Gilman Edwin Wong, the former CEO of Australian cancer therapy biotech Sirtex Medical Limited, has been charged with insider trading.
Corporate regulator ASIC alleges that Wong was in possession of inside information, concerning Sirtex’s sales, when he sold 74,698 shares in Sirtex on October 26, 2016.
He appeared yesterday at the Downing Central Local Court in Sydney charged with one count of insider trading under the Corporations Act.
The matter was adjourned to 20 November 2018.
The maximum penalty for an insider trading offence is 10 years’ jail.
The matter is being prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
In June, Sirtex accepted a $1.9 billion takeover by CDH Genetech, a big Chinese private equity firm, and Hong Kong-listed China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Limited, one of the China’s largest pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturers.
The $33.60 a share cash offer from China, where liver cancer is a leading cause of death, overshadowed the $28 offered by US firm Varian, a radiation oncology treatment and software maker.
Sitex’s main product is SIR-Spheres, tiny radioactive microspheres which provide high dose radiation directly to the tumour while minimising damage to normal healthy cells.
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