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Health & Biotech
The biopharma company jumped 29% in early morning trade today, after being awarded $6.2 million to clinically evaluate a military strength dosing regimen for Travelan – its drug for travellers’ diarrhoea.
The US Department of Defence will contribute $4.8 million to fund the research and the US Naval Medical Research Centre (NMRC) received $1.4 million to support the study.
The plan is to conduct a controlled human infection model (CHIM) clinical trial in 60 healthy volunteers in the USA to test and confirm the efficacy of a single larger dose regimen of Travelan using the enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strain H10407.
The idea is that the dosing regime could be more amenable for use in military populations – with infectious diarrhoea the most common illness reported in US troops deployed overseas.
Plus the current three dose per day regime has low compliance among military personnel, which is fair enough considering the working environment.
To date two company sponsored clinical studies have demonstrated that Travelan conferred 84% to over 90% protective efficacy against moderate to severe diarrhoea upon challenge with ETEC in comparison to a placebo.
The results of this clinical study is expected to inform dosing in the pivotal Phase 3 registration trials for BLA licensure.
“This new project expands our clinical development program and represents the first of several significant clinical trials which the company expects to undertake with the US Military in 2022,” Immuron CEO Dr Jerry Kanellos said.
“The NMRC plans to clinically evaluate the protective efficacy of our new oral therapeutic targeting Campylobacter and ETEC this year in two controlled human infection-model clinical trials, with one trial focusing on the ability of the hyperimmune product to protect volunteers against moderate to severe campylobacteriosis, and the second trial focusing on ETEC infections.”
ECS was up 3.22%, reporting it’s set to achieve another consecutive record quarter with revenue of around $1.5m expected for Q2 FY22.
That’s an increase of 325% on the previous corresponding period, and 65% on the last quarter.
European orders are being facilitated this month, an export purchase order exceeding $400,000 is being fulfilled and the company is cultivating CBD from its Tasmanian facility in February.
“We remain very well positioned to further this trajectory; last year we signed a significant number contracts domestically and overseas and it is now pleasing to see them convert into revenue,” MD Alex Keach said.
“Our business model is proving to be exactly what the market desires as well as providing us with a larger addressable market than our competitors.
“This B2B strategy and being able take a seed all the way through to a GMP product is why we continue to attract new customers and deliver quarter on quarter growth.”
Up 3.12% was Zelira, after receiving $1.2 million cash R&D Tax Incentive.
The company says funds will be used to support the growth in recent launched products including Zenivol for Insomnia, HOPE for Autism and a new CBD-Toothpaste into global markets.
Zelira said the funds will also help advance its ongoing clinical and product development programs.
Unchanged today was Roots, which booked the first revenue from its super mini root zone temperature optimisation (RZTO) product – with orders shipped to customers and distributors in Australia, Singapore and South Aftica.
The company says the system is being deployed across a diverse crop range including cannabis for ECS, and lettuce, blueberries, peppers and cucumbers.
Roots says these initial sales reflect an increased level of global interest for innovative and sustainable agricultural solutions and provide a foundation for the company to continue international expansion initiatives.
Follow up commercial orders are expected once successful adoption demonstrations are completed.
The company was up 2% in early morning trade today, reporting that the NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Community Pharmacy Liverpool have launched a new clinical service at more than 100 pharmacies. It will include the 10-minute FebriDx test to differentiate bacterial from viral respiratory infection.
“Adoption of FebriDx in the front-line pharmacy setting is a strategically important milestone for its commercialisation across healthcare,” MD, president and CEO Rob Sambursky said.
“This provides an effective, real-world model for improving patient care while driving antimicrobial stewardship in outpatient care settings.”
The FebriDx test will be used for patients with an acute cough at pharmacies across Liverpool under a new minor ailments service known as Pharmacy First, to enable rapid diagnoses and appropriate antibiotic prescribing – without the need for a general practitioner (GP) appointment first.
The company rose 9% today, announcing it had secured a major magnetoencephalography (MEG) sale in China to the prestigious Tianjin Normal University (TJNU), which could open the door to the fast-growing Chinese neuroscience market.
The installation will be the first Compumedics Orion LifeSpan MEG system to be specially configured for hyperscanning capability – the neuroimaging of two subjects at the same time to study how they interact.
TJNU is investing approximately $6.25m to build up its new research-oriented neuroscience lab, with around $4.20m for the supply of the core MEG instrumentation.
The announcement comes along with a business update, with Compumedics achieving record sales orders for H1 FY22 at $27m – 33% higher that H1 FY21.
However unaudited revenues for H1 FY22 expected to be approximately $17m compared to $18.3m in H1 FY21, mainly due to global supply issues, chip shortages/delays and other pandemic related factors which the company says it’s working to resolve.
Health & Biotech
Health & Biotech
Health & Biotech
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