Biota seeks early flu drug OK
By JOHN ROUW
The core venture of the pharmaceuticals developer Biota Holdings - a flu treatment - entered the home straight of the commercialisation race yesterday with the news that the Melbourne-based company and its British partner had filed the drug for Australian regulatory approval.
Glaxo-Wellcome's Australian arm has sought Australian government approval for the Relenza treatment even before concluding testing in the Northern Hemisphere. Analysts estimate it could generate up to $60 million in annual royalties for Biota after 2000.
Biota announced it had traded "co-marketing rights" - capacity to compete independently with Glaxo - in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Indonesia for an increased royalty of 10 per cent of net sales, and had secured a 7 per cent agreement for the rest of the globe. A small portion of royalties will go to one of the institutions that helped develop the drug, the Victorian College of Pharmacy (now part of Monash University).
Biota's chief executive, Dr Hugh Niall, yesterday declined to estimate potential earnings but said that each year 350-500 million people caught influenza worldwide. He said the company - which had zero revenue in the first half of 1997-98 - would receive a $4 million payment from Glaxo when the drug gained regulatory approval in the United States.
Although only 520,000 Biota shares changed hands yesterday, they traded 8.5 per cent higher at $4.20 - edging back towards a high in the past year of $4.85.
The company said phase three, involving the final development tests, had confirmed earlier findings that the nasally administered drug reduced a flu's severity and duration, particularly if taken early.
The company said trials for the drug, previously called Zanamivir and GG167, "also showed a reduction of complications in high-risk patients, including the elderly and those with respiratory and cardiovascular problems".
Dr Niall was pleased the early application to the Government's Therapeutic Goods Administration could help Glaxo to have the flu treatment on the market ahead of such rivals as Gilead and Hoffmann-La Roche.
He hoped the Relenza treatment - which attacks an element of the flu virus believed to be common to all strains - could be on Australian shelves by the winter of next year.
The compound was developed from award-winning research by three scientists from the CSIRO, the Australian National University and the Victorian Pharmacy College.
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