ASX Health Stocks: USCOM jumps 12pc on China patent, while Next Science gets TGA nod

The ASX 200 Health Index (XHJ) is down by 1.15% at the time of writing, compared to the broader index which is lower by 0.15%.

USCOM (ASX:UCM) jumped 12.5% in morning trading after announcing the granting of two Chinese patents for its cardiac output monitoring technology.

The patent provides commercial protection in the Chinese market for a period of 10 years, adding to UCM’s already active patents for the device in Europe, the USA and Australia.

China is currently actively encouraging local and foreign companies to develop IP applications, resulting in the number of Chinese patents increasingly dramatically.

In 2020 alone, 530,000 invention patents were authorised in China, while its total valid number of invention patents reached 2.213m.

Uscom China meanwhile, has been active in developing a China IP strategy, and now has 34 trademarks and copyrights active in the country.

“These are our first issued Chinese patents, and it’s appropriate that they are for our flagship USCOM 1A product,” commented Uscom executive chairman,” Professor Rob Phillips.

“Importantly these patents have real value by providing commercial protection for our highest selling device in our largest world market for another 10 years.”

“As a world-leading medical technology company, innovation is a part of Uscom’s business and we currently have more than 50 active IP cases worldwide,” he added.

USCOM share price today:

Other ASX health stocks with notable announcements

Next Science (ASX:NXS) +1.2%

The company announced that its proprietary XPERIENCE Surgical Solution has been cleared by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

XPerience is NXS’ no rinse, antimicrobial solution designed to help prevent surgical site infections by rinsing away debris and microorganisms.

The device is already sold in the US market where it received a 510(k) clearance from the US FDA in April this year.

“We have received strong inbound interest from organisations interested in partnering with Next Science, and are in the process of evaluating the commercialisation options for bringing XPERIENCE to the Australian market,” said NXS CEO, Judith Mitchell.

Meanwhile, there were a couple of merger news in the Health sector today.

Australian Pharma Industries (ASX:API) +3.5% and Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) -1%

API has entered into a scheme implementation with Wesfarmers, paving the way for a takeover.

Wesfarmers currently owns a 19.3 per cent of API, and has offered to buy the rest of API for $1.55.

The decision by API to let Wesfarmers conduct due diligence comes after Sigma Healthcare withdrew its $1.57 for API last week.

Paragon Care (ASX:PGC) +1.7% and Quantum Health (ASX:QTM) unchanged

Paragon Care and Quantum have also entered into a scheme implementation deed to combine the two companies through an all scrip transaction.

Paragon Care and Quantum are highly complementary businesses, and the merged entity is expected to create a leading medical equipment and devices supplier across Asia Pacific.

Under the deal, Quantum shareholders will receive 0.243 Paragon Care shares for each Quantum share.