Ok ... so I've been thinking about BIT as I head into a short...

Ok ... so I've been thinking about BIT as I head into a short holiday. BIT has been largely unsuccessful in HCV - it was never a core strength of the compound portfolio anyway.

They have a potential solution for HIV, for which they have a funded (Australian based) trial upcoming. There should be some form of update soon regarding the HIV trial (I hope).

Given the following facts:
(1) The potential of the company to deliver on HIV
(2) MM's failure to commercialise HCV (yet),

the best bet she has is to chase the Zika dream.

The compound portfolio is promising and has shown in vitro activity against Zika which is fantastic.

The next natural question is funding for progressing the Zika research particularly given the impetus from public health officials in the US. I've come across a funding program which has been launched by NIAID which is the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Companies / research institutes can apply and receive funding.

research approach:
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/zika/researchapproach/Pages/default.aspx

three Zika funding programs available (of which 2 would apply to BIT):
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/researchfunding/ann/pages/opps.aspx

due dates for grant applications are 5-Oct and 16-Oct:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/how-to...nd-submission-policies/standard-due-dates.htm

My question:
Can someone please confirm if they have spoken to the company or are speaking to the company on this? I'd love to know if they're on to it.

I'm going away and can't call Peter or Michelle in the near term, so will be grateful if one of you can.

This NIAID program offers BIT a real possibility of receiving funding and demonstrating the strength of the compound portfolio in a wider space. I believe they should pursue this path if they aren't already.