• Osteopore sets up JV to sell its orthopaedic products in China
  • Argenica receives ethics approval to commence Phase 2 trial
  • Argenica also received $419k grant funding from WA government

 

Osteopore to enter Chinese market

Bone specialist Osteopore (ASX:OSX) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China-based medical device innovation accelerator InnoVentures to commercialise Osteopore’s orthopaedic products in China.

Under the deal, Osteopore will provide InnoVentures with an exclusive royalty-free licence for specific intellectual property (IP), in return for a 30% equity in the joint venture (JV) between the two companies.

InnoVentures has identified a prospective investor, a leading medical device and pharmaceuticals company in China who has expressed interest in participating in the JV. InnoVentures will also contribute efforts towards raising capital, recruiting, and retaining a support organisation to support the JV.

One of InnoVentures’ key investors is Singapore-based Vertex Ventures HC, which is the venture capital offshoot of global investment company Temasek Holdings, a giant owned by the Government of Singapore.

 

Argenica to commence Phase 2 trial

Brain tissue specialist Argenica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN) has received ethics approval allowing the company to undertake its pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial of ARG-007 in acute ischaemic stroke patients (AIS).

Trial sites will now be established in up to 10 hospitals across Australia over the coming months, with nine sites expected to be established by Q4 this year.

Argenica will dose up to 92 patients in this Phase 2 trial. They will be randomly assigned to receive either ARG-007 or a saline placebo (ratio 1:1 respectively), administered as a single intravenous (IV) dose.

The primary end point of the trial is to evaluate the safety of a single dose of ARG-007 in participants with AIS.

The secondary objective is to characterise the effect of ARG-007 on reducing infarct volume (volume of brain cell death) in participants with AIS.

Patient recruitment and dosing is expected to commence in Q1 of 2024.

“Should the trial meet some or all of its endpoints, Argenica and ARG-007 are likely to garner significant commercial interest from large pharmaceutical companies,” said Argenica CEO, Dr Liz Dallimore.

 

A grant from the WA government

Separately, Argenica has just been awarded $419,000 in grant funding under the Western Australian government’s Innovation Seed Fund Program.

The funding will be used to develop a non-intravenous administration route for ARG007, aiming to better serve chronic conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease.

Given ARG-007’s demonstrated pre-clinical efficacy against neurological conditions, the company sees value in having multiple ways ARG-007 can be administered.

“Should Argenica be successful in developing this new administration route of ARG007, it will allow the company to commercialise a new drug asset for chronic neurological conditions,” Dallimore said.

 

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At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Argenica Therapeutics is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

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