• Stockhead joins with IR Department and Morgans for HealthInvest 2024 in Sydney in September
  • Event to highlight some of ASX’s leading up-and-coming health and life sciences companies
  • Clarity Pharmaceuticals, Percheron Therapeutics, Imricor, ImpediMed and Race Oncology to present

 

Special Report: As investor interest in the healthcare sector resurges, driven by rapid growth and notable successes, Stockhead is teaming up with investor relations firm IR Department and broker Morgans to host HealthInvest 2024 in Sydney next month.

The event is set to highlight some of ASX’s leading and up-and-coming health and life sciences companies.

HealthInvest will attract both professional and retail investors, offering a platform to hear directly from key industry players, followed by networking opportunities with, of course, drinks and canapés.

Among companies presenting are:

 

Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CU6)

Radiopharmaceutical has emerged as one of the hottest spaces in biotech right now and front and centre on the ASX is CU6.

Having risen almost 200% YTD, CU6 now has a market cap of ~$1.96bn.

The radiopharmaceutical-focused biotech has developed a unique proprietary program for prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy involving the use of copper isotopes.

Executive chairman Dr Alan Taylor is set to present at HealthInvest, having been with CU6 since 2013 and instrumental in the growth of the company.

Taylor has 15 years of investment banking experience, focused predominantly on the life sciences sector. He also has an undergraduate degree in applied science and completed his PhD in Medicine at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.

“Radiopharmaceutical, in the global sense, is a hot market right now,” Taylor told Stockhead earlier this year.

“What we have and no one else has, is copper theranostics – a combination of copper diagnostics and copper therapy,” explained Taylor.

“So, we’re bringing to the market this perfect pairing of copper isotopes, Copper-64 and Copper-67.”

 

Percheron Therapeutics (ASX:PER)

Formerly called Antisense Therapeutics, PER is focused on development and commercialisation of novel therapies for rare diseases.

The company’s lead program is ATL1102, an antisense oligonucleotide targeting the CD49d receptor.

In May, PER announced successful completion of recruitment to its ongoing international Phase 2b study of ATL1102 in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Mid last year PER kicked off recruitment to the international phase 2b randomised controlled trial in the treatment of non-ambulant (unable to walk unassisted) boys with DMD.

The study is now fully enrolled, with 48 boys randomised to the study across 16 hospitals in five countries.

The primary endpoint of the study is the change in PUL2.0 score at six months with data expected in H2 CY24.

Managing director and CEO Dr James Garner is set to present at the event. He is an experienced life sciences executive, whose career has focused on developing and commercialising novel therapeutics for diseases with high unmet medical need.

 

Imricor Medical Systems (ASX:IMR)

IMR is focused on development and manufacture of MRI compatible devices for performing a cardiac ablation, where a catheter is guided into the heart with the purpose of burning/ablating the tissue responsible for causing an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).

Cardiac ablations are currently undertaken with X-Ray guidance to identify the location in the heart requiring treatment but IMR is succeeding in the long desire of clinicians to do the procedure under the superior imaging capabilities of MRI.

As an imaging tool X-Ray has limitations as it does not show the soft tissue of the heart and exposes the patients and physicians to repeated radiation.

IMR says its cardiac ablation devices are the only ones in the world that have been proven to be safe and effective inside the magnetic field generated by an MRI.

The company is currently undertaking its Vision-MR Ablation of Atrial Flutter (VISABL-AFL) pivotal clinical trial supporting US FDA approval of its products, which it hopes to achieve in 2025.

In Europe, where the company has already received regulatory approval for atrial flutter, it’s about to start the VISABL-VT clinical trial for its second indication, ventricular tachycardia (VT).

Presenting at the conference will be Vice President of Corporate Strategy Nick Corkill, who joined IMR in 2024.

Before joining IMR Corkill spent 15 years in asset management initially as an equity analyst at Perpetual Investments followed by portfolio manager at BlackRock and more recently Lennox Capital Future Leaders Fund.

 

ImpediMed (ASX:IPD)

The medtech’s SOZO digital health platform incorporates its trademarked L-Dex technology and bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) to non-invasively, accurately, and quickly measure and monitor fluid status.

SOZO is FDA-cleared, CE-marked, and ARTG-listed for multiple indications, including lymphoedema, heart failure, and protein calorie malnutrition and is sold in select markets globally.

The SOZO device is the only US FDA-cleared and clinically validated BIS solution for the early assessment and prevention of lymphoedema.

BIS for prevention of breast cancer-related lymphoedema is now also included in the globally referenced National Comprehensive Care Network guidelines and the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer guidelines.

Presenting at HealthInvest will be CEO and managing director Dr Parmjot Bains, who was appointed in January 2024.

Bains has diverse experience as a healthcare executive including in strategy, sales and marketing, commercial execution, and change management across the US Asia, Middle East, and Australia. Most recently she was Pfizer’s Gulf Cluster Country Manager.

READ: ImpediMed’s new leadership team looks to grow the company

 

Race Oncology (ASX:RAC)

RAC is at the heart of cancer care and resurrecting the anticancer drug bisantrene via reformulation and repurposing.

Bisantrene was originally developed in the 1970s and ’80s by a small French pharmaceutical company called Lederle Laboratories as a lower cardiotoxic alternative to the anthracycline class of chemotherapeutics.

The original Lederle formulation of bisantrene is highly insoluble in blood, making the use of bisantrene complex and difficult.

However, after identifying the potential of bisantrene, RAC scientists were able to solve the solubility issue through reformulation.

RAC is now advancing a reformulated bisantrene (RC220) to address high unmet needs across multiple oncology indications, with a clinical focus on anthracycline combinations, where it hopes to deliver cardioprotection and enhanced anti-cancer activity in solid tumours.

Race is also exploring RC220 bisantrene as a low-intensity treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia.

Addressing HealthInvest will be Race Oncology executive director Dr Peter Smith, who has more than 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, with a strong focus on therapeutics, especially oncology.

HealthInvest will be held on Wednesday, September 18 from 4–7 pm AEST at  Kittyhawk, The Officers’ Mess, Level 1, 16 Phillip Lane, Sydney (enter via lift) with tickets free of charge and available on the HealthInvest 2024 website. Hosting the event will be Jane Lowe, Managing Director of IR Department and Scott Power, Research Analyst at Morgans Financial.

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Imricor and Race Oncology are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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