It is quite surprising that all of a sudden, there is no market...

It is quite surprising that all of a sudden, there is no market for a drug that reduces the symptoms of the common cold, particular targeting those with compromised lungs.

COPD is currently the 4th largest cause of death in the Western world and expected to elevate to 3rd largest cause of death by 2020.

Given the high incidence of COPD and the risk that HRV places on those more prone to COPD, what are the costs to a country's medical system and also the flow-on costs that are harder to quantify?

Here are Australian figures:

From http://www.lungfoundation.com.au/professional-resources/statistics/copd-the-statistics/

"The direct cost to the Australian health care system is estimated to be $900 million with hospital use contributing the largest share of health spending ($473 million).10
In addition to the above costs on the public and private sector purse, there are the costs that are harder to quantify – those of lost wellbeing as a result of COPD. These are estimated to be some $90 billion."

So what would stop Biota approaching major western governments with a specially devised collective grant request to cover Phase III costs? The individual outlay for each country would surely be considered well worth the outlay.

I'm personally looking for Biota management to be outside of the box thinkers, creating their own opportunities. At present, I get the feeling they are tunnel-visioned towards a single outcome - LANI commercialisation - and its associated incentives. This is all very well, but I'd love to see Biota model itself as another Gilead and not just a shooting star.