Health Check: It’s shake-up time at the top amid a string of executive changes

• Integral Diagnostics and Medadvisor have new CEOs after the latest round of changes at the top
• Mayne’s refrain: let the Takeovers Panel decide
• It’s a case of the MEGnificent Five as Compumedics sells another brain-scanning device in China

As the new year approaches, with the promise of either corporate renewal or the heightened quest for greatness, changes are happening at the top.

Coming on to 12 months after its merger with Capitol Health, Integral Diagnostics (ASX:IDX) has anointed Jason Martinez as its next CEO.

This follows the pending departure of Dr Ian Kadish, who retires after nine years in the role.

Martinez has 20 years’ experience in the diagnostic imaging, health and medical sectors. Most recently, he was an executive general manager at I-MED Radiology.

The Integral-Capitol merger created the country’s second biggest radiology chain, with 145 outlets.

While performance has been ok, the sector has been challenged. Integral shares have fallen about 16% since the December 20 merger.

MedAdvisor (ASX:MDR) also has a new CEO as the company navigates the US headwinds caused by plunging vaccination rates.

The new man is John Ciccio, who served at Medadvisor’s US business Adheris Health for 12 years. He led it between 2019 and 2022.

Current Medadvisor CEO Rick Ratliff remains for the transition period.

Medadvisor conducts pharmacy-based drug education campaigns for US Big Pharma.

A slowdown in new vaccine releases and a general tightening of pharma marketing budgets has hit the company hard.

In early July Medadvisor sold its Australian business for $35 million. This consisted of $27 million plus an $8 million earn-out.

The local arm worked on a different business model and the company sees a brighter future in the US.

Having said that, Medadvisor shares have lost 75 per cent of their value since. So, Ciccio has some work to do.

Boardroom blitz

Meanwhile, Patrys (ASX:PAB) today said non-executive director Dr James Campbell would depart the board. He had served since 2014.

Campbell also was Patrys CEO between April 13 and June 30 this year, before the role was abolished.

Campbell’s board seat will be filled by the well-known Brian Leedman, who founded the digital respiratory monitoring outfit Resapp.

In a rare Big Pharma take-out of a local biotech, Pfizer in 2022 acquired Resapp for $180 million.

Leedman also has been on the board of ASX biotechs including NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals (ASX:NSB), Neurotech (ASX:NTI), Alcidion (ASX:ALC) and OncoSil Medical (ASX:OSL).

Patrys is developing cell-penetrating antibodies for a range of indications.

Following a board challenge, Invex Therapeutics (ASX:IXC) has appointed Simon Owen and Professor Warren Harding as directors.

This follow’s Friday’s announcement that David McAuliffe and Thomas Duthy would depart.

At the behest of a shareholder, Invex scheduled an extraordinary general meeting for today. This was for investors to vote on whether to remove the duo.

But the requisitioning shareholder withdrew the notice and the EGM was cancelled.

Invex is repurposing an already approved drug, Exenatide.

This is to treat neurological conditions such as idiopathic intracranial hypertension, acute stroke and traumatic brain injury.

‘CompuMEGics’ in new Chinese sales order

Brain- and sleep-monitoring house Compumedics (ASX:CMP) has scored a fifth order for its state-of-the art MEG system, worth $4.9 million.

MEG stands for magnetoencephalography, a technique for mapping brain activity by recording the brain’s magnetic fields using sensitive detectors.

While Compumedics didn’t invent MEGs, its units deploy the company’s proprietary Orion Lifespan tech.

This confers benefits such as the ability to scan two people at once and 100% recycling of of helium (the key consumable).

Beijing Normal University is the buyer.

The order takes contract revenue to $25 million, with three systems due to ship in the current financial year.

The latest order will be dispatched in 2026-27.

The company said Beijing Normal University’s selection followed a competitive technical review, “reinforcing Compumedics’ differentiation against global peers”.

While Compumedics’ MEGs efforts have been China-focused to date, the company hopes to sell the machines in the US.

There, the company is rolling out its home-sleep-testing device, Somfit.

Memphasys is half pregnant after raising

The capital raising climate for biotechs might be brighter, but that doesn’t mean that every offer is taken up with alacrity.

In the case of Memphasys (ASX:MEM), the company sought to raise $1.2 million to commercialise its sperm separation tool, Felix.

Felix sorts the best sperm for IVF purposes.

The rights offer attracted takers for $337,000 and then another $204,000 in a shortfall round.

The shortfall stanza remains open for up to another three months.

The company offered the shares at 0.3 cents on a one-for-six basis, with attached options on a one-for four basis. These are exercisable at 1.2 cents within the next 12 months.

Last week Inoviq (ASX:IIQ) raised only $700,000 of the targeted $2 million in a share purchase plan (SPP).

Having said that, the ovarian cancer diagnostics and cancer therapy developer last month raised $9.5 million in a placement.

So, the SPP was always only going to be the icing on the cake.

Mayne pleads for panel relief

Perhaps not surprisingly, Mayne Pharma’s (ASX:MYX) convoluted takeover situation has ended up in the Takeovers Panel’s hands.

Mayne has asked the takeovers arbiter to order reluctant bidder Cosette to “agree to any conditions reasonably required by the [federal treasurer Jim Chalmers] in connection with the Salisbury site”.

A quick recap here: the New Jersey based Cosette no longer wants to continue with its scheme of arrangement, claiming Mayne misled the bidder on its financial position.

Mayne won in the NSW Supreme Court, but then Chalmers indicated the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) would block the takeover anyway.

That’s because Cosette has threatened to close Mayne’s flagship site at Salisbury, Adelaide.

Chalmers says this would be contrary to the national interest.

In its entreaty to the panel, Mayne alleges Cosette is “leveraging knowledge of the likely discomfort FIRB has with the notion of job losses and loss of manufacturing capability” in Australia.

This would “seek to cause the FIRB approval condition to fail, having exhausted other avenues to avoid completing the transaction.”