Good morning Armchair Army,
Welcome to today's edition of The Armchair Analyst, a 5-minute daily update on the ASX life-sciences sector.
It was a bloodbath in the US markets over the weekend.
The NASDAQ posted its worst day of the year on Friday, with AI darlings finally taking a breather and US tech giants being taken down a peg.
And it's June.
Tax-loss selling season.
So our beaten-down biotechs are right in the firing line again this week.
Anyone up for some bargain hunting?
Meanwhile, the mother of all raises drops on Friday.
SpaceX lists on June 12 at a fixed US$135 a share, a US$1.77 trillion debut.
The largest on record, and I expect this stock to soak up a LOT of market attention, particularly from retail investors (for better or worse).
But I did manage to enjoy my long weekend.
Every year, on the second Monday of June, I go to the King’s Birthday AFL match with my family between the Collingwood Magpies and the Melbourne Deemons.
I’m a Pies fan and my brother’s Dees.
So it's Derby day in the Armchair household.
(My dad’s Saints… don’t ask how it all happened).
For the last 12 years, that game has been transformed into the Big Freeze…
The centrepiece of Fight MND, where celebrities slide into a tub of icy water in the middle of a Melbourne winter to raise money and awareness for Motor Neurone Disease.
Motor Neurone Disease is a progressive, incurable condition that slowly shuts down the nerves controlling movement.
Patients lose the ability to walk, speak, and breathe, while their mind stays sharp the whole way down.
It’s known as the beast.
A fortnight before the game, Neale Daniher - the face of the FreezeMND campaign - passed away, after a 13-year battle with the disease.
In today’s newsletter, I want to acknowledge Neale Daniher and his monumental effort to drag the disease out of the shadows and into the spotlight for all Australians.
Since 2013, FreezeMND has raised over $157 million, with $117 million directed toward research to find a cure.
With a single family donating an additional $40 million yesterday:
(Source: The Age)
This funding has backed 34 drug development projects and 15 clinical trials for Australian patients.
… and hopefully a result that finds a cure for the disease.
Before my time in the stock market, I worked for a charity organisation called LifeChanger, and I understand the importance of funding drives.
While it’s a big week for the charity…
It’s about what the funding and awareness actually unlock.
Another year of support for the families and communities affected by the disease, and funding research to find a cure.
Like most investors, I invest in healthcare stocks to make money.
But behind it all, there are real people affected by disease, family members and patients.
And THAT is the backbone of the healthcare industry.
Neale Daniher was the embodiment of that.
A man who refused to let the Beast have the last word.
So this one is for you, Neale Daniher. A legend.
Play on…
The Pulse Check
Independent studies show that Tetratherix’s (ASX: TTX) nasal spray device for the delivery of peptides, GLP-1s and hormones is stable and protects the active compounds during delivery of insulin. (TTX)
🪑 We knew that TTX’s nasal spray device worked for GLP-1s, hormones and peptides, but now add insulin to that list.
Improving the delivery of insulin is a HUGE industry, and has been developing since the 1920s.
There is a fantastic podcast by Acquired on the history of Novo Nordisk that explores the evolution of insulin delivery.
It’s big business, and adds to the platform technology that Tetratherix is developing.
Alterity Therapeutics (ASX: ATH) secures FDA alignment on its pivotal Phase 3 trial design for ATH434 in Multiple System Atrophy. (ATH)
🪑The final hurdle that I expect the market has been waiting for. The Phase 3 study appears to be a registrational trial, and the FDA has agreed to ATH’s proposed trial design.
All good news, and the company is on track to start Phase 3 of the program by the end of the year.
Clever Culture Systems (ASX: CC5) secures a 5-year lease order from CSL for its APAS Independence microbiology instrument. (CC5)
🪑Amazing deal.
6-month evaluation across CSL's global manufacturing network with the potential for a multi-site deployment.
OncoSil Medical (ASX: OSL) achieves both co-primary endpoints in its TRIPP-FX trial (safety/tolerability) and 82.2% local disease control at 16 weeks. (OSL)
Also, OncoSil is at the final FDA Review Stage for a US Humanitarian Device Exemption Application. Final results should be in the next few months. (OSL)
🪑Big couple of announcements from OncoSil today. Nice job.
Noxopharm (ASX: NOX) begins manufacturing SOF-SKN™ for a planned clinical trial targeting lupus, an autoimmune skin disease. (NOX)
🪑Milestone ticked.
Anteris Technologies (ASX: AVR) secures French regulatory clearance for its PARADIGM Trial for its Transcatheter Heart Valve. (AVR)
ResMed (ASX: RMD) acquires Noctrix Health for US$340M, expanding sleep tech portfolio with restless legs syndrome device. (FierceBiotech)
LTR Pharma (ASX: LTP) signs a binding term sheet with Shed Holdings LLC to commercially distribute the nasal-spray Viagra product ROXUS via telehealth in the US. Minimum orders for year 1 of 150,000 prescriptions. (LTP)
🪑 Nice deal.
LTR Pharma has given up 2 years of exclusivity to Shed Holdings, so they must believe Shed Holdings is the RIGHT partner to take this to market.
This is more of a consumer product than a medication (through the 503A pathway) - so how it is marketed, positioned and sold through Shed’s Telehealth platform will dictate how well sales perform.
Good luck!
Last week, the NSW government announced legislation changes to the driving laws for those with a medical cannabis prescription. (The Guardian)
🪑 When the driving laws were changed in Germany, demand for medical cannabis doubled overnight.
(Not necessarily new cannabis users, but those who bought ‘street weed’, transferring to the more regulated medical cannabis prescriptions).
Companies to benefit on the ASX include all of the players in the space, including: Bioxyne (BXN), Little Green Pharma (LGP), Vitura (VIT), Cann Group (CAN) and ESC Botanics (ESC).
REPORT: China Biotech Deals Are in the U.S. Congress’s Crosshairs. (Freshfields)
🪑 An interesting development.
The Chinese biotech space has been soaking up a LOT of M&A activity and capital. To the point where the US Congress is starting to notice.
I have previously flagged that, in a globally competitive dollar environment, a rise in Chinese biotech is bad for Australia.
Let’s see how this one plays out.
Cash Injection
Ryman Healthcare (ASX: RYM) launches a retail bond offer of up to NZ$100M. (RYM)
Vitasora Health Limited (ASX: VHL) enters a trading halt pending a capital raise. (VHL)
M&A, Big Pharma Wants a Wife
Johnson & Johnson acquires Firefly Bio for US$1B upfront to access its DAC platform targeting KRAS-driven cancer tumours. (FierceBiotech)
Roche makes up to US$3B in blood cancer play with Nurix’s protein degrader. (Biospace)
Incyte acquires Vega Therapeutics for up to US$2B, adding a Phase 3 blood disorder asset to its portfolio. (Financial Times)
🪑 Three more deals over the weekend, with 2026 set to be a banner year for biotech M&A/licencing.
A total of nearly US$211B worth of biotech deals have been struck globally so far this year.
Will this translate to Aussie boitechs? Hopefully soon.
See you all tomorrow,
The Armchair Analyst
