July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Biota Holdings Ltd.’s royalties on the sale of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s flu drug Relenza surged in the fiscal fourth quarter, and may climb further on a planned tripling in production. Biota shares climbed to the highest in almost two years.

Biota will receive A$8.9 million ($7.3 million) in payments from Glaxo for Relenza sales in the three months ended June 30, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement today. That compares with royalties of A$400,000 in the same quarter of 2008.

The stock added 8.6 percent to end trading at A$1.76 on the Australian exchange, the highest since September 2007. Biota has risen fivefold since the start of the year.

Glaxo, based in London, plans to increase its annual production capacity of Relenza to 190 million courses by the end of 2009, from the current 60 million, Biota said in a separate statement. The additional supplies will help meet increased demand spurred by the new H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, that’s sparked the first influenza pandemic in 41 years.

The extra production and any increase in resultant royalty payments won’t affect Biota’s cash position until June 2010 at the earliest, the company said.

“Significant government stockpile orders placed after the swine flu outbreak in late April 2009, would appear as sales in future quarters,” Biota said in the statement.

Biota receives at least 7 percent royalty on global sales of Relenza by Glaxo and holds patents on the treatment in “major markets” that expire from December 2014, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 23, 2009 03:23 EDT