Good morning, Armchair Army,
Welcome to today's edition of The Armchair Analyst, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.
Alright, it’s Friday.
Which means that private markets are in the spotlight again.
(By popular demand from last week)
I was fortunate enough to meet the team behind a private medical device company: iiShield.
iiShield is developing a medical device to keep organs cool during the transplant procedure.
This is what the jacket looks like:
The problem that this is solving?
If an organ (in this case, the kidney) heats up before the transplant, it could “go bad”.
This happens about 25% of the time.
The current standard of care is to put the organ in a bag and fill it with ice… and work as fast as possible to make sure the kidney doesn’t go bad.
Speed + a Bag + Ice…
That’s the solution.
We’re not talking about a stubby on a hot day camping.
It’s a person’s kidney!
I couldn’t believe it, but I confirmed it with Surgeon Dan yesterday.
There are cooling boxes used to transport and preserve organs.
But that’s just to get the organ to the hospital.
There is nothing to keep the organ cool once it’s in the operating theatre.
If you’ve seen Rat Race (one of the greatest movies ever made), you'd recognise this scene where a heart is taken OUT of the cooling box.
Disaster strikes when the bag to put the organ in doesn’t fit…
Organ transport boxes reimburse between US$9K and US$17K.
… and for the more advanced boxes, up to US$80,000 for a one-time use.
(Source: SummitRe)
iiShield is seeking approval through the 510(k) pathway, using these transport boxes as the predicate device.
A cooling jacket that sits around the organ and keeps it cool consistently.
In the operating theatre.
One of the founders is a surgeon.
… and like all good products, it started with a problem he personally had.
iiShield has conducted a 20-patient clinical trial and showed a ~50% reduction in organ temperature using the device.
Next up is a registrational trial and 510(k) approval, with plans to launch the device in the US in the second half of next year.
I wanted to profile iiShield today to showcase some interesting medical devices being developed outside the public markets.
… who knows, one day these guys might get listed.
They are presenting at the Monsoon biotech showcase in the first week of September in Melbourne, along with a number of other ASX-listed companies:
What else is happening in the private markets?
Australian sports tech giant VALD acquired GymAware for a velocity-based training system. (VALD)
🪑 This is one to keep an eye on for Control Bionics (ASX: CBL, held, Armchair Pick).
CBL has been gaining traction with sports teams (Hawthorn, PSG, British Olympic Team) for its Neurostrip device, which helps identify muscle signals and supports return-to-play decisions.
Last year, Sony acquired STATSports for a reported US$85 million, and Catapult Sports acquired IMPECT for €78 million.
Consolidation is happening in the industry.
Which means that IF Control Bionics can prove out its technology… its sports business unit could make for an interesting acquisition target.
Smart glasses start-up, Bower, raises $2M in a pre-seed round at a $10m valuation. (AFR)
🪑 I thought this one was interesting too.
A smart glasses startup specifically designed to replace PPE in laboratory settings.
Another potential use case for Control Bionic’s sEMG technology - as we’ve seen Meta’s interest in using surfaceEMG to interact with their own glasses products.
That’s it for the private markets for this week!
Let’s dive in…
The Pulse Check
Yesterday, I wrote about how Moderna shares were up 176% after its Cancer Vaccine trial results…
Turns out the Medical Lead on the project is Georgina Long, former Australian of the Year:
(Source: AFR)
Pro Medicus (ASX: PME) signs a 7-year, A$25M contract with Valley Health for its Visage 7 platform. (PME)
🪑 Another nice deal.
Genetic Signatures (ASX: GSS) completes validation of its previously announced deal with a large hospital in Denmark and begins commercial testing of its EasyScreen™ Pan-Enteric assay. (GSS)
Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX: ILA) commissions a second manufacturing campaign to produce up to 800 courses of GMP-grade Galidesivir. (ILA)
🪑 If you’ve ever heard of the phrase, building the plane while flying it… that’s the journey Island is on right now.
(and I’ve been super impressed)
It was only a couple of months ago that they were given the green light to deploy Galidesivir into a live and active Ebola outbreak - and now they’ve done the manufacturing needed to get the first batch in Q4 this year.
It’s not easy to scale up manufacturing so quickly… but when opportunity strikes, you pull out all the stops.
EBR Systems (ASX: EBR) announces the departure of Chief Commercial Officer Erik Strandberg, with CEO John McCutcheon temporarily assuming his duties. (EBR)
Nyrada Inc. (ASX: NYR) reports cardioprotective effects of Xolatryp® in preclinical studies with doxorubicin. (NYR)
🪑 Cardioprotection is super important in combatting the negative effects of first-line chemotherapy.
See you all next week,
The Armchair Analyst.
