BENITEC A US market analyst says the departure of Benitec chief...

BENITEC

A US market analyst says the departure of Benitec chief executive officer Dr Peter French “looks like retaliation for the stock price”.
In what was described as a “conference call and live audio webcast”, Benitec acting chief executive officer Greg West outlined the company’s pipeline and said that the non-small cell lung cancer program was “on hold to focus on other programs”.

Mr West said that the four continuing programs were the current phase I/II trial of TT-034 for hepatitis C, the Hepbarna for hepatitis B program, the wet and dry age-related macular oedema program with TT-211 and TT-231, and the Pabparna oculo-pharyngeal muscular dystrophy program.

Benitec provided US telephone numbers for “interested participants and investors” but no Australian numbers.
Benitec executives told Biotech Daily that the decision to allow only “analysts” to ask questions, excluding investors and media, was led by US investor relations staff.

Last week, Benitec announced the unexpected departure of chief executive officer Dr Peter French, despite the company being in the middle of a first-in-human, single infusion trial of TT-034 for hepatitis C (BD: Dec 9, 2015).
The company said at that time that it wished Dr French “all the best for the future” and noted his achievements in five years with the company, but gave no reason for the sudden departure.
In August, Benitec raised $US13.8 million ($A18.8 million) of a hoped for $US70 million, at a discount of 22.5 percent to its last ASX closing price, which precipitated a share price slide from 96.5 cents to the present 30 cent level (BD: Aug 19, 2015).
Today, the New York-based Maxim Group head of healthcare research and senior biotechnology analyst Jason Kolbert, who was given permission to ask questions, said: “We really like Benitec, but don’t get it.”
“Why would Peter step down? The timing doesn’t make sense to me?” Mr Kolbert asked. “It looks like retaliation for the stock price,” Mr Kolbert said.
Mr West denied the accusation and said that the decision was by mutual agreement and Benitec was looking for a US-based chief executive officer with capital market and business development experience as well as deals and partnering experience.
Lodge Partners biotechnology and life sciences analyst Marc Sinatra was also allowed to ask questions and questioned the sort of chief executive officer the company wanted and whether he or she would “run with what you’ve got or take three months to [conduct a] review?”
Mr West said that the company had “no formulated view ... we remain true to our pipeline” but open to review.
“We would expect a new guy to put his fingerprints on things,” Mr West said.
Mr West said that an international search process was underway and the appointment would be expected to understand and deliver the DNA-directed RNA-interference technology as well as have knowledge of US capital markets.
Mr West said that Benitec had about $33 million in cash.
Mr West said that the first patient in the fourth cohort, the eighth patient of 14, had been dosed with TT-034.
Benitec chief clinical officer Georgina Kilfoil told Biotech Daily that the trial was on-track to complete dosing in July 2016 with final data by the end of 2016.
In November 2014, Dr French said that the trial was expected to take a further 12 to months to be completed, in-line with current expectations (BD: Nov 13, 2014).
Benitec fell 2.5 cents or 7.6 percent to 30.5 cents.