Good morning ,

Welcome to today’s edition of the Pulse Check, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.

The AI-bot that replaced the intern in charge of the ASX announcements feed has now been decommissioned.

We are back online!

Under the Microscope

So yesterday after market there were a bunch of administration notice announcements for Visionflex Group (ASX:VFX | MC: $5.4M).

While administrative announcements are often ignored by the broader market, this share consolidation marks the end of a multi-year corporate restructure and clean up. 

10 years, 4 boards resets, a failed audit, a back-door listing gone wrong, and one shareholder that withstood it all.

So, what’s the story?

Before it was known as Visionflex, 1ST Group was an online booking platform for medical appointments.

1ST didn’t get off to the best start in life as a public company - less than five months after its IPO in 2015 the company was hat-in-hand to the market with a capital raise at ⅓ of the IPO price.

The next few years had its ups and downs, but the company never gained the sales traction to get out of the “raise and spend” cycle.

A convertible note facility was put in place in 2017 by a major shareholder to smooth out the funding process.

And after failing to navigate the business as a public company, in March of 2021 the board resigned the CEO and founder after 10 years of service… 

…only to be slapped with a 249D six weeks later.

The board battle was short lived, with all three members resigning the next day.

The founder had won.

Looking to turn around the business, 1ST acquired a private company Visionflex - a pseudo back door listing… but this was no clean shell.

When the annual report came out later that year, the auditor had “significant doubts” about 1ST’s ability to continue as a going concern.

This is basically the final step before the company goes into administration.

A bit of a stiff go for the Visionflex vendors that sold into 1ST group just six months earlier.

The CEO resigns the next day, and the company goes into suspension shortly after.

At this point 1ST was out of cash, the now $4M facility from a major shareholder was fully drawn, and the company is effectively on the brink of administration.

Disaster.

But rather than throw in the towel the Visionflex team began the epic cleanup job.

Old board out. “Cleanup crew” board in.

New CEO appointed.

The major shareholder was persuaded to continue to fund the business with more debt, and the private equity group behind Visionflex tips more in as well.

Over the next 12 months 1ST Group assets are sold… and returned to trading on the ASX in mid-2023

Recap raise #1. Recap raise #2.

Things are starting to look back on track…

The “Cleanup Crew” board is moved out, and the execution board is moved in.

The debt is finally cleared in a conversion at 100% premium.

And yesterday, the share consolidation finally closed the chapter on the three year process.

What a headache.

Is the Visionflex company any good now? 

Who knows… I’m just The Armchair Analyst.

But at least the company has the best chance to succeed now that the corporate structure is cleaned up and the focus is back on making sales and building a business. 

The Daily Check-up

Healius (ASX:HLS | MC: $730M) wins a ~$60M, 5-year contract with the Australian Defence Force to deliver outpatient pathology services. (HLS)

Immutep (ASX:IMM | MC: $433M) presents new data from its Phase II breast cancer trial and selected the “optimal biological dose” for its product. (IMM)

🪑The FDA recently overhauled how doses are selected and optimised in oncology drug development, moving away from “highest tolerated dose” toward doses that balance efficacy, safety, and tolerability. 

So this data is important in satisfying those requirements.

Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY | $28M) updated accreditation for its cancer-risk assessment lab - a key step toward commercialising its second bowel-cancer blood test. A variation assessment is the next hurdle. (RHY)

Another patient in Imugene’s (ASX:IMU | MC: $110M) phase 1b CAR-T clinical trial showed a partial response (50% reduction in cancer) at the 28-day mark. That now marks an Overall Response Rate of 82% or 14/17 up from 13/16 for the trial. (IMU)

The Chairman of EZZ Life Sciences (ASX:EZZ | MC $77M) Glenn Cross moves off the board into a Chief Strategy Officer role. (EZZ)

Imagion Biosystems (ASX:IBX | MC: $12M) is now ready to submit its Investigational New Drug application to the FDA this month for its breast cancer detection and imaging technology. Phase 2 trial begins the first quarter next year. (IBX)

Cash Injection

HITIQ (ASX:HIQ | MC: $11.7M) goes into trading halt pending a cap raise. (HIQ)

Control Bionics (ASX:CBL | $24M) raises ~$3.25M via placement of 50M ordinary shares at $0.065 in a non-broker led raise. (CBL) 

🪑I was a bit surprised to see CBL announce a capital raise out of the blue. No trading halt, no broker involvement, no options, just $3.25M from top shareholders at a very slim discount. Nice work CBL team. (Disclosure: I own shares in CBL)

See you tomorrow.

The Armchair Analyst

Jason Segal