May 22, 2007 12:00am
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IT HAS been many years since that long gone biotech stock Epitan first promised an all-over tan without using the sun.

It's successor, the much less ambitious and more serious sounding Clinuvel, has nonetheless delivered a more satisfying time in the sun for shareholders.

The stock's price has firmed from the sub-50 days of last year to yesterday's close of $1.035 and it has just announced stage three clinical testing of its main drug CUV1647.

Gone is the sexy "tan in a pill" approach of Epitan, with the drug now being tested to treat nasty skin eruptions such as polymorphous light eruption (PLE or sun poisoning in layman's terms) and various precursors to skin cancer.

An added benefit for those brave souls in Manchester, England, who get an active dose of the PLP treatment is that they will get a few months in which they look like they have been tanning nude on the Riviera.

Other than the small skin implant treatment being tested, current PLE sufferers are told by their doctors to avoid the sun and use steroids to treat the symptoms -- usually a persistent itchy rash on exposed skin.

With a bit of luck in the test results, French-born CEO Dr Philippe Wolgen still might achieve his long stated aim of having the drug registered in 2009.

Once registered for use for some clinical conditions, there would be nothing preventing CUV1647 from being used for its melanin producing "side effect" of an all over tan.

Botox started out life in a similar way when it was first registered to treat neurological conditions. Now it's most common use is to make the faces of US actors incapable of showing much expression -- or wrinkles.

Anyone who wants a more vigorous and exciting read about the effects of this wonder drug should get hold of the original Epitan prospectus.

That document breathlessly described how the drug caused green tree frogs to turn black and made dogs coats turn darker.

One of the early human testers of the drug I spoke to raved about the effect on his skin.

"Mate, it looks like I've had a holiday on the Gold Coast but it lasts a lot longer," Calvin said at the time.

Sadly, his skin has now returned to its original shade pending a refresher course.