Check Up: Rhythm Biosciences shares just keep on soaring

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Rhythm Biosciences leads an otherwise mildly positive two weeks for the small-cap health care sector, with 64 companies gaining ground and 48 companies losing it.

Another 19 among the 131 small cap health care companies in our list were flat.

Here’s our fortnightly wrap of all the news driving ASX health stocks.

First, the tables:

The biggest gainer has been Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY), whose shares were trading at $1.27 yesterday afternoon – up 56.8 per cent from December 23 and more than 11-fold from the start of 2020.

Indeed, RHY shares were trading as low as 9c in late January 2020 and sank to 4c during the market crash in March – so anyone who picked them up then held onto them until now is looking at 30-fold gains.

This is the second time in six weeks Rhythm has taken the top spot – when we mentioned them last, RHY shares were trading at just 51c.

In response to an ASX price query on Tuesday, Rhythm said its only explanation for the recent price spike is that positive disclosures by the company from November to December has led to positive market/analyst commentary, including a column by Tim Boreham in Stockhead naming Rhythm as one of 21 stocks poised to run in 2021.

(Since that column was published on New Year’s Eve, RHY shares are up 45 per cent, going from 88c to $1.28, so we guess he was right…)

For those not familiar with the company, Rhythm is closing in on commercialising a rapid blood test for bowel cancer, to replace the current stool tests.

CardieX(ASX:CDX) was the second-biggest gainer with a 55.9 per cent jump. The company makes devices for measuring blood pressure and hypertension. It hasn’t reported any news in the period but issued a positive update on sales and activities on December 15, with new devices on track to launch in 2021.

Nyrada (ASX:NYR) takes the third spot with a 40 per cent price gain after reporting that its PCSK9 inhibitor drug candidate NYX-PCSK9i had demonstrated high effectiveness in lowering cholesterol in specialised mice bred to have a similar cholesterol metabolism as humans.

The two PCSK9 inhibitors on the market, used by people for whom statins aren’t effective enough, require injections; Nyrada’s treatment is taken as a pill.

On the flip side, Avecho Biotech (ASX:AVE) has been the biggest loser in the past fortnight, falling 29 per cent to 2.9c, although AVE shares are still up sevenfold since the start of 2020.

Avecho was our top performer in our last Check Up column, after joining an “observational study” of its medical cannabis products sent AVE shares soaring 71 per cent to 4.1c.

Not to say we told you so, but we did note at the time that that was a “pretty dramatic share price rise for what amounts to mailing out surveys to cannabis patients”.

Rhythm Biosciences, Cardiex, Nyrada and Avecho shares

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