Is Medtech Back?

Good morning Armchair Army,

Welcome to today's edition of The Armchair Analyst, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.

Yesterday, EchoIQ (EIQ) signed a MONSTER deal with $20 billion capped Pro Medicus (PME).

PME to invest $20 million in EIQ across two tranches.

AND, Pro Medicus to become the proposed reseller of EIQ’s EchoSolv AI detection for heart failure. 

EIQ was an old client of mine.

I remember joining them two years ago at the Cardiology Conference in London, where Chief Research Officer, Professor Geoff Strange, presented the results of their clinical trial to a packed room.

Love the tech, and the company has come a long way since then. I’m stoked for the entire team.

This is the second deal that Pro Medicus has signed with an ASX-listed company in the last 12 months.

The first?

4D Medical (4DX), after that deal, 4DX went on a monster run and is now capped at $2.7B.

In January, I wrote an article, “Could EIQ be the next 4DX?”

… and it is looking like that prediction may be coming to fruition.

I was chatting with a healthcare analyst at the time I published this article about the state of the markets, and what could be “in” for 2026…

He said that after the success of 4D Medical (ASX: 4DX) in 2025, institutional investors are now picking over every other med tech company to find out what they had missed.

… so, is Medtech Back?

First 4DX, now EchoIQ…

It very well could be.

The perfect time for me to launch my THIRD Armchair Analyst Pick.

A deep-tech/med-tech company, Control Bionics (ASX: CBL)...

Over the past 20 years, CBL has developed a technology that reads electrical signals and lets people control devices with their minds.

It’s kind of like Elon Musk's Neuralink. 

But with FDA clearance, reimbursement, revenue, and no invasive surgery.

Meta paid ~US$1B for a similar, sEMG tech in 2019… and CBL has a deal with Apple.

Customers using this product right now range from Mayo Clinic (the number 1 hospital in the world) to Paris Saint-Germain (who just won the Champions League).

This technology works across three buckets:

I’ve just finished my 1-Page Investment Memo on the company:

Also, I published my deep dive initiation note yesterday: My Third Armchair Pick: Control Bionics (ASX: CBL) 

Let’s dive in…

🪑  A bit of a longer Pulse Check today, with yesterday’s news included.

Pro Medicus (ASX: PME) signs binding Heads of Agreement with Echo IQ (ASX: EIQ) for a finance facility and reseller deal to enhance Echo IQ's AI heart failure product. (PME, EIQ)

🪑  💪

BlinkLab (ASX: BB1) completes recruitment and data collection for a European ADHD study involving 375 children; final analysis expected in early Q3 2026. (BB1)

🪑 Nice. Looking forward to these results.

Visionflex (ASX: VFX) secures a $0.8M contract with NSW Health to supply remote patient monitoring hardware. (VFX)

🪑 I met the VFX team at the Digital Health Festival last month. 

Interesting product, and they’re having a crack - this contract is good validation.

4DMedical (ASX: 4DX) receives TGA approval for its CT:VQ™ AI-based lung imaging solution in Australia. (4DX)

🪑 Milestone ticked.

Racura Oncology (ASX: RAC) has treated the first patient in its HARNESS-1 Phase 1 trial for lung cancer. (RAC)

🪑 Great first step. Looking forward to the outcome of this trial.

Osteopore (ASX: OSX) completes patient recruitment for a clinical trial at Queensland Children’s Hospital, evaluating its 3D-printed implants for unilateral cleft lip in 5 children. (OSX)

INOVIQ (ASX: IIQ) announces positive in vitro data showing CAR-exosomes kill over 90% of ovarian cancer cells within 48 hours. (IIQ)

🪑 Good early data on the exosomes as a therapy platform.

Arovella Therapeutics (ASX: ALA) receives ethics approval for its first-in-human phase 1 trial for its CAR-iNKT cell therapy targeting blood cancers. Dosing expected in Q3 2026. (ALA)

🪑 Milestone ticked. Dosing expected in Q3 2026.

Memphasys (ASX: MEM) secures market entry in the UK with the Felix™ System, receiving initial commercial orders from four IVF groups within weeks. (MEM)

🪑 Nice early traction.

Merck KGaA to acquire Bio-Techne for US$11.3B in the company’s largest deal since the 2015 Sigma-Aldrich purchase. (Wall Street Journal)

🪑 Bio-Techne is a "picks and shovels of the bio revolution" play. A tools-and-consumables supplier that sells into life-science R&D, diagnostics and analytical workflows

The company on the ASX closest to Bio-Techne is probably Trajan (ASX: TRJ) - which is now trading at an all-time low (20 cents) and has a $30 million market cap.

But I’ve written about why cheap stocks can still make for hard trades, using Trajan as the example: No Man's Land: Why Cheap Stocks Can Still Be Hard Trades 

Report: Patent cliffs aren’t the only driver of biotech M&A boom. (FT)

Control Bionics (ASX: CBL) announces a $10M capital raising, including a $9.5M placement at $0.075 per share and a $0.5M Share Purchase Plan. (CBL)

🪑 Cashed up and ready to roll.

Nexsen Limited (ASX: NXN) secures $1.5M in non-dilutive funding through the ARC's SAGE-Manufacturing program. (NXN)

🪑 They do have Vipul on their team, the ‘king’ of non-dilutive funding.

Mesoblast (ASX: MSB) draws US$50 million from a five-year non-dilutive facility to retire short-term debt. (MSB)

Imagion Biosystems (ASX: IBX) secures $3.75M in a placement to fund the MagSense® HER2 imaging agent Phase 1b/2 trial. (IBX)

HITIQ Limited (ASX: HIQ) announces a trading halt pending a material capital raising announcement. (HIQ)

Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX: RCE) raises A$4.0M via institutional placement at A$0.40/share and announces a SPP to raise an additional A$4.0M. (RCE)

See you all next week,

The Armchair Analyst