ASX Health Stocks: CleanSpace and Sonic Healthcare leap double digits

Health stock CleanSpace has made impressive gains after making headway in the US. Meanwhile, Sonic jumped despite falling revenue.

Cleanspace and Sonic Healthcare leapt today. Picture Getty Image

Health stock CleanSpace has made impressive gains after making headway in the US. Meanwhile, Sonic jumped despite falling revenue.

Respiratory protection equipment maker CleanSpace (ASX: CSX) jumped 16 per cent on Thursday morning after announcing it had secured a national sales agency contract for the US industrial market.

By 2pm (AEDT) that 24-hour gain had blown out to nearly 19 per cent.

The deal was signed with LineDrive, a solutions-based sales and marketing agency backed by Mauve Capital.

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LineDrive has an extensive sales agent footprint in the US and Canada, and the agreement with CleanSpace is for one year, with automatic annual renewals.

CleanSpace says it anticipates to generate revenue during the first half of 2023 from this agreement, a deal the company hailed as “an important milestone in the company’s industrial sales and distribution strategy.”

After previously launching industrial respirators CleanSpace Pro, Cleanspace Ultra CleanSpace Plus, this deal will allow the company to penetrate the huge US market.

“We anticipate that LineDrive will begin to generate revenue during the first half of 2023,” said Graham McLean, interim CEO of CleanSpace.

Sonic share price rises despite tumbling profits

Australia’s second biggest healthcare company, Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL), jumped 10 per cent on Thursday morning, then lifted further to 13.4 per cent at 2pm.

The gains came despite H1 revenue falling 14 per cent to $4.1 billion, and net profit tumbling 54 per cent to $382 million.

The company’s earnings per share (EPS) also fell 53 per cent to 80.9c.

Its base business revenue (ex-Covid testing) however rose by 6 per cent versus pop, and was particularly strong in the Australian pathology division.

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Sonic’s CEO, Dr Colin Goldschmidt, said: “At face value, Sonic Healthcare’s result for the half-year shows declining revenue and earnings as a result of a dramatic reduction in revenue from COVID-19 related services against the same period in the prior year.

“Taking a longer-term view, our net profit for the half-year is an amazing 50 per cent higher than in the most recent pre-pandemic comparable period, being H1 FY 2020.”

Sonic declared a 5 per cent increase in interim dividend to 42¢, fully franked.

Clarity Pharma halfway done in Phase 2 recruitment

Clarity Pharma (ASX:CU6) has reached 50 per cent recruitment milestone for its DISCO neuroendocrine tumour diagnostic Phase 2 trial.

The Phase 2 process is a diagnostic 64Cu SARTATE trial for patients with known or suspected neuroendocrine tumour (NETs).

It will be assessing the performance of Clarity’s SARTATE imaging product as a potential new way to help diagnose and manage NETs.

DISCO is an acronym for “Diagnostic Imaging Study of 64Copper-SARTATE”.

The study will recruit up to 63 patients with gastroenteropancreatic NETs (GEP-NETs) across four sites in Australia.

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It will compare the diagnostic performance of 64Cu SARTATE at 4 and 20 hours post-administration against the current standard of care, 68Ga DOTATATE, at one hour.

The trial’s aim is to build on earlier studies which demonstrated that imaging with SARTATE at later time points – enabled by a longer half-life of 64Cu isotope in comparison to 68Ga – led to better identification of the disease.

“The vast majority of patients have the cancer spread to distant parts of the body by the time of diagnosis, which significantly affects treatment outcomes for people with NETs,” said executive chairman, Dr Alan Ta`ylor.

“Clarity continues to build on the promising first-in-human data, indicating the safety and potential effectiveness of the product as a new way to detect NETs.”

The company said it has now reached the 50 per cent recruitment milestone, with 32 out of 63 participants enrolled and imaged.

This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au

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