Biotron (ASX:BIT) has angered shareholders on HotCopper as the results of its latest COVID-treating drug trial come up dusty.
“There were no statistically significant differences between drug and placebo groups based on change in SARS-CoV-2 nasal viral load,” Biotron wrote.
In other words – for clarity, at risk of being painful – the data of a trial using its drug BIT225-012 in COVID patients says it’s as effective as taking a vitamin.
There was also the issue it produced COVID-like symptoms, which apparently confused things for researchers. This finance journalist, at least, can’t help but think you’d probably have prepared for that – but I’m not a Doctor.
A number of HotCopper users described the company as “dead.”
The tone of messaging from Biotron’s Managing Director (MD) Michelle Miller appeared to reflect that C-suiters could have been expecting this reaction.
“Demonstrating efficacy of new drugs to treat this disease is difficult in small trials, conducted in people without high risk of progression to severe COVID, who are excluded from investigative, placebo-controlled trials,” Miller said on Friday.
But at least one HotCopper user had a challenge to that.
“Then [what] took you 2 years to announce a small trial result?,” user abdur22 wrote.
(HotCopper users who commented missed the fact the same announcement from Biotron indicates there was indeed a placebo group, seemingly contrary to management comment.)
Biotron also wrote on Friday the Thai government had restricted the size of its study and didn’t let anybody over 60 participate. Biotron still went ahead with the trial, in Thailand – though, in their defence, time was a factor.
In fact, time is what this story is really about. Biotron, here, appears to be a victim of that great mortal equaliser.
These results had been, evidently, eagerly awaited for quite a while.
Fundamentally, HotCopper users on the thread were mostly unified in their collective balk at the amount of time it has taken Biotron to deliver these results.
That may be unfair, given the notoriously slow-paced world of pre-commercial biotech.
Then again, nobody likes watching a share price go down – and more vicious animal spirits can take over when one perceives their money won’t come back.
Biotron weren’t able to seize the day when COVID was a hot topic, and the world was still looking for solutions. Now, the company’s still got its value proposition hinging on the treatment of COVID-19, a virus which has for all intents and purposes come and gone. No COVID, no value.
The statement the virus has come and gone might be controversial in the still-murky world of long COVID, but the zeitgeist of the early 2020’s has clearly passed.
If you want proof of that, here’s a different kind of line chart: check out the popularity of “COVID” as a google search term over the last 5 years.
So the frustration is understandable.
As for what the company now turns to, it’s unclear.
“Biotron remains focused on its platform of viroporin antagonists which uniquely combine direct- acting antiviral and immunomodulatory activities across numerous viruses responsible for important human disease,” Miller wrote on Friday.
Perhaps Thailand isn’t a go.
BIT last traded at 1.8cps.