Melbourne, Oct 1, 2010 (ABN Newswire) - Benitec Limited (ASX:BLT) (PINK:BNIKF) is pleased to announce that it has commenced an R&D program to develop an expressed RNAi product for chronic intractable pain associated with diseases such as cancer and HIV. Known as neuropathic pain, this is a major contributor to the adverse quality of life suffered by terminal cancer patients and other sufferers of chronic disease. There is no treatment to prevent the development of neuropathic pain, nor to adequately, predictably and specifically control established neuropathic pain. Thus, there is an unmet clinical need and a challenge to develop a more effective therapy. Benitec's vector-expressed RNA interference technology has the potential to become the next major class of therapeutic drugs in this area, because of its potency and selectivity to knock down molecular targets known to be involved in chronic pain.
