Exciting developments are at hand for this biotech with a new ticker.
Benitec Biopharma (BTEBD)
from Global Investing
Benitec Biopharma (BTEBD) announced hot news. First, the company will issue US$70 million in new ADRs under its new ticker symbol, BTEBD (BLT in Australia), each new US share equal to 4 former BTEBY shares. This we expected and it is now in the quiet period.
Its other news we did not expect.
Benitec of Australia will begin collaborating with a small cap highly promising UK start-up ReNeuron (RENE on the London AIM). RENE with BTEBD is developing allogenic (or off-the-shelf generic) stem cells which, when transduced with ddRNAi, (DNA derived RNAI interference or “expressed RNA”) from Benitec to stem-cell lines produce exosomes, RENE’s specialty. Exosomes are nanoparticles, tiny bubbles secreted or released into culture media from the surface of stem cells. They are absorbed by nearby cells and contain cargo which can change the recipient cells and even repair or regenerate them. They act as therapy agents. They also can be harvested in commercial quantities from a fixed isolated and standardized stem cell producer line.
Exosomes are biologically active molecules like proteins or miRNA (micro RNA) which can deliver shRNA (short hairpin RNA) to targeted cancer cells, at least in lab animals.
They appear to be more effective than standard mesenchymal (mesoderm-derived multipotent) stem cells for targeting cancer cells or delivering other therapeutic exosomes. ReNeuron’s platform also avoids the need for immuno-suppressive drug treatments. Its exosomes can be stored or cyropreserved (frozen) to be shipped clinical sites all over the world for use when patients turn up.
ReNeuron is currently working on stroke disability and critical limb ischemia treatments for peripheral arterial disease using CTX cells in phase 1 and 2 trials in Britain. CTX is ReNeuron’s proprietary immortalized neural cell line from a single donor, which means a consistent product. These cells are injected into the brains of stroke patients 2 to 4 months after their stroke and are in phase I and phase II trials there. They appear to improve neurological status and limb function with no safety issues under reports ReNeuron presented at the European Stroke Conference in Glasgow in April.
ReNeuron will soon add work on retinitis pigmentosa, a cause of blindness, this time using shRNA generated retina cells, hRPCs where Benitec will become a partner, to go into phase 1 safety trials in H2. The Phase 1-2 trials will take place at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a worldwide retinal disease specialist. The main technology is licensed from the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard Medical School.
This comes after BTEBD signed up ddRANi therapies for Hepatitis C, currently in US clinical trials by the company itself, and other scourges like Hep B, drug-resistant lung cancer, and age-related wet macular degeneration. Benitec which now has added a Hayward California lab to its Australian one (plus its Chinese contract lab), also has licensed other biopharma research using expressed RNA to treat HIV/AIDs, Huntington’s disease, chronic neuropathic pain, and now retinitis pigmentosa.
As US brokerages last August closed down access to the London Alternative Investment Market where RENE is listed, we cannot buy that share which has no ADRs. So grab some BTEBD.
Vivian Lewis, Global Investing, www.global-investing.com, 212-758-9480, June 29, 2015