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## Directors’ Report 

## Interests in the shares and options of the company and related bodies corporate 

At the date of this report, the interest of the Directors in the shares and options of Benitec Biopharma Limited were: 

<img src='content_image/179292.jpg'>

* A resolution to consolidate the Company’s securities (shares, options and warrants) was approved at the General Meeting on 17 July 2013. The securities consolidation was on a 25:1 basis meaning that shareholders have 1 consolidated security for every 25 securities held before Friday 19 July 2013. Capital raisings and securities consolidation are referred to on page 12. 

Unless otherwise stated, all numbers of securities in this document are after the 19 July 2013 consolidation. 

## CORPORATE INFORMATION 

## Corporate Structure 

Benitec Biopharma Limited (‘the Company’ or ‘Benitec’) is a company limited by shares and is incorporated and domiciled in Australia. The Company has prepared a consolidated financial report incorporating the entities that it controlled during the financial year (‘the Group’), which are described in note 11 of the financial statements. 

## Principal Activities 

Benitec Biopharma Limited is an ASX-listed biotechnology company (ASX: BLT, OTC: BTEBY) based in Sydney, Australia. The company has a pipeline of in-house and partnered therapeutic programs based on its patented gene-silencing technology, ddRNAi. Benitec is developing treatments for chronic and life-threatening human conditions such as Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, wet age-related macular degeneration, cancer-associated pain, drug resistant lung cancer and oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy based on this technology. In addition, Benitec has licensed ddRNAi technology to other biopharmaceutical companies who are progressing their programs towards the clinic for applications including HIV/AIDS, retinitis pigmentosa and Huntington’s disease. Benitec generates revenue from licensing its technology and research and development grants. 

The principal activities of the Group during the year were progressing programs through the clinic, the commercialisation of Benitec’s unique Intellectual Property, development of the Company’s therapeutic pipeline and pre-clinical programs, funding, and protection and building the IP estate. 

## Employees 

The Group had 13 employees as at 30 June 2014 (2013: 7 employees). 

## Dividends 

No dividends in respect of the current or previous financial year have been paid, declared or recommended for payment. 

## OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW 

## Operating review 

Benitec’s ddRNAi approach is significantly different to other gene silencing methodologies: it induces the target cell to continuously manufacture specific silencing molecules resulting in long term silencing of the disease-associated gene after just a single treatment. 

While there are other technologies for inhibiting gene activity, in most cases these treatments must be regularly re-administered. It is believed that only ddRNAi is able to achieve long-term gene silencing from a single treatment administration. 

The key elements of Benitec’s strategy to generate a competitive and appropriate return for stakeholders are to: 

• Validate that ddRNAi will be safe and effective in a clinical setting. The Company has made substantial progress towards this goal, namely: 

– In late May 2014, the Duke Medical Research Unit, commenced dosing in the Company’s “first-in-man” clinical trial of its hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment, TT-034. Demonstrating its safety and efficacy should be a significant value inflection point in addition to “validating” ddRNAi as a transformational platform for targeting multiple diseases. This would be expected to enhance interest from pharmaceutical companies in collaborating with Benitec on developing ddRNAi therapies in areas of mutual interest. 

– In December Benitec’s collaborator, University of NSW Children’s Cancer Institute, was able to confirm increased survival in a preclinical in-vivo lung cancer model. The Company filed a pre-pre IND submission with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss options for preclinical toxicology testing. 

• Optimise the Company’s share register by consolidating the number of shares issued and expanding the number of institutional investors. 

– In July 2013 Benitec announced a 25:1 consolidation of the Company’s stock. The post consolidation share price of $0.27.5 has been significantly improved on the company trading above $1.00 for the majority of 2014. 

– In February 2014 Benitec announced that the company had completed a $31.5M private placement which included US and international institutional investors including: RA Capital Management, Perceptive Advisors, Special Situation Funds and Sabby Management. 

– In June 2014 Benitec advised it had established a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program facility trading in the Over-The-Counter (OTC) market in the United States. The Benitec ticker for the ADR is: BTEBY. The primary benefit of the ADR program is to widen the secondary capital market for the Company allowing Benitec shares to be traded more easily for U.S. investors. 

