Good Morning ,

Under the Microscope

At yesterday’s AGM shareholders of Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM | MC: $11M) voted AGAINST re-electing Paul Hopper as director of the company.

Hopper was the original founder of CHM in 2019 and helped to IPO the company at $0.20 in 2021 (shares are now trading between $0.002 and $0.003 - some frustrated shareholders on that register I imagine).

Hopper is most well known for being the founder and Chairman of Immugene (ASX:IMU | MC: $99M) as well as the founder and chairman of Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX:RAD | MC: $58M).

With Hopper now moved on as Chairman, Phillip Haines has been moved to the position of acting chair… 

…who just by the way moved off the board of Radiopharm Theranostics last week:

As a shareholder of CHM, I am curious to see what happens with the company in the post-Hopper era.

Want to a friend level up their biotech knowledge?

The Daily Check-up

Proteomics (ASX:PIQ | MC: $55M) secures CMS reimbursement of US$390.75 in the US for its predictive test for diabetic kidney disease. (PIQ)

Race Oncology (ASX:RAC | MC: $516M) announces human ethics approval for Phase 1a/b trial on lung cancer. Patient enrolment is expected to begin in the next few months. (RAC)

Patrys (ASX:PAB | MC: $12M) acquires 100% of a proprietary injectable therapy for delirium in aged-care and ICU patients targeting a US$2B market. (PAB)

🪑 Both Anton Uvarov and Brian Leedman are involved in PAB who are behind Blinklabs.

Enlitic (ASX:ENL | MC: $27M) expands its AI medical imaging deal with GE Healthcare (MC: US$36B) in a one-off increase in scope of work worth ~US$1M. (ENL)

🪑That’s two from two in the last two days for Enlitic, yesterday signing an extension with Philips.

Syntara (ASX:SNT | MC: $49M) has completed its Phase 1a study for its anti-scarring topical cream which shows a good safety profile. Now on to the Phase 2b study, results in the first half of 2026. (SNT)

Radiology giant I-MED is preparing for a $3B ASX debut. (AFR)

Yesterday Argentica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN | MC: $29M) published animal efficacy data to identify optimal dosing level for its therapeutic to reduce brain tissue death after a stroke. (AGN)

🪑Why this is important…

AGN published results from the Phase 2 trial on this therapeutic a few months ago to mixed results (the market didn’t like it and the stock dropped ~50%). While the treatment appeared to work in some ways, the main efficacy endpoint was not met. 

These animal trial results are part of the process for AGN to define a better study for the same condition and hopefully a better result in a Phase 2b in the future.

M&A, Big Pharma Wants a Wife

Biogen secures a research deal with venture-backed Dayra Therapeutics for immunological targets. $50M upfront and then an option to acquire any assets developed for an undisclosed amount. (Bloomberg) 

Gilead Sciences acquires the pre-clinical oncology programme from Sweden’s Sprint Bioscience - US$14 million upfront with up to US$400 million in milestone payments. (Pharmaceutical Technology)

Cash Injection

Cleo Diagnostics (ASX:COV | MC: $81M) received $1.7M in an R&D tax incentive refund, giving the company a cash balance of $5.75M. (COV)

BCAL Diagnostics (ASX:BDX | MC: $33M) received $2.5M in an R&D tax incentive refund. (BDX) 

Statistically Significant

Last night, US President Trump announced the "Genesis Mission” investing in the nation's AI capabilities to advance science.

One of the key scientific pillars of the Genesis Mission is “Biotechnology”:

It appears that this mission will leverage Federal scientific datasets, as well as datasets from American businesses and universities to train and build an AI platform.

In my opinion, building up and coordinating large datasets from a diverse set of institutions to train specific AI models will be a monumental effort.

Google’s open source AlphaFold program already exists to support protein structure prediction and drug development through AI.

So, it has been done before.

But I’m very curious to see what could come from the Genesis Mission, specifically for biotech science and research… and whether private enterprise will play nice with offering up their proprietary research data to train AI. 

Watch this space.

Jason Segal

The Armchair Analyst