As if the market reaction to the war in Ukraine were not enough, global stock markets have been smashed in an apparent in a hissy fit at rising US inflation and the possibility of sharply higher interest rates. Action today on the ASX was reminiscent of the market meltdown that took place in the GFC. The last few months has seen technology and biotech stocks get pounded and action in recent days has been worse Read more…
Melbourne based Dimerix Ltd perfectly fits our description of an Undiscovered Biotech. With its ~AUD$78M market cap and 3 x phase 3 clinical trials ongoing, there’s compelling reasons to take a look at this company. Background In 2004 Dimerix Bioscience was spun out of the University of Western Australia and the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research as a private company. Eventually the company made it’s way onto the ASX via Sun Biomedical Limited through a Read more…
In massive news overnight, the Australian government has revealed that it’s reached an in-principle agreement with US company, Moderna, to produce mRNA vaccines in Australia Unsurprisingly, Melbourne has won the hotly contested race to be Australia’s home of mRNA production. It’s understood that the NSW government lobbed in a financially attractive offer to woo Moderna to Sydney, though Melbourne’s long established biotech industry was clearly ennough to entice Moderna to Victoria. Production of the vaccines Read more…
The ASX reacted with surprise to the historic news that IDT Australia has become the first company to produce an mRNA vaccine in Australia. The shares closed the day, up 40%. Less surprised were long term shareholders who have been awaiting this development for several months. Australia now joins a very select group of countries who currently have the capability to produce cutting edge, mRNA vaccines. Of the investors who purchased IDT stock today Read more…
IDT Australia -September update It takes a special kind of investor (some would say crazy) to invest in biotech companies. Extreme patience is required as the timelines for progress are often measured in years. In dispersed with this can be brief periods where the ground can shift under you surprisingly rapidly. Many long-term IDT Australia investors would understand this all too well. After what many would call IDT’s “lost decade”, the last few months Read more…
The waiting game Nothing happens quickly in the world of biotech, and from an investor point of view this can be the toughest part. For shareholders in Melbourne based stem cell company, Mesoblast, the waiting game has been excruciating. As the world ground to a halt due to the pandemic in the first few months of 2020, few people had reason for optimism due to widespread business closures and job losses seen in countries Read more…
IDT Australia – July update IDT are not terribly forthcoming with regular updates to markets but we can begin to piece together various sources to picture what the near future may look like. The submissions deadline for the Australian governments approach-to-market (ATM) to onshore mRNA manufacturing passed on July 16th, with around a dozen applications. Most of the applicants will not have a realistic chance of winning the government contract, mostly due to the Read more…
PolyNovo – Changing lives. It’s often said that need is the mother of invention and it couldn’t be truer for NovoSorb BTM (Biodegradable Temporizing Matrix), the lead product of Melbourne based biotech, PolyNovo. Following the 2002 Bali terrorist bombings, many survivors were airlifted to Australia for treatment, often with horrific burns. It was in these circumstances that a need arose for synthetic dermal substitute. Enter NovoSorb BTM* Early work The origins of NovoSorb family Read more…
Circadian Technologies It was back in June 2007 when I bought a small parcel of shares in a Melbourne based company called Circadian Technologies after watching them, on and off, for several months. Originally functioning as a commercial vehicle for outstanding, diverse biomedical research, the company successfully launched and spun out many of Australia’s most prominent biotechnology companies including Axon Instruments, Optiscan Imaging and Antisense Therapeutics. In 2008 Circadian modified its strategy to Read more…
In last night’s budget handed down by Australia’s federal government it was announced that funding has been allocated to create from scratch a capability to manufacture mRNA vaccines on Australian soil. For those of us paying attention will know that IDT Australia had earlier made a bold pitch to the Australian government to manufacture vaccines, including mRNA vaccines, at it’s facility in Melbourne. End-to-end Tonight’s budget also stated that it is looking to build Australia’s Read more…