Good morning, Armchair Army,
Welcome to today's edition of The Armchair Analyst, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.
Disclosure: Armchair Analyst Media Pty Ltd owns 18,750 escrowed TTX shares. TTX has also engaged Armchair Analyst for investor awareness services. Read this article with the relationship in mind.
This information is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial advice.
Yesterday I pressed send on the newsletter.
10 minutes later, my wife texted…
(This could go one of two ways)
“Tetratherix is doing PRP… isn’t that the Kim Kardashian thing?”
Phew…
Out of the woods! But also confused.
What has Kim Kardashian got to do with my Armchair Pick Tetratherix?
I had to do some digging.
For context…
Yesterday, TTX announced early animal results from testing its treatment, which uses your own blood to help damaged tissue heal.
PRP, or Platelet-Rich Plasma.
(Source: TTX)
I’d never heard of it before…
My wife had.
Turns out celebrities have used PRP for years to make their skin glow.
Known as the vampire facial.
And no… that’s not a clue for my Halloween costume this weekend.
But while PRP is popular in the beauty world, there is a big opportunity in knee pain.
PRP has shown soooo much promise in tissue healing…
Successful in one patient.
Nothing in the next.
The problem with PRP is that, while the plasma contains a bunch of regenerative properties, it doesn’t stay in place long enough for the healing effect to work reliably when you inject it into the knee.
All that promise… slipping away.
(literally)
The industry has been trying to solve this problem for 20 years.
… and TTX’s injectable polymer may be the answer.
But first…
The Pulse Check
Control Bionics (ASX: CBL) Chairman Stephen Rix bought 1 million shares on the market for $50,000. (CBL, Armchair Pick, held)
🪑 Very good validation.
Yesterday, I hosted CBL at lunch with 30 investors. The CEO, Jeremy Steele, presented well, and the crowd engaged well:
Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CUV) files for European marketing authorisation of NEURACTHEL®, a branded generic formulation of tetracosactide. (CUV)
Nyrada Inc. (ASX: NYR) reports 5 sites activated and 5 patients recruited in its PROTECT-MI Phase IIa trial (n=100). Final patient dosing is expected in mid-2027. (NYR)
🪑 Things are starting to move. We'll still need hockey-stick recruitment growth to hit the mid-2027 dosing target.
INOVIQ (ASX: IIQ) announces the retirement of Dr Geoff Cumming and Mary Harney as NED, and appoints Andrew Chapman as a new NED. (IIQ)
REPORT: Labor in fresh budget fight as Greens back biotech sector. (AFR)
🪑 The Greens are backing the biotech sector on the recent budget changes, and votes on a timeframe for the sector's R&D rebate/refund may not get across the line.
Go Greens!
(don’t think I’d ever say that, haha)
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) was up 6% overnight on a US$10 billion guidance jump from better-than-anticipated GLP-1 sales. (BioSpace)
🪑 Monster quarter from Eli Lilly.
The Report Card
Resmed Inc. (ASX: RMD) reported a 6% Q1 revenue increase to $1.4 billion. (RMD)
ImpediMed (ASX: IPD) reports Q1 FY27 revenue of $3.8M, up 6%. (IPD)
🪑 Burn is actually starting to slow on this one.
Imugene (ASX: IMU) 4C reports a cash balance of $5.2 million against a $7.5 million cash burn. (IMU)
🪑 Looks like they are come raise again.
Cash Injection
Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP) completes a fully underwritten entitlement offer, raising $900K. (CYP)
Clever Culture Systems (ASX: CC5) requests a trading halt pending an announcement of a material capital raise. (CC5)
So… what is PRP?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a process of taking a patient's blood and putting it back into the body to stimulate natural tissue healing.
PRP contains growth factors that can stimulate tissue repair.
It’s used in things like sports injuries and osteoarthritis clinics.
(and of course celebrity faces)
The problem?
When injected, the liquid disperses from the injury site within hours.
Ever put a Band-Aid on wet skin?
It's useless.
It peels off… wound’s exposed… infection imminent.
Band-Aids only work if they stay in place.
The same goes for the biological healing of internal wounds.
Enter TTX.
TTX’s TegenEOS technology is currently under 510(k) approval for bone grafting in the knee…
But it may also be used to hold PRP at the injury site.
It's injected as a liquid, turns into a gel at body temperature and gradually resorbs.
In a ten-week preclinical tendon-injury study, TegenEOS + PRP produced more organised blood vessels, less inflammation, and better-aligned healing tissue than PRP alone.
The PRP market is about US$700 million per year, with orthopedics and sports medicine the largest area of use.
But it never really took off as a TRUE solution to knee pain.
(which is a much larger market of about US$8 billion)
A couple of reasons.
FIRST, data wasn’t really there. It had always worked, but inconsistently.
Some studies show meaningful improvements in pain and function. Others show little advantage over a saline injection.
PRP isn’t one standardised treatment.
Different platelet concentrations. Different preparation methods. Different injection schedules.
… and the biggest issue: the PRP just doesn’t stay at the site.
(Just like our wet Band-Aid)
SECOND, getting paid has been difficult.
Right now, PRP treatment is largely paid out of pocket.
BUT, as the TTX CEO Will Knox points out in his Medium article…
By making PRP delivery more reliable, TTX could help generate the clinical evidence needed for regulatory approval.
But more importantly, this sets the stage for insurance reimbursement, allowing doctors to get paid.
Like other franchises TTX has developed, a partner will likely carry and support this one.
This is TTX’s “platform” strategy.
1 technology.
4 franchises.
6 markets.
Find the best partner, and leverage their balance sheet and distribution network to carry the product forward.
NEXT up for the PRP ambitions is a larger study in horses.
What else has TTX been up to?
This morning TTX published its 4C report, with updates across all franchises.
Dental - The FDA confirmed the core elements of the 510(k) submission, but requested more detail on chemical characterisation. Market entry soon.
Ophthalmology - Reported animal results, with lower eye pressure than controls despite leaving the gel inside the eye (my full take)
Peptides: Shipped its first commercial product to Superpower.
Skin scarring: Completed treatment across all three TetraDerm trial cohorts and opened global partnering discussions.
Manufacturing site: Completed its international quality-system audit with no major non-conformities and kept the new manufacturing campus on track to open this quarter.
Here is the catalyst calendar for TTX:
Just on the peptide stuff for a second…
You may have seen this morning that RFK Junior’s HHS tacitly approved six popular peptides the FDA reviewed earlier this year.
(Source: Reason)
Under the new HHS policy, the agency will not "take enforcement action against a [anyone] using one of six named peptide bulk drug substance[s]."
It will be interesting to see whether any of these 6 peptides are part of TTX’s “indication expansion”, focus for FY27.
Watch this space.
The Armchair Take
As I said yesterday, this PRP product is a great showcase of the platform potential of TTX’s technology.
It still amazes me that the same underlying technology can have so many different applications.
But that’s the product.
A highly biocompatible polymer platform that can be tuned to almost any use case.
Stay in the body for an hour… or 12 weeks.
Opaque… or clear.
Different tissue as well.
A kind of “medical Lego”.
But a platform technology needs a platform-first business behind it.
And I suspect that’s part of why TTX has taken its time finding partners for its orthopaedic franchise.
It’s not just about finding someone to commercialise its bone-grafting product.
It’s about finding a partner who also understands the opportunity in PRP.
This is where TTX can truly own the vertical.
With an entire portfolio of products built on the same underlying technology.
Consistent, reproducible and reliable.
Products that can pursue indication-specific regulatory approval.
… and, crucially, a pathway to reimbursement for the clinicians using them.
Still early days…
But very promising.
See you all next,
The Armchair Analyst
PS. I’ll be taking a couple of days off next week for the long weekend in Melbourne. See you all Wednesday.
What is an armchair pick?
An Armchair Pick is an invite-only spot I reserve for my highest-conviction investment ideas.
It's a paid arrangement, but to align myself, I only take my fee in shares - half escrowed for 6 months, half for 12.
It is general commentary only, not personal financial advice or a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold. Always see the disclosure at the top of the article and do your own research.
