ASX Health Stocks: Partnership deals send Avecho shares flying this morning

Avecho expands agreement with the Lamber Institute
AnteoTech makes traction in the battery space
Argenica gets funding to progress Alzheimer’s Disease research

A couple of partnership deals saw two biotechs making double digit gains this morning.

Avecho Biotech (ASX:AVE) surged by 11% on an expanded collaboration deal with the Lambert Initiative, a leading Australian academic centre for the discovery of cannabinoid (CBD) therapeutics.

Under the new deal, Avecho will provide its CBD soft-gel capsule to the Lambert Initiative for use in two further clinical trials.

These new trials will examine potential new indications that may be treatable using lower doses of CBD.

Avecho has previously collaborated with Lambert on a successful Phase 2 clinical trial on the use of a topical CBD TPM gel for the treatment of osteoarthritis of the fingers and hands.

Results from this study were presented by Lambert researchers at the International Cannabinoid Research Society Symposium on the Cannabinoids in June last year.

A larger topical CBD trial is currently being planned with Lambert in 2023, as is a further study that will examine a topical cannabigerol (CBG) TPM product.

“Lambert Initiative’s decision to use Avecho’s CBD product in their own studies is testament to the clinical relevance of the work we’ve conducted over the last three years on product development in the cannabinoid space,” said Avecho CEO, Paul Gavin.

AnteoTech gets binding offer

Diagnotics firm AnteoTech (ASX:ADO) surged 13% after announcing a MoU agreement with Trinseo Europe, a global specialty materials solutions provider and anode binder technology supplier to the battery sector.

AnteoTech and Trinseo will work towards creating a global supply chain for a product which incorporates AnteoTech’s binder additive AnteoX with Trinseo’s VOLTABOND latex binder.

The aim is to create an enhanced VOLTABOND range, which is seen as the current leading latex binder for silicon-containing anodes.

Both companies believe the new product will deliver performance improvements in battery anodes as it will have chemistries that contain silicon in the range of 0% to 35%.

“This partnership provides for a clear path to market upon both parties’ achievement of specific milestones, and is the next stage in the development and commercialisation of AnteoX,” said AnteoTech CEO, David Radford.

Apart from the battery market, AnteoTech is also pursuing trials in medical diagnostic tests.

The company has recently decided to halt its EuGeni SARS-CoV-2 Ag RDT1 European clinical trial in order to divert its resources toward the COVID-19 Flu A/Flu B Multiplex tests.

Argenica gets funding to progress Alzheimer’s study

Meanwhile Argenica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN) announced a $350k of non-dilutive cash funding from philanthropic donors to progress its pre-clinical studies into the efficacy of ARG-007 in Alzheimer’s Disease.

The funds, which came from the Perron Institute, follow the results of Argenica’s positive in vitro Amyloid Beta (Abeta) study whereby a 25 μM concentration of ARG-007 was shown to significantly reduce Abeta aggregation by half.

The funding will cover the cost of further in vivo preclinical studies which will assess the efficacy of ARG-007 in the 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.

The $350k amount also includes generous funding of $250k from the McCusker Charitable Foundation, who has a long history of supporting medical research in WA, in particular in Alzheimer’s disease research.