Good morning Armchair Army,
Welcome to today's edition of The Armchair Analyst, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.
Short update from me today.
This week marks 6-months since I started The Armchair Analyst newsletter.
I’ve sent 117 newsletters.
Cover 49 stocks in the Biotech 165 Challenge.
Endorsed 2 companies so far: Emyria (EMD) and Tetratherix (TTX).
I just wanted to say a big thank you.
The most valuable asset you own is your attention.
So, thank you for lending it to me each morning for a brief period so I can share my thoughts on stocks, investing, and healthcare.
I don’t take it for granted.
Today, I’ll also be recording my first Armchair Analyst podcast with a stock trader friend of mine.
Goes live next week.
Wish me luck!
Let’s dive in…
The Pulse Check
4DMedical (ASX: 4DX) secures a 3-year commercial contract with SimonMed Imaging to deploy its CT: VQ™ technology across 170 outpatient imaging centres in the U.S. (4DX)
Talius Group (ASX: TAL) signs a deal to sell its resident-tracking and care workflow software across three Metlifecare villages in New Zealand. (TAL)
🪑 Metlifecare has 37 retirement villages in New Zealand. TAL has just signed a deal with three of them.
Classic small rollout-before-big-deal playbook.
Immuron Limited (ASX: IMC) saw its price move up as much as 37.5% yesterday on no news. (IMC)
🪑I made some phone calls to find out what was happening.
The working theory is that Immuron is dual-listed, trading on both the ASX and the NASDAQ via ADRs.
Immuron’s NASDAQ-ADRs have been moving up over the last few weeks, but that trading hasn’t been reflected on the ASX.
So this move appears to potentially be an arbitrage opportunity for traders, seeing the difference between the two markets.
Report: What do changes at the FDA mean for the psychedelics industry? (Psychadelic Alpha)
🪑 Great report.
Quick summary:
New appointments are good for the psychedelics industry, including a realistic outlook at how trials are run (and overcoming the functional placebo challenge).
The race to first-to-market therapy is on between Compass Pathways and Usona. Compass has a big head start here, building out its commercial team.
“Part of the hope around psychedelics versus existing treatments is their potential to effect lasting change after a small number of doses”. This is big. Psychedelics are seen as more of a “cure” than a “treatment”
Blackstone Life Sciences has committed US$800 million in tranche-based royalty funding and US$500 million in debt to Apogee Therapeutics to support a planned Phase III program. (Biocentury)
🪑 I wanted to highlight this deal because I think it is the type of deal that ASX-listed Dimerix is looking at.
In its latest quarterly report, Dimerix mentioned that they were in “late-stage discussions” for US$50M in “non-dilutive funding” to be paid back in “milestone achievements, and/or licencing royalties”.
It’s not too common in Australia, but I wanted to showcase what the deal could look like for Dimerix.
Nice article on Emyria (ASX: EMD) from the lads at Next Investors this morning: Australia leading the way in next major global health breakthrough?
Cash Injection
Dr AJ Robinson has underwritten the exercise of the remaining ~$2M in-the-money options in Racura Oncology (ASX: RAC). Total raised, $25M. (RAC)
🪑Options were exercisable at $1.25, stocks trading at $2.50…
Guys… remember to exercise your options!
Nyrada Inc. (ASX: NYR) receives AU$2.5M R&D tax rebate. (NYR)
See you all next week,
The Armchair Analyst.
