News: Biotron's Hep C drug candidate phase 2a tri, page-8

re: News: Biotron's Hep C drug candidate phas... G'day all,

In the BRR interview dated 11/10/11, managing director Dr Michelle Miller noted that partnership negotiations were "unfortunately is never a fast process", essentially stating that they need to develop a strong package of data for any potential partner.

The conversation then gets interesting. Dr Miller specifically notes that opportunities in China and the Middle East may provide alternative opportunities in the interim. In fact China was mentioned on two separate occasions in the interview.

Whilst there is a focus on the US and European markets, where genotype 1 dominates, the Chinese market is identified as one of the strongest candidates in which to market the drug. Please refer to the following link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15714489

The abstract from the paper is as follows:

"To determine hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype distribution in China, a total of 148 HCV RNA positive serum samples were collected from nine geographic areas and subjected to RT-PCR followed by direct DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the core, E1, and NS5B regions. HCV was genotyped in 139 (93.9%) samples. Among them subtype 1b was the most predominant [66% (92/139)] followed by 2a [14% (19/139)]. Of 92 subtype 1b isolates, 35 (38%) and 30 (33%) formed two clusters, designated groups A and B. Group A was prevalent throughout China, while group B was predominant in the central and southern regions. In three cities in the Pearl River Delta, subtype 6a replaced 2a as the second most predominant subtype, and in Kunming (southwest) multiple HCV genotypes/subtypes were present. New variants of HCV genotype 6 were discovered in three samples from Kunming and one in Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc."

If subtype 1b is prevalent throughout China despite geographical variance, and Biotron are moving to enter that market with priority, the attractiveness of the company increases considerably in my view.

Anyway, I'm back purchasing again as the company is just straight-up undervalued.