BTA - Biota Holdings

[chansw]

Biota profit trend stays positive

October 24, 2007

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22640012-643,00.html

INFLUENZA drug company Biota said today its revenue growth and profitability remains on a positive trend path and has continued into the first quarter of fiscal 2008.

Chief executive Peter Cook said the last financial year was notable for improving profitability, positive cash and growth in revenue from royalties.

"So there are the major financial measures of our success in fiscal 2007," he told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting.

"It is worth noting that those trends have continued into the first quarter of fiscal 2008."

Biota is the maker of Relenza, an drug to flight influenza strains such as bird flu.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has exclusive global distribution rights for the drug, but Biota has arguing with GSK about its perceived failure to market Relenza.

Mr Cook said Biota's drug pipeline is the key to its long term value and that it expects to have more products in phase three in the next three to five years.

"Biota's favourable cash flows from the royalty generating products in the market gives us the flexibility to consider further clinical development and/or expansion of our pipeline without additional capital raisings," he said.

"This funding option is non-dilutive to existing shareholders and reduces the overall cost of capital to the company."

"Given the financial markets generally re-rate companies as their products move closer to market approval, share price growth should generate increased returns for shareholders."

"Based on these fundamentals, I am confident that Biota should continue to deliver strong performance over the ensuing years."

 

[panache]

I may be naive but I was wondering why GSK doesn't make a takeover offer for Biota. Surely that would solve the court case problems whilst getting control of Relenza.

This is NOT a rumour.

 

[wideboythin]

Re: BTA - Biota share purchase plan

No Comment on this share for a long time. Any feeling on where its going? seems to be very low again, same as july last year where it rebounded strongly. I`d love to here what the feeling is on this one.

 

[wideboythin]

Re: BTA - Biota share purchase plan

These guys seem to be rebounding but no one is prepared to make a comment. I have done a little research and they look like a goer. Anyone got a comment on these guys?

 

[Crash]

Re: BTA - Biota share purchase plan

Dunno seems like a wounded duck of late, despite some positive predictions earlier last year just keeps drifting downwards.

 

[moreld]

Re: BTA - Biota share purchase plan

down at around cash is an even better price. BTA looks good to me as I continue to dig deeper. Biota's pipeline looks good.

Some questions about management over on hot copper and an issue at the AGM.
There are a lot of possible catalysts and risks, but risk/reward profile looks good.
A cash flow positive first half is among one of many possible catalysts which include a good quarter for Relenza, no reported problems on LANI, good LANI results, HRV and RSV results. The reverse are all risks. It's biotech some will fail.

 

[Jikx]

Re: BTA - Biota

Looks like Relenza's main competitor, Tamiflu, is proving to be a bit a lame duck against the flu:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=aXunoP8Qd7TQ&refer=home

This is mirrored by H5N1's ability to quickly evolve resistance to Tamiflu. Possibility that governments around the world holding emergency stockpiles will have to switch to Relenza, UK having already placed their orders.

This is probably why the share price has bounced off it's recent lows!

 

[hem9]

G 'day Mates

Just got a tip from my mates regarding the above mentioned stock. My mate who is a pharmacist told me that these guys are producing medicines for influenza, and their market share is going to go up because of the influenza outbreak and the influenza is gaining some resistance to their chief rivals medicines. Can't really find much information about this stock. Does anyone know more about this stock? Thanks guys

 

[spottygoose]

To be honest that news has been out there for a long time. The difference at the moment is that Glaxo, the company that markets it and who were taken to court by Biota for not marketing it properly, is now promoting it. The end result of that will be more orders and the media does seem to have picked up on the Tamiflu (rival medication) resistance story again....

 

[Jikx]

The end result of that will be more orders and the media does seem to have picked up on the Tamiflu (rival medication) resistance story again....

I think there was new research showing that it was largely useless against this years Flu variants. The birdflu resistance to tamiflu I've known about for a number of years, but couldn't really say anything because of lack of publicly released information.

Shares have jumped 25% recently, what's going on here?

 

[Sean K]

Opening way up at 1.15 at the moment. I was going to buy on the open, but such a leap may be risky. On the other hand this flu news has only just started, so maybe there's some legs in it.

 

[Prospector]

Hmm, too late for me, up 78% I only looked at its charts last week too!

Would rather this hadnt happened though, this could be the pandemic we have been dreading, ever since I started on this thread.

 

[persistentone]

Can someone summarize what worldwide sales of Tamiflu and Relenza have been, and how much does Biota make under contract for those Relenza sales?

 

[michael_selway]

Can someone summarize what worldwide sales of Tamiflu and Relenza have been, and how much does Biota make under contract for those Relenza sales?

HI not bad today!

Date: 24/4/2009
Author: Ari Sharp
Source: The Age --- Page: B3
Shares in Biota Holdings rose on 23 April 2009 due to a rise in sales of its antiviral inhalant, Relenza. GlaxoSmithKline announced that sales of Relenza rose to $A462 million in the March quarter. Biota shares rose by $A0.125 to $A0.905. However, its share price had already risen, prompting a query by the ASX.

Date: 31/3/2009
Author: Ari Sharp
Source: The Age --- Page: B2
Biota Holdings has made an agreement related to its influenza inhibitor with aJapanese pharmaceutical company, Daiichi Sankyo. If phase III clinical trialsare successful, Daiichi Sankyo will manufacture and market the product in Japan.The announcement lifted Biota's shares by $A0.06 to $A0.60 on 30 March 2009

Earnings and Dividends Forecast (cents per share)
2008 2009 2010 2011
EPS -3.6 -1.6 2.9 7.7
DPS 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Glaxo’s Relenza Beat Rival Tamiflu in Stockpile Sales (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A

By Jason Gale, Trista Kelley and Simeon Bennett

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s flu drug Relenza beat Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu in sales to governments for the first time last quarter, a sign authorities are seeking a broader range of medicines to protect against a pandemic.

Government orders of Relenza were 20 percent higher than those for Tamiflu in the first quarter, according to data from both companies released before the current swine flu outbreak. Biota Holdings Ltd., which earns royalties on Relenza sales, jumped as much as 89 percent today on speculation sales will gain as concerns mount that the swine flu outbreak may spread.

Demand for Relenza was stoked by reports of widespread resistance of H1N1, a common seasonal flu virus, to Tamiflu. The U.K. and Japan increased orders for the drug to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic on concern Tamiflu-evading seasonal flu could exchange genes with a pandemic strain, making that pill a weaker weapon to fight a global contagion. Almost all H1N1 samples tested last winter were resistant to Tamiflu, the World Health Organization said.

“Governments are balancing their stockpiles” by including more Relenza, said Stephen Rea, a Glaxo spokesman, in an April 24 phone interview. “Our expectation would be that other governments would follow suit. Our view would be the U.S. government would also be persuaded.”

Governments ordered about 220 million pounds ($322 million) worth of Relenza in the three months ended March, Rea said. That compares with orders for Tamiflu of 304 million Swiss francs ($266 million), Basel, Switzerland-based Roche said April 17.

Bird Flu Fears

Total sales of Tamiflu in the first quarter, including revenue from doctors’ prescriptions of the drug for seasonal flu, were 401 million Swiss francs, compared with 222 million pounds for Relenza. Seasonal sales of Relenza were “a couple of million” pounds in the quarter and sales for stockpiles were the “vast majority” of the total, Rea said.

“Based on the information we’ve got so far, governments are tending not to be reducing their Tamiflu,” said David Reddy, head of Roche’s influenza task force, in an April 23 telephone interview. “Some governments are buying some additional reserves of alternative antivirals to manage cases of resistance.”

Fears of a global influenza outbreak sparked by the H5N1 strain of avian flu prompted governments around the world to store millions of courses of Tamiflu that could be used to prevent infection in health-care workers and others performing critical job functions. That demand spurred Tamiflu sales worth 2.6 billion Swiss francs in 2006 and 2.1 billion francs in 2007.

Stockpiles Deployed

Those stockpiles may be deployed if the swine flu virus that’s killed more than 80 people in Mexico and sickened others in the U.S. and Canada sparks a global pandemic. Both Relenza and Tamiflu are effective against the pathogen, according to the Geneva-based WHO.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said 25 percent of U.S. antiviral stockpiles are being released. The Defense Department “has procured and strategically positioned 7 million treatment courses of Tamiflu,” Napolitano said. In all, there are 50 million courses, she said.

The H5N1 avian flu virus isn’t resistant to Tamiflu, though the pill’s potency could be lost if the virus recombines with the Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 strain, Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority in Washington, told the Scientific American last month.

Human Cases

There have been at least 420 human cases of avian flu, mostly in Asia, and 257 of those patients died since 2003, according to WHO, a Geneva-based United Nations agency. Symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, eye infections, pneumonia and acute respiratory distress.

Tamiflu and Relenza, an inhaled powder made by London-based Glaxo, reduce severity and the duration of symptoms by 24-to-30 hours if treatment is started within the first two days of illness, according to the companies.

Both drugs work by blocking a protein on the surface of influenza particles called neuraminidase which allows the virus to spread from infected cells to other cells in the body. Scientists say mutant H1N1 viruses have evolved to evade Tamiflu through a single mutation in the neuraminidase that prevents the medicine from clinging to the viral protein, thereby enabling the pathogen to spread. Relenza isn’t affected by the mutation.

Predicting Resistance

Resistance among seasonal influenza strains doesn’t predict resistance among pandemic influenza viruses, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said this year. It’s unknown whether resistance to Relenza or Tamiflu may become a problem with widespread use of the drugs during a pandemic, it said.

The U.S. states and federal government aim to stockpile 81 million courses of antiviral medications as part of public health preparedness for a pandemic, according to the Department of Health and Human Services report.

Canada will adjust the combination of antiviral medications in its national emergency stockpile because of concern about Tamiflu resistance among influenza viruses, the Canadian Press reported this week.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said it will boost its supply of Relenza, along with older antivirals such as amantadine and rimantadine, the news service reported. Canada’s emergency stockpile, a backup to the country’s national antiviral stockpile, currently contains 14 million doses, enough to treat 1.4 million people, the report said.

Biota Shares Surge

“The global market for antiviral pandemic stockpiling is shifting very rapidly to include a major Relenza component, given the recurring problems with Tamiflu at present,” Thomas Duthy, who tracks health-care and biotechnology companies for Taylor Collison Ltd. in Sydney, said in an April 23 report.

Biota, based in Melbourne, surged 83 percent to A$1.59 at 3:45 p.m. local time in Sydney trading, the most since October 1987, and rose as much as 89 percent after the WHO called swine flu a “public health emergency of international concern.” Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.1 percent.

Duthy rates Biota a “speculative buy” and said he expects authorities in France, Germany and Hong Kong to add Relenza to their stockpiles over the next two years.

Relenza and Tamiflu have an expiry date five years after manufacturing.

 

[persistentone]

HI not bad today!



Earnings and Dividends Forecast (cents per share)
2008 2009 2010 2011
EPS -3.6 -1.6 2.9 7.7
DPS 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

So for the AUD $462M of 1Q2009 revenue, what would be Biota's royalty?

To put that AUD $462M number in context, what were Tamiflu's 1Q2009 revenues?

 

[skyQuake]

Hmm, too late for me, up 78% I only looked at its charts last week too!

I don't think this surge is over yet. The Media will dogpile on and so will punters. Look at how long the bird flu hype took to die down.

 

[jonojpsg]

I don't think this surge is over yet. The Media will dogpile on and so will punters. Look at how long the bird flu hype took to die down.

Hope not, I picked them for May's stock tip Maybe a die down until Friday then take off

 

[Sean K]

Might pull back a bit today. It doesn't look to be that bad to me.

And even BTA are calling the rise overdone.

Biota says swine flu pandemic speculation overdone as share price soars

If it does fall over, hope no one is left without a chair.

 

[skyQuake]

ADRs have it at $2.20 AUD equivalent, we'll see if it gets there lol.

http://www.adrbnymellon.com/dr_profile.jsp?cusip=09066S100

 

[shag]

have people no noted no one has used relenza to treat this virus yet
even aus is using is competitor, tamiflu.
they r not the same.