The Capital Brief | Invitation to Bell Potter Healthcare Conference | PME, 4DX, NEU & AVH
There is so much happening in biotech and healthcare at the moment, and it is a genuinely exciting time to be watching the sector.
Investors around the world are taking notice. As Bell Potter points out, major US biotechnology indices have been trading back towards record levels, capital is returning to innovative healthcare companies, and the big pharmaceutical companies have stepped up M&A as they look to replenish their pipelines ahead of approaching patent cliffs.
That is a positive lead for ASX healthcare, and the news flow from our own market shows it, with FDA clearances, a European approval, a first-ever dividend and a steady run of large US contracts all landing in the past few months.
That is why I am so excited that The Capital Network is partnering with Bell Potter to bring the Bell Potter Healthcare Conference 2026 to investors. It is a three-day virtual event running from 17 to 19 November, 8.30am to 5.00pm (AEDT), with more than 40 leading and emerging companies across biotechnology, medical devices, healthcare software and diagnostics.
Each company will present a business update, its growth strategy and its upcoming clinical, regulatory and commercial catalysts, followed by Q&A.To give you a taste of the line-up, this edition of The Capital Brief looks at four presenting companies that have had a big few months.
Pro Medicus (ASX:PME)
Pro Medicus (ASX:PME) is a leading health imaging company. Through its US subsidiary, Visage Imaging, it provides the Visage 7 platform that hospitals and health systems use to view, manage and archive medical images, increasingly in the cloud.
The company started this week with another US win. On 19 October, it announced a 7-year, $24m contract with Billings Clinic – Logan Health, a not-for-profit health system based in Montana with 25 hospitals and more than 1,000 beds. The contract covers the ‘Full Stack’ of Visage 7 Viewer, Workflow and Open Archive, will be implemented in the cloud, and is targeting go-live in the first quarter of calendar 2027.
It follows a 7-year, $25m contract with Valley Health and a 7-year, $23m contract with St Luke’s Health, both announced in August.
Those wins build on a strong FY26. Revenue rose 22.9% to $261.7m and underlying NPAT rose 24.1% to $144.7m, with an EBIT margin of 74.9%. Pro Medicus signed 10 new contracts worth a minimum of $407m, renewed six out of six contracts worth $141m, and remains debt-free with cash and other financial assets of $252.3m. Total dividends for the year rose 25.5% to 69 cents per share.
The company has around 11% share of the US market and says it is seeing an increased number of inbound requests for proposals across all market segments.
4DMedical (ASX:4DX)
4DMedical (ASX:4DX) is a global leader in respiratory imaging technology. Its lead product, CT:VQ™, is the world’s first and only non-contrast, CT-based ventilation-perfusion imaging technology. It gives doctors a functional assessment of the lungs from a routine CT scan, without radioactive tracers or contrast agents.
The company describes FY26 as the year CT:VQ™ moved from regulatory milestone to commercial product. The FDA cleared CT:VQ™ in September 2025, and within days the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed reimbursement of US$650.50 per scan.
Adoption followed. Stanford, Cleveland Clinic, UC San Diego Health, the University of Miami and University of Chicago Medicine were all operating under full commercial terms by 30 June 2026, and Cleveland Clinic has since signed a new three-year agreement that includes committed minimum utilisation. 4DMedical also signed a three-year agreement with SimonMed Imaging, which runs more than 170 imaging centres across 10 US states, and expanded its distribution agreement with Philips across the United States and Canada, with Philips underwriting a minimum order commitment.
CT:VQ™ is now authorised in six markets, including Australia, where TGA approval in June 2026 was followed within days by paid contracts with imaging providers and patient scanning.
FY26 operating revenue rose 21% to $7.1m, with margins above 90%. 4DMedical now delivers its software products at 540 sites globally, up 39%, and produced 344,075 scans over the year, up 77%. It ended FY26 with $278m in cash. Its new CLEAR clinical evidence program, anchored at Massachusetts General Hospital, opens a pathway into the acute pulmonary embolism market and lifts the obtainable US market for CT:VQ™ to US$3 billion.
Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU)
Neuren Pharmaceuticals (ASX:NEU) is developing drug therapies for serious neurological disorders caused by genetic abnormalities or brain injury that have no or limited approved treatment options.
Its first product, trofinetide, is sold by its exclusive global licensee Acadia Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ACAD) as DAYBUE® for Rett syndrome in the US. DAYBUE® net sales reached US$226m in the first half of 2026, up 25%, and Acadia has raised its full-year 2026 global net sales guidance to US$480–510m, while reaffirming its target of US$700m in global net sales in 2028.
That growth flows to Neuren as royalty income, which rose 29% to US$23.3m in H1 2026. Neuren has used it to launch its first-ever dividend program, with a fully franked interim dividend of 15 cents per share. Cash and short-term investments stood at $287m at 30 June 2026.
Two more milestones followed. In August, the European Commission granted marketing authorisation for trofinetide as DAYBU®, the first and only approved treatment for Rett syndrome in the European Union. Neuren is entitled to US$35m following first commercial sale in Europe, with launch in Germany anticipated in early Q4 2026. In late September, Acadia received a US patent allowance that is expected to extend trofinetide’s US patent protection to March 2041. Trofinetide is not approved for sale in Australia.
Neuren’s royalty income funds all development programs for its second drug candidate, NNZ-2591 (ercanetide), which is in the Koala Phase 3 study in Phelan-McDermid syndrome. An End of Phase 2 meeting with the FDA for Pitt Hopkins syndrome is confirmed for late October.
AVITA Medical (ASX:AVH)
AVITA Medical (ASX:AVH, Nasdaq:RCEL) is a leading therapeutic acute wound care company. Its lead product, RECELL®, is approved by the FDA for the treatment of thermal burn and trauma wounds and uses the healing properties of a patient’s own skin to create Spray-On Skin™. It sits alongside Cohealyx® and PermeaDerm® in AVITA’s acute wound care portfolio.
In August, AVITA reported record second-quarter revenue of US$21.7m, up 18% year on year and 13% on the previous quarter, with a gross margin of 81.9%. Operating expenses fell 6%, and net cash use improved to around US$3.2m from US$9.9m in the first quarter.
On the back of that result, AVITA raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to US$86-89m, from US$80-85m, and said it expects to reach cash flow breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Later in August, it reported positive results from PermeaDerm-I, a randomised controlled study across 11 US burn centres. PermeaDerm® delivered clinical outcomes comparable to cadaveric allograft while reducing product cost by 70%, and as an off-the-shelf product it cut preparation time by 96%.
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