ASX Health Stocks: Healthcare index surges as CSL revels in blood plasma boom

At the time of writing, the ASX 200 Health Index (XHJ) is up by over 4%, while the benchmark ASX 200 is rising by 0.5%.

Blood products giant CSL (ASX:CSL) delivered a 5% jump in revenue for the first half, but its net profit slid by 5%.

Revenue climbed to US$6bn, underpinned by strong growth in its leading haemophilia B product Idelvion, and specialty products Kcentra and Haegarda.

The company also reported strong performance from its influenza vaccines business, Seqirus.

Despite the top line growth, net profit declined 5% to $1.76 billion compared to the pcp, but this could be due to the fact that NPAT had risen 45% during the previous year’s half.

More plasma, more sales

Looking ahead to guidance, CSL predicts a better second half as plasma collections are expected to rebound following the easing of restrictions.

CEO Paul Perreault says sales are on the up.

“Following the initiatives we have implemented in our plasma collections network, collections have been improving and are expected to underpin stronger sales in our core plasma therapies.”

CSL’s NPAT guidance for FY22 is anticipated to be in the range of $2.15 billion to $2.25 billion at constant currency, including $90m to $110 million in transaction costs related to the Vifor Pharma acquisition.

Like an EBOS

Meanwhile, pharma distributor EBOS Group (ASX:EBO) reported a 12.8% increase (on pcp) in first half revenue to $5.3 billion, while its underlying NPAT climbed 15.8% to $109.3m.

Both its Healthcare and Animal Care segments performed strongly, but EBOS warned that ongoing disruptions caused by COVID-19 variants could potentially have an adverse on its trading performance for the remainder of the year.

The company chose not to provide any specific guidance figures.

CSL and EBOS share prices today:

Telix to sell Illuccix in Australia

Telix Pharma (ASX:TLX) has entered into a five-year distribution deal with Global Medical Solutions Australia (GMSA), for Telix’s prostate cancer imaging product Illuccix.

GMSA is a global manufacturer and distributor of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals which owns and operates 16 radiopharmacies throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Illuccix meanwhile, is the first regulatory approved PET agent for the diagnostic imaging of men with prostate cancer available in Australia, having received marketing approval from the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in November 2021.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men worldwide. Around 20,000 men are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer in Australia.

“We will deliver broad equity of access to state-of-the-art imaging for all Australian men living with prostate cancer,” CEO Telix Asia Pacific, Dr. David Cade says.

“This includes men living in regional and rural Australia, where access to advanced prostate cancer imaging has traditionally been poor.”

Telix share price today:

PharmAust turns waste into valuable commodities

PharmAust (ASX:PAA)’s goal of building a technology that could convert waste to valuable assets has taken a major step forward today.

PAA announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Epichem, has completed the Oxidative Hydrothermal Dissolution (OHD) e-waste project funded by the government with promising results.

The project, conducted as part of $16.7m Western Australian Government New Industries Fund, has proved that the OHD technology could convert and re-purpose waste into valuable metals.

Using the OHD technology, plastics were able to be removed via oxidative dissolution, thereby isolating a bunch of byproducts and major metals such as gold, tin, copper, iron and zinc.

Minor metals were also identified including silver, barium, nickel, chromium, magnesium and manganese.

Following these successful results, Epichem said it’s now in confidential discussions with mining and waste industry stakeholders.