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Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT) rounds off December quarter with $19.2M in cash

Health Care
ASX:BOT      MCAP $425.2M
22 January 2021 12:45 (AEST)
Botanix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:BOT) - President, Vince Ippolito

Source: Finance News Network

After a successful December quarter, Botanix Pharmaceuticals (BOT) rounded it off with $19.2 million in cash.

Clinical development

In November 2020, Botanix completed a pre-investigational new drug meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its synthetic cannabidiol antimicrobial product, BTX 1801.

This meeting gave the company some feedback on the drug development plan for BTX 1801 to support a new drug application (NDA) alongside its existing qualified infectious disease product (QIDP) designation.

The U.S. FDA also advised the development plan and data package were sufficient enough for Botanix to initiate clinical development in the U.S.

In December, the healthcare stock completed its phase 2a clinical study. The study aimed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of two formulations of BTX 1801 to decolonise Staphylococcus aureus (Staph) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from the nose of healthy adults.

The company expects to release the trial data at some point during this quarter.

Financials

Over the quarter, Botanix burnt through $2.8 million on operating activities — most of which was put towards research and development (R&D) costs.

However, the company submitted an application for an R&D tax incentive refund of roughly $6.8 million. If it receives the refund, the money will be invested in product development.

At the beginning of the quarter, Botanix had $22 million in the bank and ended with $19.2 million.

Outlook

Looking ahead, Botanix’s BTX 1702 phase 1b clinical study is expected to recruit patients once travel and clinical trial restrictions have eased across Australia and New Zealand.

The eight-week randomised, double-blind vehicle-controlled study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of the drug in patients with papulopustular rosacea which is characterised by inflammation on the face.

The company hopes to begin recruitment in the first half of the year.

Botanix is up 6.06 per cent and shares are trading at 17.5 cents at 12:08 pm AEDT.

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