ASX Health Stocks: Imagion jumps 20pc after delivering positive Phase 1 results

Imagion presents positive data at world leading symposium
Osteopore expands in Southeast Asia
Microba expands into Italy and Portugal

Imagion speaks at world-leading breast cancer symposium

Imagion Biosystems (ASX:IBX) is set to rise over 20% this morning after announcing positive Phase 1 results.

Imagion presented interim data from its ongoing Phase I study for its MagSense HER2 breast cancer imaging agent at the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

The conference is a world leading forum for scientists, and the presentation was delivered by Dr Yalia Jayalakshmi, chief development officer at Imagion, and co-authored by study principal investigators.

Imagion reported that its MagSense HER2 imaging agent has been well tolerated, and there have been no safety issues.

Analysis of the first cohort of six patients suggests that the molecular signature of the MagSense imaging agent, when used with conventional MRI, could help discriminate potentially cancerous nodes from normal nodes.

“Evidence in real patients that our nanoparticle technology could improve upon conventional medical imaging methods is a major milestone for the company,” commented Imagion CEO, Bob Proulx.

Imagion share price today:

Osteopore looks to expand in Southeast Asia

Osteopore (ASX:OSX) announced a number of milestones which it believes will increase Osteopore’s presence and commercial opportunities across South East Asia.

In Indonesia, the company says it has obtained approval for certain dental applications from the country’s regulators.

The Indonesian dental services market is expected to generate revenue worth US$4 billion by 2026, driven by the increasing prevalence of teeth disorders, rising demand for aesthetics, and the high insurance coverage across the country.

Meanwhile in Malaysia, the company has signed a new distribution agreement with Avero to market and sell Osteopore’s oral maxillofacial products across the country.

Avero has an established network of health professionals, hospitals and health services in Malaysia, as well as the sales and client support needed for Osteopore to drive uptake amongst surgeons within the sector.

According to the World Health Organisation’s ‘Global Oral Health Status Report 2022’, an estimated 52 million people in South East Asia have edentulism, a condition that involves the loss of one or more teeth.

Italy and Portugal in Microba’s sights

Agreements have been executed with SYNLAB to distribute Microba Life Sciences’ (ASX:MAP) testing technology into Italy and Portugal.

Microba believes Italy and Portugal are two crucial European markets.

More affiliate country agreements are anticipated to be completed in the near term to continue this rapid expansion activity with SYNLAB.

“I am pleased by our recent progress in distribution expansion with SYNLAB, Europe’s largest medical diagnostics company,” said Microba’s senior vice president, Bernie Woodcroft.

“Italy represents a major market for gut health and the microbiome, and we are excited to get our testing into the hands of clinicians and patients across these two regions”.

Immutep scales up production of efti

Immutep (ASX:IMM) has successfully achieved commercial scale in manufacturing of its lead product, Eftilagimod Alpha (efti).

In preparation for late-stage clinical trials and commercial production, Immutep has been working with WuXi Biologics to increase the efti manufacturing process from 200L to 2,000L capacity at the manufacturing plant in Wuxi city, China.

The first 2,000L manufacturing run has now been performed successfully with all predefined release criteria met.

Marc Voigt, CEO of Immutep, said:

“Following compelling results from the TACTI-002 Phase II trial and promising initial clinical data from INSIGHT-003 recently presented at SITC 2022, we are pleased to announce this significant achievement reaching commercial scale in efti’s manufacturing by WuXi Biologics, an important long-term partner of Immutep.”