Forum Topics CU6 CU6 What's it worth?

Pinned straw:

Added 2 months ago

Clarity released an announcement to the market on Friday indicating they had received FDA fast track designation for Cu64 SAR-bisPSMA in biochemical recurrence of prostrate cancer imaging:

Clarity receives U.S. FDA Fast Track Designation for Cu-64 SAR-bisPSMA in biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer - Clarity Pharmaceuticals - Radiopharmaceutical Therapies and Imaging

The announcement says in part:

“The market for first-generation diagnostic PSMA PET today is approximately US$2 billion (AU$3.2 billion) in the U.S. alone, with little differentiation between products. It is expected to further grow to US$3 billion (AU$4.75 billion) by 2029. The development pipeline of new products coming to market, outside of 64Cu-SAR-bisPSMA, also offers no differentiation from the existing offering, with some new entrants commercialising the unpatented 68Ga-PSMA-11 agent, which has been capitalised on by three separate groups already.

A couple of points:

  • CU6 is saying to their knowledge there is no credible challenger on the horizon
  • One of those “three separate groups” is the ASX listed Telix and their molecule for the imaging of metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer using a Gallium isotope called Illucix.  Telix are ahead of CU6, and are commercialised with in Q4 2024 Illuccix sales of $218 million. This is Telix’s lead product. Telix have a lot going on, and even if they do in time lose some/all of this market to a superior product it will be no means the end of Telix.  
  • The imaging market is a fraction of the therapeutic market.


CU6 had $123m in the bank as at 30/9/24 and is spending around $12m/qtr and it is at least 2 years off any revenues. So the risks are financial as well as developmental.

We don’t know if there is some lab in Beijing or elsewhere which has worked out a better molecule of if there is going to be some cancer cure-all drug that will arrive and blockbust everything from some other angle. Like GLP1 drugs with weight loss. Nothing is risk free. However it is encouraging to see an ASX listed company which has measurable technical advantages over its competitors which in time should see it become a market leader.  These companies are rare.

When you look at CU6's imaging and therapeutic molecules for prostrate cancer, and its potential to make a meaningful difference in a very large number of people's lives it puts another ASX biotech success story, NEU in the shade.

Not to be too critical of NEU, however NEU's drug Daybue may eventually reach around 8,000 Rhett's suffers in the US and NNZ2591, assuming it is approved may reach around 25,000 US PMS sufferers. And the efficacy of these drugs is very subjective.

Each year around 230,000 men are diagnosed with prostrate cancer in the US. And if you are unlucky enough to have life threatening prostrate cancer, believe me you want the very best treatment available.

CU6 has a market cap of $1.4b and NEU $1.8b

And CU6 can be bought at half the price of when the market was going bananas over it back in September.  

Aaronfzr
Added 2 months ago

Agree completely with your thoughts - the potential market is massive, and Clarity's strategy of developing a molecular platform may really turn this firm into an ongoing enterprise rather than an R&D / commercialisation play.

Having said that.... I may just wait a little while to see the downtrend stabilise or reverse before chipping in some more. Unclear how much fast money is still trying to find an exit

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edgescape
Added 2 months ago

Now I wait for response from Topowl

That's the reason why I did not post about this news...

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mikebrisy
Added 2 months ago

@Scoonie and @Aaronfzr since the SM meeting with Alan Taylor last year, I've invested a bit of time trying to better understand the radiopharmaceutical sector. As a non-specialist, I find oncology tough - with each individual disease, there are so many variants, disease progression pathways, treatments, and stages. Four months in, I am not even scratching the surface. However, this is a topic area of focus for me in 2025!

As I started researching the sector, it soon became apparent to me that there is a lot of potential upside in $TLX - we're essentially paying for the diagnostic business, with the therapeutics a large abeit risky upside. I took a small 2.5% RL position in August, which today is a 3.8% position - helped by the recent approval of Illucix in the EU (even though it was already on the EU treatment guidelines.) On $TLX I am running a bit blind on the supply chain economics. They're investing heavily in building the global supply chain and, with all the deals, its pretty much impossible to understand the cost of sales, and from that the longer term margins. So, I am going to be patient here as that uncertainty will resolve over time, and I need time as I want to see that the therapeutics are doing to deliver. So I don't mind own this size of a position where my knowledge is a lot lower than I'd normally expect.

Back to $CU6: I baulked at $CU6's valuation at the time of the SM meeting, however, with limited material newsflow over recent months we've seen a 50%+ pullback,...no bad news, just no significant newsflow from the pipeline. Perfect! So I have taken a tiny RL position, and also an initial stake in SM today.

I do see this as speculative at this stage, and it breaks my general rule of not investing in biotech and pharma pre-revenue (so I'll never get rich quick!). However, the science, the platform, and the early clinical results give some confidence that there is going to be something here ,... at some time.

Of course, at $1.2bn market cap. there is a long way to fall if the next news items are negative, so my position is speculative and therefore small. And I agree with @Aaronfzr that there is ample room for more hot money to flow out of this one over the coming weeks. However, on good news, I will definitely add more and would prefer to be adding to a position, rather than starting from scratch.

Thanks for all your content on this one over the months. It has helped spur my own work and in due course I hope to contribute too.

Disc: Held in RL and SM (small order in today)

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