The CEOs of two ASX biotechs have clocked off – with more comings and goings afoot. Pic via Getty
Health & Biotech
The long-standing CEOs of two early commercial stage biotechs are moving on – one of them effective from today.
Medical imaging house Mach7 Technologies (ASX:M7T) says its US-based CEO Mike Lampron will step down from June 30, having been in the role since 2019.
He will be replaced by the dynamic Teri Thomas, who led a “remarkable corporate turnaround” at the NZ-based, ASX-listed breast imaging play Volpara Health Technologies.
Volpara last year was subsumed by South Korea’s Lunit Inc and delisted.
At diagnostics house Universal Biosensors (ASX:UBI) , John Sharman steps down today for personal reasons.
Formerly the CEO of Medical Developments, Sharman ran Universal Biosensors for five years.
He is replaced by the chief finance officer, Peter Mullin.
Mullin previously was the CEO of unlisted mattress maker The Comfort Group and headed online broker Etrade.
He also had senior roles at Orica, Yates and P&O.
Over a messy corporate history, Universal Biosensors started out with blood glucose detectors.
It has since expanded into blood coagulation, water and wine testing and pet diabetes monitoring.
Sharman recently told us the company’s prospects had never been brighter, but admitted the share price was “down the toilet”.
Doncha hate corporate jargon?
The $870 million market cap Mach 7 competes with the $21 billion market cap Pro Medicus, albeit peripherally.
Mach7’s December half revenue rose 33% to $17.7 million, generating a $1.4 million profit.
But the company’s share price has halved over the last 12 months.
Biotech leadership is in a state of flux elsewhere.
At drug developer Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CUV), CEO Philippe Wolgen has taken medical leave, having previously said he would step down in June next year by pending an orderly transition.
At wounds house Polynovo, Swami Raote last month departed amid reports of bullying and other inappropriate conduct on the part of chairman David Williams.
The Polynovo board has engaged executive search firm Spencer Stuart “to assist with skills
assessment and succession planning across the entire board (which includes the chair).”
Neurizon Therapeutics (ASX:NUZ) says a study using a three-dimensional (3D) human brain model shows that its neurological drug candidate “exhibits strong safety characteristics”.
The independent study was done in conjunction with the unlisted, Melbourne-based Tessara Therapeutics, which has pioneered cell-based 3D modelling of the human brain with its Real Brain tool.
The results also show Neurizon’s drug candidates NUZ-001 and NUZ-001 Sulfone promote healthy and viable brain tissues, promote neuroplasticity by boosting neuronal branching and have neuroprotective properties against “neurotoxic insult”.
Neurizon’s key focus is on developing NUZ-001 – a repurposed form of the animal drug monepantel – for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, a form of motor neurone disease).
But CEO Dr Michael Thurn says the results highlight the broader potential use of NUZ-001 in other neurodegenerative diseases.
Tessara will present the results at a key global jamboree on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases in Vienna this week.
Ahead of World Autism Day tomorrow, Blinklab (ASX:BB1) has hit the halfway mark of recruitment for its US pivotal trial.
This one tests Blinklab’s eponymous smartphone-based AI-powered autism diagnosis tool.
With 54 kids enrolled so far, recruitment has been faster than expected.
Blinklab expects to complete enrolment of 100 participants by the September quarter.
“Following this initial phase, the clinical trial will proceed to the main study, scheduled to enrol an additional 750 to 900 children,” the company says.
Blinklab hopes to be able to submit for US Food & Drug Administration approval in the March quarter of next year.
It’s cold comfort for Opthea (ASX:OPT) holders, but at least they now know there is next to no hope of any value being salvaged from the company’s dual phase III trial program, for the common eye disease wet aged related macular degeneration.
Having dropped the melancholy news that the first trial, Coast, had failed, the company yesterday said the second effort, Shore, had also flopped by a similar degree.
In both cases, different standard of care drugs worked better than Opthea’s candidate, sozinibercept.
This sadly, is not an April fool’s joke.
Following the results of Coast, the Shore results to date were unblinded for a look-see and it was evident that continuing it would be futile.
There’s little prospect of the company parsing the data in another way, in the hope its therapy works on an exotic subset of patients.
The results also mean there’s one less rabbit hole for other drug developers to go down.
Under a development funding agreement (DFA), Opthea could owe up to $US680 million to a group of investors who advanced US$170 million.
Joyfully the decision to cease the trial was mutual, which means there’s one less cause for a payment to the DFA investors.
Payments can be triggered by a range of events, including inability of Opthea to fund development costs, failure by Opthea to use “commercially reasonable efforts” to develop sozinibercept, Opthea’s insolvency, or a “disagreement” between the company and the investors.
We suspect one of these – or other costs – will take care of Opthea US$100 million ($125 million) cash balance (about 10 cents per share).
Given Opthea can’t substantiate its financial position, the shares are indefinitely suspended and haven’t traded since the March 24 bombshell.
Opthea shares last traded at 60 cents March 14, valuing the company at $738 million.
Hopefully trading will resume to allow burnt holders to exit and for the shares to find their right value (which could be a big fat donut).
That way, they can realise a handy tax loss before June 30 and not get caught up in a lengthy potential liquidation process.
At Stockhead, we tell it as it is. While Neurizon is a Stockhead advertiser, the company did not sponsor this article
Health & Biotech
Health & Biotech
Health & Biotech
