FACTBOX: Biotech companies benefiting from flu outbreak

http://www.reuters.com/article/smallBusinessNews/idUSTRE5896P120090910

SEPT. 10 2009

FACTBOX-Biotech companies benefiting from flu outbreak 16:13 08Sep09 -FACTBOX-Biotech companies benefiting from flu outbreak

(Reuters) - Here is a list of biotech companies whose shares may rise or fall depending on the course of the swine flu pandemic.

* GILEAD SCIENCES INC - Receives royalties on sales of the Tamiflu pill, which Roche Holding AG sells under license from Gilead. According to analysts at Barclays Capital, current projections for the second half of the year suggest combined seasonal and pandemic Tamiflu sales of $1 billion.

* BIOTA HOLDINGS LTD - The Australian biotech company receives royalties on sales of the inhaled antiviral drug Relenza, which is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline Plc. Biota's royalties more than doubled to $37.5 million in the year to June. The company is developing a new flu drug, laninamivir, with Daiichi Sankyo. Late stage studies in Asia showed a single dose of inhaled laninamivir alleviated flu as effectively as five days of twice-daily Tamiflu.

* NOVAVAX INC - Will apply to U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the fourth quarter to start human clinical trials of its H1N1 vaccine. An earlier trial of the virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine showed it protected ferrets from swine flu. The vaccines can be grown in caterpillar cells and can be produced much quicker than traditional vaccines made using chicken eggs.

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