Daily Brief Health Care: Osstem Implant, Kazia Therapeutics Ltd, Pfizer Inc, Straumann Holding AG, Changchun BCHT Biotechnology, Numinus Wellness, Diurnal Limited and more

• For the month of January, four new deals (firm and non-binding) were discussed on Smartkarma with an overall announced deal size of ~US$3bn.
• The average premium for the new deals announced (or first discussed) in January was ~28%, which is distorted by the take under for Esso Thailand (ESSO TB).
• This compares to the average premium for all deals in 2022 (106 deals), 2021 (165 deals), 2020 (158 deals), and 2019 (145 deals) of 41%, 33%, 31%, and 31% respectively.

Kazia Therapeutics has released its Q223 activity report and provided a business update for the quarter. Q2 was marked by increased preclinical efforts towards exploring the applicability and efficacy of paxalisib in non-central nervous system (CNS) oncology indications such as melanoma and other solid tumors, including breast cancer. Post-period, Kazia announced a A$4.5m fund-raise through a two-stage private placement of 40.9m new shares (25.4m unconditional shares and 15.5m conditional shares) at A$0.11 per share. Management intends to use the proceeds to support its development programs (including the paxalisib GBM AGILE study due to readout in H2 CY23) and working capital requirements. The period-end net cash balance stood at A$4.4m and this, along with the A$4.5m fund-raise, should provide headroom into H2 CY23, based on current burn rates.

• Pfizer Inc (PFE US) reported 13% operational revenue growth in Q4, driven by strong performance of the COVID products and ongoing launch of Prevnar 20 for adults in U.S.
• Pfizer has provided full-year 2023 revenue guidance of $67.0–71.0B (-31% YoY at mid-point) and adjusted EPS guidance of $3.25–3.45 (-49% YoY at mid-point).
• The company is in the midst of an 18-month period during which Pfizer expects to have up to an unprecedented 19 new products or indications in the market.

• Straumann Holding AG (STMN SW) is the global leader in dental implantology, with ~29% market share. With multi-brand implant portfolio, the company is well-positioned to capture the market opportunity.  
• Straumann raised expectations for 2022 organic revenue growth to the mid-teen percentage range from low double-digit percentage range earlier, versus the strong comparative year (+42% organic revenue growth in 2021).
• Straumann has significantly expanded its addressable market to CHF18B+. To achieve the company’s ambition of CHF5B revenue by 2030, an average organic growth rate of ~10% annually is needed.

• Single product structure is the biggest risk of BCHT. Varicella vaccine is hard to drive BCHT’s performance growth in the future and the sales of influenza vaccine are not ideal. 
• There’re concerns about the protection rate of attenuated zoster vaccine,which won’t be officially sold until 2023H2/2024. It’s not sure whether the situation can be reversed by attenuated zoster vaccine alone.
• BCHT is inferior to CanSino in terms of pipeline quality and R&D capability. The investment value of BCHT is not high. We think its valuation should be lower than CanSino.

• Another milestone for Numinus. Numinus announced today that it has been given the regulatory green light from Health Canada to test the safety and efficacy of whole psilocybe cubensis tea.
• Psilocybe cubensis is the most well- known type of hundreds of hallucinogenic mushroom species that contain psilocybin and psilocin because this species grows easily.
• Back in October 2022, Numinus unveiled a first-of-its-kind psilocybe tea bag (EnfiniTea) it had developed for the upcoming Phase I trial to make it more palatable for use by certain populations, such as people receiving palliative care for serious illnesses who might find ingesting whole mushrooms or pills unappealing.

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on Vivesto (VIVE), Diurnal Group (DNL), Palace Capital (PCA), Primary Health Properties (PHP), Silver One Resources (SVE), Induction Healthcare (INHC) and Axiom European Financial Debt (AXI). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant. Previously published reports can still be accessed via our website.