Good morning

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

Under the Microscope

Just as I was pressing the send button yesterday’s newsletter a company that I was tracking lifted from a trading halt. 

InhaleRx (ASX:IRX) acquired a new ketamine therapy and raised $750,000 through a placement (with a $250,000 rights issue as well). (IRX)

Why is this company so interesting to me?

While the market cap sits at just ~$7M,f and has roughly $800K in the bank, it is fully funded for three clinical trials.

How does that work?

Well, there is a very large loan facility in place with the Linlithgow Family Office that is worth around $52M, which IRX can draw upon to fund the clinical trials.

So the raise is essentially to fund the company’s working capital, while the debt facility is there to fund drug development.

Essentially, it is a “leveraged” clinical trial bet.

On one hand IRX is effectively free carried through to the end of Phase 2 for two cannabis trials and one ketamine trial; BUT much of the company’s value right now is locked up in the debt facility and options… 

A genius move or is the company getting too clever?

For what it’s worth, I do like the story behind the new ketamine asset given that Johnson & Johnson’s own ketamine product for treatment resistant depression is on the market and made $1B in sales last financial year. (J&J 2024 Annual Report)

The Armchair Analyst

Want to help a friend level up their biotech knowledge?

The Daily Check-up

Imugene (ASX:IMU | MC: $102M) is partnering with Chinese-based JW Therapeutics to co-develop a CAR-T therapy for refractory solid cancer tumours, progressing from preclinical studies to Phase 1 in a China-only clinical trial. (IMU)

EMVision (ASX:EMV | MC: $171M) begins its feasibility study of its portable First Responder brain scanner for pre-hospital stroke imaging with Royal Flying Doctor Service. (EMV)

🪑 I watched the company present last week at the Bell Potter Healthcare conference, very interesting device for first responders to detect stroke on-site - I’m looking forward to seeing the results of this study:

HeraMED (ASX:HMD | MC: $42M) secures a US$115k pilot with one of Florida’s largest healthcare network Lee Health to deploy its digital maternity platform and remote fetal heart rate monitors, targeting scale-up to 2,000 pregnancies annually. (HMD)

Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX:RCE | MC: $124M) secured new patents over its anti-infective technology in Hong Kong. (RCE)

Algorae Pharmaceuticals (ASX:1AI | MC: $23M) secures an agreement to distribute a chemotherapy drug to the Australian market manufactured by NYSE-listed Dr. Reddy Laboratories. (1AI)

Cryosite (ASX:CTE | MC: $55M) completes the settlement on the new ~2,300 square metre facility in Auburn NSW for $9.5M, expanding its cryogenic freezing and storage facilities.

🪑 Nice photoshop job from the junior on the investor relations team:

M&A, Big Pharma Wants a Wife

Alkermes effectively ended the bidding war for Adval’s sleep disorder therapy, upping its offer to US$22.50/share (~US$2.37B), prompting Lundbeck to withdraw despite its strong bid. (Endpoints) 

Cash Injection

NASDAQ listed Nuvalent (NASDAQ:NUVL | MC: US$8.4B) closed a US$500M capital raise to advance its precisely targeted cancer therapy. (PR Newswire)

Statistically Significant

Pricing for GLP-1s is set to come down 71% in the US as the government completes the second round of drug pricing negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act for 15 different drugs. (Biospace)

See you tomorrow.

The Armchair Analyst

Jason Segal

Disclosure: I don’t own shares in any of the companies mentioned in today’s newsletter.