DNAprint Genomics (DNAG)

[mingwan0]

Worktoplay

Interesting post. Let me add a few observations (my comments in italics).

From the last 10Q:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1127354/000107087603000069/0001070876-03-000069.txt

We have engaged an investment banking firm to assist us in our efforts to raise debt and/or equity capital in 2003.

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2003/05/19/focus2.html

At least one Bay area investment banking group is interested in what's coming out of local businesses.

"Our preference is to help local companies," said Dr. Douglas Weiland, managing director and principal at Athena Capital Partners Inc. in Tampa.

Athena also works to relocate life sciences businesses to the Bay area. The firm focuses on investments between $1 million and $20 million, about 70 percent to 80 percent of which are in the life sciences industry.

Weiland, a former orthopedic surgeon, works with local companies such as DNAPrint genomics Inc. in Sarasota...

So, it would appear that Athena are the investment banking group DNAP are working with, and that Gembionics (Gabriel et al) are not involved now in this capacity. BTW, whatever happened to Start-up Florida?

Some quotes from the PR announcing Gabriel’s appointment as President/CEO:

http://www.dnaprint.com/pr_04_09_03.htm

"Having Richard join the Company at this time and help with capitalization and business development allows me to return to the nuts and bolts of research and product development" said Dr. Frudakis.

In addition to Forensics and Consumer genomics, DNAPrint is also focused on developing drug and treatment solutions targeted for specific segments of the patient population. Mr. Gabriel and Dr. Hector J. Gomez, MD, PhD, DNAP Board Chairman, have significant experience in drug development and together, they have completed ten successful New Drug Applications (NDA's).

"Mr. Gabriel brings to DNAPrint extensive and complementary FDA regulatory and compliance expertise, as well as an extensive political and business development network", said Dr. Gomez…Given his considerable experience with development stage companies, his addition will help us accelerate our efforts to expand DNAPrint's products and services."

"Our immediate goals are to make DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. profitable and strategically financed for its future expansion, research and product development. Dr. Tony Frudakis and all the members of the Company are important elements to the Company's success." Mr. Gabriel added. "The single most important resource any company has is its people and their ability to generate novel and patented technologies that satisfy current and future customer needs.

And a quote from Worktoplay's post about Semaphore:

Semaphore services in this space include Clinical Trial review, FDA compliance and certification process monitoring, proof of science concept, and acquisition target validation.

Now, what I think is going on. I agree that there was a change in role for some of these players, and that there may well have been some sort of validation process going on prior to that (on behalf of whom is the question). Gabriel and Gomez are obviously both involved in tactical initiatives (capitalization and business development) as you would expect from the CEO and Chairman. However, I believe that Gomez has more of a focus in this respect and that Gabriel’s main task at the moment is shepherding statnome and/or ovanome through the FDA compliance process. This was hinted at previously. Somebody (Gabriel or Bookbinder perhaps) is also helping Matt Thomas with the forensic accreditation process. In addition there is the “transition” underway. Apart from beefing up areas such as PR (and finance?), which BTW means the company knows or expects revenue increases, what does this mean?

The original model was the node on the tree. Gabriel talked to Arch about DNAP being in the "center of things". Sounds like this model still has some validity, albeit in a slightly different form perhaps. Separation into a number of divisions makes sense, especially if one or more of these will involve either acquisition of another entity, some form of joint venture maybe, or some form or licensing to a third party. The potential divisions are obvious e.g. personal genomics (i.e. Ancestry), consumer genomics (i.e. GeneLink), forensics (i.e. DNAWitness), personalized medicine (i.e. statnome, ovenome …), services (i.e. genotyping, drug design etc), drug development in their own right (perhaps), and R&D. There has to be an umbrella organization providing core services such as sales and marketing, press and investor relations, finance, legal, etc.

Personally I think that a number of things either have already happened or are about to happen. These include the following:

1. A partnership deal signed with a DNA chip maker – at least for AncestryByDNA 3.0 which we know is going to be chip-based.
2. One or more grants awarded, especially on the forensics side.
3. Some sort of formal collaboration with the DOJ, NIJ, FBI, NSA, Department of Homeland Security (pick one or more) with regards to DNAWitness.
4. A tie-in with somebody to effect distribution of one or more of the personalized medicine products.
5. One or more formal collaborations with academic institutions for provision of genotyping services and/or use of the ADMIXMAP platform.
6. One or more agreements related to drug target identification and/or clinical trial design.
7. A formal tie-in with H Lee Moffitt (whose stated modus operandi is to joint venture with 3rd parties to commercialize their technology).
8. Award of multiple patents.

That will do for starters. And meanwhile DNAP is the only entity capable of offering the FDA an objective measure of ancestry, and we seem to be rewriting theories about anthroplogy. Not bad for a start-up penny stock company.