Healthcare Roundup – Moderna supply deal lifts COVID-19 vaccine players, Aleafia Health -5% despite Q2 revenue beat

医疗保健综述——Moderna达成疫苗供应交易,COVID-19疫苗生产商股价随之上涨;Aleafia Health第二财季收入增长
Published on: August 12, 2020
Author: Amy Liu

Moderna supply deal lifts COVID-19 vaccine players

COVID-19 vaccine developers are getting a premarket lift on the heels of Moderna’s (NASDAQ:MRNA) (+9%) $1.5B supply deal with the U.S. government announced after the close yesterday.

Aleafia Health -5% despite Q2 revenue beat

Aleafia Health (OTCQX:ALEAF -4.9%) Q2 revenue of $9.78M (+155% Y/Y), beating consensus by $2.33M.

Net medical cannabis revenue of $2M increased 44% Q/Q, and 94% increase Y/Y.

Net adult-use cannabis was $0.9M, compared to $1.4M in Q2 2019.

Clinic revenue was $0.8M, a decline of 10% over the previous quarter.

Active, registered patients were 13,285 vs. 6,959 last year.

Net loss of $4.02M vs. $11.5M in Q2 2019.

Cash, Cash equivalents and marketable securities of $56.96M, decreased 10% over last year.

Commenced operations of AssureHome Delivery, a direct-to-door delivery service for medical cannabis products.

Equity offering through Eight Capital yielded gross proceeds of $13M.

Previously: Aleafia Health beats on revenue (Aug. 12)

CytoDyn bullish on leronlimab in COVID-19 based on success of objective endpoint

Notes from today’s conference call at CytoDyn (OTCQB:CYDY) regarding the results from a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating leronlimab in COVID-19 patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms.

Company has applied for emergency use of the drug to treat these patients in the U.S.

CEO emphasizing the NEWS2 secondary endpoint which was met, not the primary endpoint which was missed.

Phase 2 was a proof-of-concept study that informed the design of the Phase 3. NEWS2 to be the primary endpoint of the latter.

The advantage of NEWS2 is the reliance on objective parameters instead of patient-reported symptoms that comprised the Phase 2 primary objective.

Premature to know if the ongoing Phase 2 in severely and critically ill COVID-19 patients will be a “single, double, triple or home run.” An interim analysis will be conducted after 195 patients have been treated.

Galapagos teams up with Scipher Medicine in drug discovery for IBD

Galapagos (NASDAQ:GLPG) has collaborated with privately-held Scipher Medicine, to advance drug targets identified by latter for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Both the companies will jointly validate a suite of IBD targets, after which Galapagos has an exclusive option to progress up to five targets into further drug discovery and development.

Scipher eligible for upfront, opt-in and milestone payments, and financial terms for the agreement were not disclosed.

Galapagos will retain the rights for the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutics for the selected target(s).

Arcadia teams up with GoodMills Innovation to sell GoodWheat products in Europe

Arcadia Biosciences (RKDA +0.8%) has announced a collaboration with GoodMills Innovation, an affiliate of Europe-based GoodMills Group, for commercialization of wheat-based products across Europe.

The improved wheat of GoodWheat portfolio includes attributes such as higher fiber, fewer calories and reduced allergenicity, as well as an extended shelf life.

The ingredients are the output of Arcadia’s proprietary ArcaTech platform, which accelerates discovery, development and breeding of new wheat varieties using non-GM techniques.

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