Health Check: Cancer drug developer Chimeric heads to blood bank for better patient cells

Chimeric Therapeutics’ US alliance means access to ‘fresher’ cryo-preserved blood cells - vital for development of immune therapies. Read more in our health wrap.

Pic via Getty Images

• Chimeric Therapeutics has struck an alliance with Los Angeles based Achieve Clinics to enable access to cryo-preserved blood cells

• Sigma Healthcare gives us a glimpse of how private merger partner Chemist Warehouse is faring – and the answer is well

• Argenica paves the way for late-stage US stroke study

• With an eye to export markets, ECS Botanics plans to boost its medical pot output

Health Check is renowned biotech journo Tim Boreham’s daily wrap covering morning movers and shakers of note in the ASX Healthcare sector, Monday through Thursday.

Cancer cell therapy drug developer Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM)has struck an alliance with a US blood bank that will enable access to ‘fresher’ blood cells for its proposed immune therapies.

The underlying problem is that cells used for autologous therapies – that is, the patient’s own cells – tend to be degraded because of chemotherapy and other factors related to the patient’s illness.

Autologous therapies also present ‘just-in -time’ logistics issues.

Chimeric’s collab is with the Los Angeles-based Achieve Clinics, which cryopreserves product collected from apheresis: the process of dividing blood into its components of red and white blood cells, platelets and plasma.

Achieve Clinics enables a zero-cost option to the patient to undergo “proactive apheresis” earlier in their disease, with these cells available for later in the treatment.

Chimeric is recruiting gastrointestinal cancer patients in the US for a phase I/II trial of its CHM CDH-17, “the world’s first cadherin 17- directed CAR-T cell therapy.”

Hey! We’ll take your word for it …

CAR-T therapies involve genetically engineering t-cells to improve the immune system’s ability to fight cancers.

“Achieve’s PRO-Aph  transforms how patients access cell therapies because they do not have to wait until the standard of care fails them before beginning to contemplate a possible future cell therapy option,” Chimeric says.

“Waiting  for  cancer  to  progress  while  experiencing  systemic  chemotherapy
complicates the logistics of the leukapheresis and renders the collected cells less likely to deliver an effective CAR-T .

“PRO-Aph   mitigates  these  issues  by  proactively  collecting  patients’  cells
while they are still at their healthiest point.”

Patients who consent to collection will become  part  of  Achieve’s  participant  registry, from which Chimeric can draw patients for the study.

Unused cells won’t be wasted: they can be used for research.

While several CAR-T drugs have been approved for blood cancers, there’s been no joy so far with solid cancers.

Chimeric’s three key programs are focused on the latter, with an emphasis on gastric, pancreatic and colorectal cancers.

The blood cancer acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is also of interest.

Chimeric drug candidate derives from the synthesised venom of the deathstalker scorpion, so their programs will have a real sting in the tail if successful.

Chimeric shares this morning were 8% higher at 1.4 cents.

Sigma lifts the kimono on Chemist Warehouse profits

The proposed union of chemist owner and drug wholesaler Sigma Healthcare (ASX:SIG) with the private Chemist Warehouse faces competition obstacles, but thanks to the ongoing merger process we can all have a good perve at the latter’s financials.

Via its ASX feed, Sigma provided the numbers for CW Group Holdings, the holding company for the Chemist Warehouse chain owned by the Gance and Verrochi families.

The numbers suggest there’s no need for a probiotic pep-up: revenue up 6.6% to $3.29 billion for the full year, with net earnings soaring 80% to $539.7 million.

Sadly, no further commentary is provided.

The owner of the Amcal and Discount Drug Store brands Sigma recently reported a June half revenue of $1.84 billion, up 9% and a far more modest $13.7 million profit, albeit up 300%.

Unveiled last December, the proposed merger involves Sigma buying Chemist Warehouse in exchange for $700 million and enough sigma scrip to confer Chemist Warehouse with 85.75% ownership of the merged entity.

But all of this will be academic if the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission doesn’t give the nod.  The competition czars will have a lot to say, but presumably the deal proponents have some solutions or they would have given up by now.

More forebodingly, the politically potent Pharmacy Guild also opposes the union.

Sigma shares lost 4% to $1.36.

Argenica paves the way for advanced US stroke trial

Following further safety studies, stroke drug developer Argenica Therapeutics (ASX:AGN) hopes to front the US Food & Drug Administration for permission to carry out a late-stage trial on its shores.

The company is already carrying out a 92-patient phase II trial here, “which is progressing well with no safety issues identified to date.”

But as its wont, the FDA asked for further safety studies. An in-vivo rat study confirmed the company’s drug candidate ARG-007 did not impact genetic material, with a high tolerance at a dose well above that used in the trial.

Another study confirmed ARG-007 did not impact the clot-dissolving activity of the standard of care treatment, meaning ARG-007 could be used in combination.

Argenica is polishing off an Investigational New Drug submission, which it hopes to lodge with the agency by the end of calendar 2024.

ARG-007 aims to treat victims of ischaemic strokes – or clots, the most common stroke -  and also looks promising for traumatic brain injuries.

Argenica shares gained 10% to 73.5 cents

ECS Botanics plots more pot production

Organic medicinal cannabis cultivator and manufacturer ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS) has outlined plans to increase output at its north-western Victorian facility by 40% next year.

In a prezzo to today’s ASX small to mid-caps seminar, ECS forecasts output of 9.2 tonnes in the current financial year, compared to the record 6.6 tonnes in 2023-24.

The company is licensed to produce 13 tonnes.

ECs also envisages that 32% of its output – flowers, gummies, oils and vapes – will be exported this year, compared with 18% previously.

ECS is one of the better ASX pot plays, having generated revenue of $20.5 million last year (up 31%) and earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation of $3.3 million (up 140%).

ECS puts the value of the local medicinal cannabis market at around $700 million – and that’s forecast to grow to $1.2 billion by 2028.

But given the US, European and Canadian markets are worth US$56 billion, it’s no wonder ECS is eyeing more distant shores.

ECS shares climbed 6% to 1.8 cents.

Originally published as Health Check: Cancer drug developer Chimeric heads to blood bank for better patient cells