The journey from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation test tube to US Food and Drug Administration approval is one that few medical technologies survive, but Balmain-based Benitec is trying 10 different routes for its "gene-silencing" treatment, including one potential shortcut through the FDA process.

A shortcut to monetisation would be welcome news for Benitec's investors, especially the mums and dads who have stuck with the company since its ASX listing in 1997 and are lauded by Peter French, the chief executive since 2010, as "visionaries", albeit visionaries whose investment is, at October 5’s share price of 46¢, "deep under water".

Benitec's technology, which it is hoping might provide a one-shot cure for everything from hepatitis C to AIDS, is called DNA-directed ribonucleic acid interference, or ddRNAi.