Panno speaks on recent changes, page-12

I'll just put something out there as a possible HBV scenario.

BB-HB-331 has now been renamed (again) to BB-101. We are also developing BB-103, so there is already some evidence that the link back to TT-034 could be broken.

One scenario is Benitec is developing one or both of these alternatives with the addition of a HBV therapy from one of the big pharmas, on our dollar. When the pre-clinical results are known, Benitec will use these to leverage a deal with that pharma. My guess is that the next results from the HBV pre-clinical work will be announced at about the same time as the TT-034 results.

This could be why the company is talking about the new Chief Business Officer targeting a deal in six to twelve months. The scenario also supports the statement that big pharma has shown some interest in the program. Why wouldn't a pharma be interested if we are improving one of their products at our expense? The question is, will the results be good enough to get a pharma to fund the next stages of development?

If this is what is happening, the TT-034 announcement won't be the determiner of the share price, but rather the next pre-clinical announcement about HBV.