Melbourne, July 24, 2008 (ABN Newswire) - Biota Holdings Limited (ASX:BTA)(PINK:BTAHY) today announced that it had received written notification from GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK)(PINK:GLAXF) that indicative royalties from Relenza were $0.4m during the three months ended 30 June 2008, on sales of $6.2m.

Indicative royalties and sales advised by GSK, by quarter is summarised below:

----------------------------------------------------
                           Q1   Q2    Q3  Q4   Total
----------------------------------------------------
Indicative royalties $m   4.5  12.0  4.4 0.4   21.3
Indicative sales $m      63.9 171.4 62.5 6.2  304.4
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Biota will report full year royalties from Relenza of $20.5m, reconciled as follows:

----------------------------------------------------
                                               $m
----------------------------------------------------
Indicative royalties per above               21.3

Adjustment in respect of an 
overpayment by GSK in 2007                  (0.2)

Adjustment by GSK on payment, due to
a difference between actual
royalties and indicative royalties 
previously advised                          (0.6)
----------------------------------------------------
Actual royalties reported                   20.5
----------------------------------------------------

Biota CEO, Peter Cook said "Whilst the royalty is low, it reflects the off season in the Northern hemisphere. Biota and GSK recently concluded their litigation and we look forward to the normalisation of our relationship and developing the Relenza franchise."

Biota research breakthroughs have included a series of candidate drugs aimed at treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease, licensed to MedImmune Inc. and novel nucleoside analogues designed to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim. Biota has clinical trials underway with its lead compound for human rhinovirus (HRV) infection in patients with compromised respiration or immune systems. In addition, Biota has a key partnership with Daiichi-Sankyo for the development of second generation influenza antivirals. Inverness Medical markets Biota's co-developed OIA FLU influenza diagnostics.

Relenza(TM) is a registered trademark of the GlaxoSmithKline group of companies.

BioStar(R) OIA(R) FLU and BioStar(R) OIA(R) FLU A/B are registered trademarks of Inverness Medical.