have a read of his last HC postI am guessing many BLT and BNIKF...

have a read of his last HC post

I am guessing many BLT and BNIKF shareholders are growing impatient for news from Benitec about a first patient being dosed with TT-034 for HCV.

To which I would kindly point out, having treated HCV for years and being an investigator in many HCV trials, these are not easy trials in which to place patients. While TT-034 is not the very first-in-man trial of ddRNAi, it is among the first and high-profile. What Benitec wants, I am sure, is a worthy, excellent, ideal first patient, someone in whom nothing weird or averse is likely to go wrong in the next few years for which ddRNAi might be falsely blamed. Among HCV patients, trust me, this is terribly difficult. 97 per cent of American HCV'ers were born between 1945 and 1965, which means many are of a certain age when other health issues supervene. Keep in mind the activities that get you HCV, and the psychosocial issues that may co-migrate with those. In HCV, you have to kiss a lot of frogs, a lot, to find a prince. From personal experience, I'd say about 1 in 10, maybe in 1 in 7, HCV patients at most are appropriate for clinical trials. The Mercury and Gemini and Apollo programs in the US had to screen lots of excellent people to find astronauts. I think all of us want Benitec to choose the right patients for TT-034. So, all good things to those who wait.

Meanwhile, the time is no doubt drawing near when news of the first patient being dosed will appear. The Benitec train may be about to pull out of the station. All aboard?