Health Check: Whether stoic or simply too poor, Australians spurn GP visits

• Doctor visits dipped in April, reversing a recovery trend
• Mayne Pharma receives ‘purported’ termination letter from suitor  
• … but peace erupts at Cann Group with settlement of legal spat

We’re either a healthy lot, rely on Dr Google or simply can’t afford to visit a GP anymore.

Take your pick as to why our doctor visitations are running below the historic trend.

Medicare data for April shows a resumption of a decline in doctors’ visits, thus reversing a recent recovery.

Bell Potter says the 12-month rolling rate slipped back to 0.8% from 2.3% in March and now is below the long-term median 1.4% growth.

In April last year, the rolling rate had dipped to -3%.

The slippage was most apparent in Queensland, which shows what stoic souls they are up north. Or maybe they couldn’t get to their clinics because they were hemmed in by floods.

The rate of doctors’ visits has a direct impact on diagnostic imaging volumes and thus is relevant for stocks such as Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL), Integral Diagnostics (ASX:IDX), Healius (ASX:HLS) and Australian Clinical Labs (ASX:ACL) .

(Healius sold its 69 medical centres to private equity firm BGH Capital for $500 million in November 2020.)

Macquarie Equities says both pathology and imaging volumes grew 4% in April, year on year.

But the DI providers look to be protected by more expensive procedures – “higher fee modalities”, as the firm puts it – with benefits paid rising 8% in April for pathology and 7% for imaging.

On the bright side, face-to-face GP visits have held up relative to telehealth and the former is likely to result in diagnostic referrals. So it’s a bit of a mixed picture.

The re-elected Albo’s pledge to extend bulk billing might also ramp up volumes.

More pain at Mayne as suitor bails 

After a morning of drama, Mayne Pharma (ASX:MYX) this afternoon said it had received a notice from its US suitor Cosette Pharmaceuticals, “purporting to terminate” its $600 million cash offer.

The not-so-shock withdrawal comes after Cossette asserted that a ‘material adverse change’ had occurred, thus freeing Cossette from its obligations under the scheme implementation deed (SID).

Mayne intends to reject the termination notice as invalid “and reiterates its position that no [material adverse change] has been triggered”.

Given that, “there is no lawful basis for Cosette to terminate the SID”.

The material event pertains to the FDA accusing Mayne of downplaying the risks of its oral birth control pill, Nextstellis.

Mayne now says the agency is satisfied the company has addressed the identified issues.

Mayne is also in a tat-for-tat legal dispute with the Nasdaq-listed Therapeutics MD, relating to Mayne’s purchase of assets from the latter in 2022.

There’s something in the Cosette notice about breach of warranty as well, but our eyes were more glazed over than a Christmas ham by that stage.

Cosette says that even if the termination is deemed invalid, it will still walk away “if the circumstances giving rise to the alleged breach continue to exist for five dusiness days from today.”

So it’s thinking ahead like a Grand Master, although even they can mistime their moves.

Just ask former world number-one Magnus Carlsen, who threw a tantie after being beaten by a 19 year old this week.

Barring an elaborate checkmate, the messy Mayne affair will end up in court.

Your columnist is no expert in takeover law, but ultimately a reluctant suitor can’t be forced to consummate a marriage.

Investors concur: the shares yesterday shed 14% to $4.40, lower than the prevailing $5.41 before Cossete announced the takeover offer on February 21.

Cann Group pots legal settlement

Medical cannabis play Cann Group (ASX:CAN) has settled a legal dispute with the NZ-listed Rua Biosciences, which had sued a Cann subsidiary over a manufacturing and supply agreement.

As is the norm, the agreement is confidential but doesn’t involve any money changing hands.

Instead, the parties have agreed that Cann will supply “certain medicinal cannabis products” to Rua under “agreed market standard commercial terms.”

As far as legal spats go, it sounds like a reasonable result.

Across the Tasman, Rua shares were up more than 7% this morning

Cann shares were about 3% off the pace, having lost 65% of their value year to date.

The first Australian company to receive an Australian cannabis research and cultivation licence, Cann produces from its modern Mildura facility.

But in the current oversupplied market, it’s not easy being green.

Radiopharm tackles HER-2 cancers

Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX:RAD) has dosed the first patient in its phase I trial to treat advanced HER2-positive solid tumours.

A human epidermal growth factor receptor, HER2 is expressed in a variety of tumours including some breast cancers.

Dubbed Heat, the study road tests Radiopharm’s lutetium isotope-based therapy.

Taking place at multiple local centres, the study has the usual safety and tolerability remits. It also aims for the optimal dosage for a phase II trial, as well as early efficacy signals.

“Despite progressive improvements in the management of metastatic HER2-positive disease, the majority of patients experience disease progression on current standard of care and require further therapeutic options,” Radiopharm CEO Riccardo Canevari says.

On Monday, the company said preclinical data from another program showed “favorable biodistribution and … maintained tumor uptake.”

This one refers to its lutetium-based monoclonal antibody RV01, which targets solid tumours expressing the B7H3 protein.

This one is via a joint venture with Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center to develop at least four radiopharmaceutical products.

The next step is FDA assent to run a first-in-human trial, which the company hopes to kick off in 2026.