The Three-Day Market Update

Good morning,

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

A quick update from me.

I was meant to fly to Sydney for the Wholesale Investor Emerging Conference on Wednesday, but came down with a really bad stomach bug and missed my flight (and took a couple of days off to recover).

Disaster.

I managed to catch some of the conference online, but wasn’t able to get the inside ‘tidbits’ from side events that run alongside.

That’s no worries, we soldier on, there will be another one soon.

Also, I attended the lunch for Rythym Biosciences (ASX: RHY) on Tuesday, and I’ll have my full write-up on the company next Monday.

(Shoutout to Paul and George, who came up and said hi as fans of the newsletter, made my day).

So, with three days to catch up on, I’ve got a Mega Pulse Check for you all.

Let’s dive in…

CSL (ASX: CSL) signed an exclusive agreement with Eli Lilly for the rights to develop Clazakizumab for immune-inflammatory and cardiovascular diseases for US$100 million upfront. (CSL)

🪑 This asset was acquired by CSL as part of its 2020 acquisition of Vitaeris. 

CSL advanced it through to a Phase 3 trial for AMR in kidney transplant patients, which was terminated early due to a lack of efficacy data.

This deal shows that a phase 3 failure IS NOT the end of the line for an asset. 

Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX: TLX) submits an expansion of its European marketing approval for its brain cancer imaging agent. US FDA next. (TLX)

🪑 TLX’s brain cancer imaging product is only available in limited circumstances and sites; this application seeks to make it more generally available (increasing TLX’s access to commercial sales of its product).

Epsilon Healthcare (ASX: EPN) establishes Epsilon Biotech, a new subsidiary focused on developing and commercialising advanced therapeutics and drug delivery systems. (EPN)

🪑 At a market cap of just $11 million, this announcement basically says… “we are looking for new assets to develop”. One to keep an eye on.

Imricor (ASX: IMR) has secured its third site for its VISABL-VT clinical trial, advancing its MRI-guided heart surgery products. (IMR)

🪑 I was a bit bummed because Imricor was one of the companies I had scheduled to meet on my Sydney trip. I was looking forward to taking a closer look at the company after being impressed with the presentation at the Bell Potter Healthcare conference last year.

Something to look forward to next time…

Cleo Diagnostics (ASX: COV) selects Bio-Techne’s Ella™ platform for the immunoassay instrument for its ovarian cancer test. (COV)

Cyclopharm’s (ASX: CYC) Technegas, a lung ventilation imaging device, was approved for clinical use at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland, USA. (CYC)

🪑 This announcement reads that the NIH is more of a key opinion leader that will help CYC make sales of its Technegas product, rather than a direct customer itself.

Cyclopharm (ASX: CYC) also secured new agreements to install Technegas across four US regions. (CYC)

🪑 Two material updates in a row for CYC. I always appreciate when a company follows up a capital raise with material news (and doesn’t just use it all up beforehand to get the attention on the raise). Good corporate discipline.

Alcidion (ASX: ALC) secures AUS and UK medical device registrations for its AI-enabled product that converts unstructured clinical notes into structured medical information. (ALC)

Anatara Lifesciences (ASX: ANR) flags that it may pause its Anti-Obesity Project while pursuing other acquisition opportunities. (ANR)

🪑 Whenever the title of an announcement is “Company Update”... I prepare for bad news (but it is also the first announcement that I’ll click).

Buried in the announcement is “the full data set results remain inconclusive… Anatara is considering placing this project on hold.”

Here is the key line following: “the company is [in] discussions to pursue further opportunities, including M&A”.

Translation? We need something new. (At $3.45 million market cap, this one also could be interesting) 

Little Green Pharma (ASX: LGP) will sell its Western Australian production facility for $7.8M and lease it back as part of a balance sheet restructuring and capital injection. (LGP)

🪑 I like this move by LGP. They will secure another facility in the Cannatrek merger, and the market wasn’t giving them any value for this asset on their books anyway.

Company Pathways clears second phase 3 hurdle for psilocibin in treatment-resistant depression. (European Biotechnology)

🪑 There are a few Phase 3 trials running this year for psychedelic medicines. I reckon that 2026 is the year one is approved in the US.

Pacific Edge (ASX: PEB) enters a trading halt as Novitas MAC convenes a critical advisory meeting on Medicare reimbursement for its Cxbladder. (PEB)

🪑 The meeting will be held in public and streamed online 🍿.

It’s half yearly reporting season, so quite a few updates, here are the ones that stood out:

Austco Healthcare (ASX: AHC) H1FY26 revenue of $48.2M (up 30.7%) and NPAT of $4.7M (up 61.7%), driven by acquisitions and strong organic growth in North America and ANZ markets. (AHC)

🪑 Probably the best half-yearly results published so far in terms of beating market expectations. Revenues growing, EBITDA growing, margins growing… everything you want to see. 

Stock traded well on these results.

Healius (ASX: HLS) H1FY26 revenue of $688.1M (up 3.8%) and Underlying EBITDA of $122.2M (up 13.1%), supported by pathology revenue growth and cost efficiencies. (HLS)

Sigma Healthcare (ASX: SIG)  H1FY26 revenue of $4.8B and $328.9M NPAT, reflecting a full six months of the merged entity with Chemist Warehouse Group (CWG). (SIG)

Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX: TLX) Full year revenue of US$803.8M (up 56%) but a net loss of US$7.1M due to higher R&D spending and operational expenses. (TLX)

Cogstate (ASX: CGS) H1FY26 revenue of $26.9M (up 12%) and NPAT of $4.5M (up 16%), driven by $41.7M in clinical trial sales contracts (up 105%), positioning well in CNS R&D markets. (CGS)

Sonic Healthcare (ASX: SHL) H1FY26 revenue of $5.45B (up 16.6%) and a 10.9% rise in net profit to $262.5M. (SHL)

🪑 Good results, market up 10%.

Medical Developments International (ASX: MVP) H1FY26 revenue of $21.6M (up 8%) but posts a $0.2M net loss (down 174% YoY) due to margin pressures and cost dynamics. (MVP)

🪑 Trading at nearly all-time lows, this was one of the half-year reports I was looking forward to - seeing if the turnaround had started. 

Honestly, not a great result, but this was largely priced into the company.

Adherium (ASX: ADR) secures a total of $6.7M in funding through a Placement ($1.34M) and an Institutional Entitlement Offer ($5.37M), with a Retail Entitlement Offer to raise $0.82M opening soon. (ADR)

🪑 I wrote about the ADR capital raise earlier this week: The Price of Buying Time: The Adherium (ASX: ADR) Story.

I do think that this is a true last roll of the dice for the company to prove out its business model. 

Quite a few funds sitting on the register, so the big subscription from the Institutional Entitlement Offer is reflective of that. 

Orthocell (ASX: OCC) receives $3.0M in an R&D tax refund. (OCC)

Paradigm Biopharmaceuticals (ASX: PAR) draws down a futher US$5M (A$7.6M) under its US$27M convertible note facility to fund global Phase 3 trials for knee osteoarthritis. (PAR)

Immuron (ASX: IMC) receives $1.12M in a R&D tax refund. (IMC)

🪑 My friend Aaron just got made CFO of Immuron - nice work Aaron.

Danaher is set to expand its diagnostics device product suite by acquiring Masimo (best known for selling the devices that hospitals use to measure blood-oxygen levels) in US$9.9 billion deal. (Reuters)

Australian weight loss startup Eucalyptus sells to Hims & Hers Health for A$1.6 billion. (AFR)

🪑 Awesome news for the Australian healthcare and startup economy. 

Novartis licensed oncology programs from Unnatural Products in a deal reported as $100M upfront and up to US$1.7B in milestones. (PR Newswire)

See you all tomorrow,

The Armchair Analyst

PS. To catch the full replay of the Emergence Confrence click here: Emergence 2026 Day 1: Life Science Investor Day