Daily Brief Health Care: Medtronic Plc, Innovent Biologics Inc, Immix Biopharma Inc, Legend Biotech Corp and more

• Medtronic Plc (MDT US) reported Q2FY24 revenue of $8B, representing 5% organic growth, topping guidance of 4.0–4.5%. Cardiovascular, neuroscience, and medical surgical grew mid-single-digit with diabetes accelerating to high-single-digit.
• The company now expects FY24 organic revenue growth of 4.75% versus the prior 4.5%. Medtronic raised FY24 adjusted EPS guidance to $5.13–5.19 from $5.08–5.16 earlier.
• In November, the company has received FDA approval for innovative renal denervation device for the treatment of hypertension, which should open a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity.

• After COVID-19, China healthcare has been under pressure for a long time. High interest rate environment is unfriendly to companies, but the current situation is not entirely devoid of opportunities.
• GLP-1s has reignited investors’ interest in this industry, which will be long-term opportunity and bring alpha. With rich domestic/overseas catalysts ahead, related share price performance is worth looking forward to.
• Among the domestic GLP-1s companies, Innovent is our top pick. The “concept validation” of Innovent’s business model has been completed. A qualitative change in the Company is coming soon.  

The FDA has accepted Immix’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for lead CAR-T asset NXC-201. In our view, this decision from the FDA represents encouraging progress for Immix in delivering, potentially, the first outpatient CAR-T therapy, provided the data continue to be supportive. This regulatory decision enables Immix to start dosing patients with amyloid light chain amyloidosis (ALA) in the US as part of the NEXICART Phase Ib/IIa clinical trial, which has previously been operating in Israel. Further, management has communicated that the favourable tolerability profile of the therapy to date could warrant a potential expansion into autoimmune indications; we await additional updates on this front. NXC-201 has demonstrated a desirable safety and efficacy profile in 72 patients with ALA or multiple myeloma (MM) to date, potentially supporting NXC-201 as the first outpatient CAR-T therapy.

• Legend Biotech Corp (LEGN US) has reported mixed 3Q23 result, with revenue missing and EPS beating consensus. For 3Q23, partner Janssen reported Carvykti worldwide revenue of $152M, up 30% QoQ.
• Legend entered an exclusive, global license agreement with Novartis, which grants Novartis the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize LB2102 and other potential CAR-T therapies for upfront payment of $100M.
• The company is expanding manufacturing capacity for Carvykti. As of September 30, 2023, Legend has cash balance of $1.4B, which should provide a runway through 2025.