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Biotech / Medical : Gilead Science (GILD) Followers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbershad who wrote (525)	5/30/1998 3:09:00 AM
From: s jones	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 961

Jerry I hope this will help explain why Biota are ahead IMHO infobeat.com 12:06 PM ET 05/28/98 FEATURE-Australian firm sneezes at common cold By Mark Bendeich MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) - A small Australian company hopes to do what only quacks have done down the centuries -- peddle a ''cure'' for the common cold. But unlike history's promoters of vile potions and elixirs, Biota Holdings is being taken seriously. Biota, in partnership with British drugs giant Glaxo Wellcome, has already developed a ''cure'' for influenza after 14 years of research. The drug Relenza is expected to be commercially released first in Australia next year. In trials it was shown not only to vaccinate against flu but kill the virus after infection. Biota now has the common cold in its sights. ''You would have to say their credentials in the area are very, very good,'' said industry analyst Gerard Eakin, of investment bank Merrill Lynch. ''If anyone has got a decent chance, these guys do. I think they definitely have carry-over credibility from their flu work to this work (a cold cure).'' Biota, using research carried out by Australia's chief scientific research agency and the Melbourne-based Victorian College of Pharmacy, sneezed at convention in its flu work. Rather than bombarding the flu virus with an arsenal of heavy weapons, its scientists searched for any chinks in its armor. In the 1980s, they found one. All strains of flu showed a similar basic structure with a cleft on the surface, said Biota chief executive Hugh Niall, an Australian scientist who has swapped his lab coat for a suit. FITS LIKE KEY INTO LOCK ''The scientists were able to design something that fits like a key into a lock and jams that part of the virus. The virus needs that particular part of its structure to spread within the lung so once that's jammed all it can do is die. It effectively kills it,'' he said. ''In that sense it cures the flu, but depending on how sick you are it takes some time for the body to recover,'' he added. Relenza comes in the form of a powder and is inhaled using a pocket-sized puffer device. It can be taken as a vaccine or used after flu symptoms appear. The later the drug is taken after infection the longer the symptoms take to vanish -- from five minutes to three days. ''If I have the flu and I cough on you now and you catch it from me in the next five minutes and you take the drug, you will not catch flu,'' Niall said. The flu is said to be the sixth-largest killer of Americans and account for three times as many deaths as AIDS. Up to 30 percent of the world's population catches it each year. Merrill's Eakin estimates Relenza could generate revenues of $1 billion -- mostly for Glaxo Wellcome -- after 2000. The Australian company, which left much of the development costs to Glaxo Wellcome, takes seven percent of the revenues. Glaxo Wellcome aims to file for approvals for Relenza in about 15 nations, including the United States, by the end of this year, Biota's Niall said. ''We think the potential market is very large,'' he said. If a flu-killing drug is big business, a drug that kills the stubborn bug behind the common cold -- rhinovirus -- would really make mouths water in the pharmaceutical industry. Unlike the flu, which hits seven to 10 percent of people in a normal winter and up to 30 percent in an epidemic, the common cold spares almost no one. ''One hundred percent of people pretty much get at least one and probably more like three or four colds in the course of a year,'' Niall said. Rhinovirus accounts for between 10 and 40 percent of all colds. ''There's a long way to go (on the rhinovirus), but we have come up with compounds that are definitely able to kill the virus in a test tube,'' Niall said. FROM COUGH MIXTURE TO CLEVER SCIENCE Merrill's Eakin said Biota hoped to test an anti-rhinovirus drug on animals in about a year. ''If they did that, that would be significant, but it's still experimental science,'' he said. Biota plans to use revenues from Relenza, its first drug, to help fund more of its own development work, but a common-cold drug, like the influenza cure, would need massive trials requiring the financial support of a drug company. A company employing just 15 permanent staff, Biota has yet to show a profit after 14 years on the Australian Stock Exchange. But its share price has been on a roller-coaster and at times Biota worried its investors were getting too excited about the progress of its flu work. Biota is also working on drugs to combat cancer and Alzheimer's disease. But for founding investor Alan Woods its work on the flu and common cold are closest to his heart. Woods' grandfather was the creator of ''Woods Great Peppermint Cure'' cough mixture, one of the many brews offered to flu and cold sufferers from the late 1890s. ''It was an exciting venture for us,'' he told Reuters of his initial investment. ''Given the family association, I felt strongly that I wanted to be associated with it.'' ^REUTERS@

To: jbershad who wrote (525)	5/30/1998 7:37:00 AM
From: The Fox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 961

And look at this... talks.com

To: jbershad who wrote (525)	5/30/1998 2:32:00 PM
From: s jones	Respond to of 961

BIOTA AND PANBIO SIGN MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT FOR BIOTA'S INFLUENZA DIAGNOSTIC TEST Glaxo Wellcome Australia Makes Initial Purchase of AB FLU OIAr Melbourne, Australia, 28 May 1998 Biota Holdings Limited today announced that it has signed a marketing and distribution agreement in Australia with PanBio Pty Ltd, for Biota's AB FLU OIAr rapid, point of care influenza diagnostic test. Distribution is planned to begin in the southern hemisphere winter of 1999. Biota retains the worldwide marketing rights for the diagnostic outside Australia and the US, and is currently reviewing additional alliances to market and distribute the product in other areas. BioStar, Biota's development partner for AB FLU OIA, is responsible for all US marketing efforts. Marketing of the diagnostic in the northern hemisphere is planned for late 1998. PanBio of Brisbane, Queensland, develops, manufactures and markets a range of medical diagnostic test kits for hospitals and pathology laboratories. The company was formed in 1987, and has been ranked in the Business Review Weekly Top 100 Fastest Growing Australian Companies consecutively over the last five years. "We are pleased to have PanBio working with us on the AB FLU OIA product," said Dr. Hugh Niall, Chief Executive Officer of Biota. "Their strong commitment to and expertise in the marketing and distribution of point of care diagnostics in Australia will enable us to realise the full revenue potential of the diagnostic in Australia." Mr. Mel Bridges, Executive Director of PanBio said, "As an Australian owned biotechnology company we are excited by the opportunity of working closely with Biota in providing diagnostic tests to support the release of this important new influenza therapeutic in the Australian market." Utilising BioStar's proprietary Optical ImmunoAssay (OIAr) technology, the AB FLU OIA allows the practitioner to collect a patient specimen and detect both influenza A and B within 15 minutes. The test also has the potential to provide rapid diagnosis of unusual flu variants, such as the recent avian virus found in Hong Kong. Currently available influenza diagnostics detect only influenza A or require hours or days to provide results. "We expect that it will become an effective tool in quickly identifying patients with influenza, who can then be treated with the influenza therapy, Relenza, when it becomes available." Separately, Biota announced that Glaxo Wellcome Australia has purchased AB FLU OIA units from Biota for use in influenza surveillance studies to be conducted this winter. RelenzaTM, the first effective treatment for all strains of influenza, was filed with the Therapeutic Goods Administration for marketing approval in Australia on 30 March 1998, after Phase III clinical trials were conducted in the Southern Hemisphere during the last flu season. Phase III clinical trials with Relenza are currently being completed in the Northern Hemisphere. Relenza is being developed in a partnership with Glaxo Wellcome and filing for regulatory clearance worldwide is expected in the second half of 1998. "Glaxo Wellcome's use of AB FLU OIA in influenza surveillance studies is a significant show of support for our product. We are confident that the rapid and accurate detection offered by the diagnostic will greatly facilitate progress of the studies," concluded Dr. Niall. Influenza may affect as many as 500 million people world-wide a year, and its economic impact is substantial in terms of days off work and lost productivity. In high risk groups -- eg: the elderly, those with respiratory problems, diabetes and cardiovascular disease and those with weakened immune systems, the complications of influenza, such as pneumonia, can be fatal. Biota is an Australian listed company (BTA), based in Melbourne and engaged in the funding and management of a research and development program focusing principally on the discovery of new human pharmaceuticals for the treatment of viral respiratory diseases and cancer. The Company's ADRs (BTAHY) trade in the US on the pink sheets at a ratio of three shares to each ADR. For further information please contact: Dr. Hugh NiallMr. Michael MooreChief Executive OfficerTurnbull Porter