Health Check: Telix shares rocket after bullish quarterly sales update

• Telix’s quarterly sales reflect first revenue from the company’s recent purchase of a US nuclear medicine manufacturer
• Island Pharma hopes to lift the kimono on its dengue fever trial next month
• Race Oncology kicks off its cancer-busting, cardioprotective trial

Having gleaned all its revenue to date from its US-approved prostate cancer imaging agent Illucix, Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) is starting to reap the benefit of its acquisition of a US nuclear medicine manufacturer.

In September last year Telix paid US$230 million for RLS Radiopharmacies, which has 31 nuclear pharmacies dotted across Trumpland.

Telix has reported March quarter revenue of US$186 million, 62% higher year on year and 31% up on the December quarter.

This includes a robust US$33 million from RLS, which Telix formally acquired on January 27 this year.

“This strategic acquisition has significantly expanded our manufacturing footprint in the US, which we believe is an increasingly important consideration amid changing global trade dynamics,” says Telix chief Dr Chris Behrenbruch.

Ah, tariffs! We get it.

Illucix sales continue at a decent clip: US$151 million, up 35% year on year.

“Illuccix has continued its momentum, gaining market share and maintaining price stability in a competitive landscape,” Behrenbruch says.

Telix has affirmed guidance of full-year (calendar 2025) revenue of US$770-800 million, including eleven months of RLS sales.

The guidance is subject to change, given the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 21 approved Telix’s second diagnostic, Gozellix (also for prostate cancer).

Telix hopes to launch Gozellix in the US in the current quarter, having appointed RLS and Cardinal Health as distribution partners.

Bursting development pipeline

Meanwhile, Telix expects FDA approval for its brain imaging candidate Pixclara by the end of this week – April 26.

As per the FDA’s timetable, the agency should approval Telix’s kidney cancer imaging candidate Zircaix by August 27.

Investors should expect an initial safety and dosing readout on phase III trial results for Telix’s prostate cancer therapy (as opposed to diagnostic) in the current half.

Telix also hopes to submit an FDA investigational new drug application for its kidney cancer therapeutics, in view of a late-stage pivotal trial.

Adding to Telix’s packed agenda, the company has earlier stage programs for a brain cancer therapy (phase II) and advanced, metastatic soft tissue sarcoma (phase I).

Telix shares this morning rocketed as much as 15%, but they are still well shy of their February 25 zenith of just over $31.

Investors may question just how much of the excitement is factored into Telix’s $9.7 billion market capitalisation.

Island promises trial results next month

Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX:ILA) investors won’t have to wait too much longer for results from the second stanza of the company’s phase 2a/b dengue fever trial.

The 2a phase assessed the preventative qualities of Island’s drug candidate ISLA-101 in four undiseased subjects, one of whom was administered a placebo.

The drug was deemed safe, with “evidence of anti-dengue activity”.

The 2b stage had enrolled ten patients who are administered a weakened form of the virus. Eight of them are administered ISLA-101, with two receiving a placebo.

Pharmacokinetic tests showed the drug reached the bloodstream in desired quantities.

Next month’s results will outline the efficacy.

Carried by mosquitos, dengue fever has become a major health problem as it spreads at a rate that makes cane toads look slothful.

Race to start cancer trial

Race Oncology (ASX:RAC) expects to treat the first patient in its local phase 1 trial that tests its drug candidate RC-220 alongside a common chemotherapy agent.

RC-220 is a reformulated version of bisantrene, which was developed as a leukemia drug in France in the 1980s, but was never commercialised for reasons lost in the midst of time.

RC-220 shows promise not just for its cancer-busting properties, but its ability to protect the heart from the dire effects of chemotherapy.

The trial custodians are treating initial patients at the Southside Cancer Care Centre at Sydney’s Miranda. Race has also gained ethics approval to open sites at the Gosford and Wyong hospitals.

Race’s March quarterly report discloses cash of $17.12 million, with 70% of the $1.67 million quarterly burn devoted to R&D.

“This prudent cash management enables Race to fund all announced clinical and preclinical programs through calendar 2026,” the company says.

Race costs the circa 53-patient RC-220 trial at $8.58 million.

An FDA decision to dye for

The latest decision by US health czar Robert F. Kennedy Junior and FDA commissioner Marty Makary could be one of their least controversial.

The FDA has banned petroleum-based synthetic dyes from food, as used sweets, soft drinks and other stuff that isn’t good for you.

Depending on their colour, dyes are thought to be carcinogenic or cause behavioural problems in some children.

One of President Biden’s last acts in power was to ban an especially controversial red dye from food and ingested drugs, after the additive was found to cause cancer in rats.

Technically, the dye no longer is ‘generally recognised as safe’.

At Stockhead, we tell it as it is. While Race Oncology and Island Pharmaceuticals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.