James Kuo, who was hired in May as CEO of the money-losing biotech company Duska Therapeutics Inc.(OTC: DSKA) of Bala Cynwyd, may want to consider taking up the company's old business of landscaping. In an SEC filing today, Kuo's company disclosed that it believes its "cash balances will only be sufficient to fund our planned level of operations through approximately August 2007." About two more weeks.
Duska, which had an accumulated deficit of $9.2 million as of June 30, said its independent auditors have cast doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern. Its chairman is listed as Amir Pelleg. It seems not to have updated its Web site in ages, the online equivalent of letting the paint peel and shutters fall off the storefront.
Duska had come to life in 2004 through the landscaping and development firm Shiprock Inc. (OTC:SKRI) of Nevada, through what the company described as a "reverse triangular merger." For accounting purposes, Duska was deemed the acquirer and later "ceased its landscaping and irrigation business," the filing said.
This is the way some small companies get their start, by buying shells of other publicly-traded companies, no matter what they do, than converting them. But in this case, maybe Duska should have stuck with landscaping.
