G'day everyone,Bloomberg.com had an interesting article on...

G'day everyone,

Bloomberg.com had an interesting article on advanced hep C treatment on the front page of their website today - I think some of the content is both interesting and encouraging for Biotron shareholders.

A link to the article by Michelle Fay Cortez is as follows:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-30/vertex-merck-drugs-help-more-with-faster-cure-for-hepatitis-c.html

The article discusses improvements in hep C treatment duration and success rate using experimental drugs being developed by Merck and Vertex. In both cases, the drugs were able to reduce treatment times to between 6 months to 9 months and increase the cure rates to around 90%, up from around 50% using conventional treatments.

It is estimated that Vertex, in partnership with Johnson and Johnson, will generate $2.6 billion annually from 2013 from their treatment alone, capturing three quarters of market demand. Part of this market share will be captured from existing participants such as Roche (e.g Pegasys) and Merck (e.g PegIntron). This market share is too valuable to forfeit uncontested, and BIT225 is an ideal candidate to capture the majority market exposure if successful. It's no wonder management say there is significant interest from major industry participants.


If Biotron can demonstrate a higher cure rate (as in vitro analysis has suggested is the case), then a base case scenario of BIT225 being worth $2.6 billion annually is possible. The market would increase dramatically from there if the treatment demonstrates greater efficacy. The effect on the current market cap of $11m would be extreme, to say the least.




Worth a read of the article anyway.

Cheers

Tawny