Wellington, June 3 NZPA - Auckland-based Living Cell Technologies said today it had become the first New Zealand company to list on the United States over-the-counter OTCQX market for non-US companies.

Living Cell said it had listed its American Depositary Receipts on the International OTCQX, and they began trading today (Tuesday NZ Time). The international OTCQX exchange provides non-US publicly listed companies with a gateway to the US securities markets.

Living Cell's shares are listed on the ASX, one of the qualifying exchanges for the OTCQX, but not on the NZX.

Chief executive Paul Tan said OTCQX companies must have substantial operating businesses and provide credible disclosure to be eligible.

"Successful listing distinguishes reputable international issuers from the approximately 8000 over-the-counter securities traded in the US."

Living Cell is developing cell-based products to treat life threatening human diseases. The company owns a bio-certified pig herd that it uses as a source of cells for treating diabetes and potentially for treatment of neurological disorders.

The company believes it has made a major breakthrough after a diabetic given a trial transplant of pig cells was able to stop her insulin injections.

In October, last year it said it planned to start trials in New Zealand early this year but the trials have been delayed. The company has received all the necessary regulatory approvals but it needs ministerial approval from the Health Minister. Minister David Cunliffe, who took over from Pete Hodgson in November, has been sitting on the decision all this year.

Dr Tan said the company was conducting the trials in Russia and was also talking to a team in the US. He said Mr Cunliffe seemed to have his hands full with striking doctors, but the hold-up was causing problems.

"It is a long time," he said.

The therapy involves transplanting more than a billion insulin-producing cells from the pancreases of piglets into the stomach of a type 1 diabetes patient.

On the ASX, Living Cell's shares have risen from A8 cents ($NZ9.8c) in August last year to A34c but are well down from a A60c high at the end of October last year.

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