Pharmas and biotechs are on the march. Here’s an update.
Australia’s largest pharmaceutical company CSL has announced a net profit after tax of $2.64 billion for the past financial year, up 25% on a constant currency basis.
The reason for that, according to CEO Paul McKenzie is a return to pre-covid levels by the company’s Behring business. And Mr McKenzie told the AFR earnings could increase by up to 13% in the next 12 months as well.
Behring is one of three divisions in CSL, with Behring at the core, Seqirus a major provider of vaccines and Vifor, which manufactures iron deficiency products. Vifor was bought by CSL in 2022 for almost $18 billion.
While Behring is back to booming business, both Seqirus and Vifor are struggling.
“Behring is back, that’s for sure,” Mr McKenzie told the AFR.
“We will be back into the high single-digit growth matching or beating the market. We just need to work through some headwinds we are seeing in flu with immunisation rates, as well as in Vifor with the entry of competition in the iron space in Europe.
“Double-digit earnings growth [is] what we promised, and we see a line of sight through 2030 and that allows us to invest in innovation.”
CSL posted an 11% increase in underlying net profit, accounting for currency fluctuations, to $US2.91bn ($4.4bn) for the 12 months to 30 June.
On a constant currency basis, net profit rose 15% to $US3.01 billion.
Noxopharm’s excellent day
Aussie biotech Noxopharm saw its shares rise 40% in morning trading today on the back of encouraging new data about its CRO-67 preclinical drug for pancreatic cancer.
CRO-67 acts as a novel dual-cell therapy, destroying both tumour and barrier cells.
The research is part of an ongoing collaboration with the pancreatic cancer team at UNSW Sydney, and follows work conducted in 2023 and 2022 which showed that CRO-67 significantly reduced tumour volume in vivo, slowed down the rate at which tumours grew, and was also effective in an advanced human patient pancreatic tumour explant model.
Professor Phoebe Phillips, the lead investigator at UNSW said:
“These results are encouraging, especially as we have generated a substantial amount of data from a broad range of studies involving stringent scientific models and innovative research techniques.
“Further studies are now warranted to identify next steps and build on what we have achieved so far.”
The new results arise from a highly sophisticated study that tested CRO-67 in a complex model, in which human pancreatic cancer cells as well as barrier cells were transplanted into the pancreas of mice.
“This data will be used to inform the next steps of our project, and will also be important in future regulatory contexts,” said Noxopharm CEO Dr Gisela Mautner.
Pro Medicus announces big profit jump
Aussie imaging IT provider Pro Medicus has announced a net profit of $82.8 million, marking a 36.5% increase from the previous year.
Revenue grew by 29.3% to $161.5m, and its cash and equivalents rose by 27.9% to $155.4m.
Pro Medicus remains debt-free and declared a fully franked final dividend of 22 cents per share, bringing the total annual dividend to 40 cents, up 33.3%.
Another medtech moves offshore
Aussie medical device developer Anteris is moving offshore, shifting its headquarters to the US.
The company’s lead product, DurAVR, is a transcatheter heart valve (THV) for treating aortic stenosis. It is the first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) to use a single piece of bioengineered tissue.
Anteris will become Anteris Technologies Global Corp (Holdco) as part of the move.
The board of Anteris believes the redomiciliation will offer significant benefits, including “access to a broader pool of US investors, increased analyst coverage, and potential for acquisitions or partnerships”.
The redomiciliation aligns with the company’s substantial operations already based in the US.
Holdco plans to raise between $US75m and $US100m through the IPO. The actual amount raised will depend on market conditions and investor interest.