRO) has increased its profit more than 80 per cent after tax to AUD$1.55 million in the half-year to December 31 2005, compared with $850,000 in the previous corresponding period.

GroPep (ASX:GRO) has begun to recruit healthy women volunteers into a phase I trial of its infertility drug PV903, targeted to treat recurrent miscarriages caused by an abnormal immune response to the foetus.

Adelaide-based biotech GroPep (ASX:GRO) has completed the manufacture of two vaccine antigens for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI).

Following poor efficacy in preclinical testing of its T-cell peptide drug candidate in psoriasis models, Adelaide biopharma GroPep (ASX:GRO) will undertake a market feasibility assessment for use of the drug in asthma.

Adelaide-based GroPep (ASX:GRO) has recorded pre-tax profit of AUD$3.1 million for the year ending 30 June 2005, an increase of more than 200 per cent over the $1 million reported last year.

Unlisted Adelaide-based firm TGR Biosciences has attracted up to AUD$3 million funding from venture capital firm Nanyang Ventures to further clinical development of its treatment for oral mucositis, a debilitating side-effect of cancer treatments.

Adelaide-based GroPep's (ASX:GRO) net profit after tax for the 2004-2005 financial year has been boosted by a one-off tax benefit of AUD$3.4 million, and is now expected to be approximately $6.4 million compared with a previous estimate of $3 million.

Media speculation has forced Adelaide-based GroPep (ASX:GRO) to clarify its position on ethics committee approval for a clinical study of an infertility drug.

A lacklustre third quarter for Australian biotechnology stocks resulted in an overall fall of almost 20 per cent for the year ending June 2005, according to the Intersuisse Biotechnology Index.

Key pre-clinical data on GroPep's (ASX:GRO) infertility drug, PV903, showing a halving of the miscarriage rate in a strain of female mice susceptible to the immune rejection of the foetus, will be presented at a reproductive immunology meeting this week in the US.