Telix Pharmaceuticals Makes Nasdaq Debut to Accelerate Cancer Treatment and Diagnostic Growth

About Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited

Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited (Telix, the Company, ASX: TLX) is a global biopharmaceutical business that develops and commercialises therapeutic and diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals and associated medical devices. The Company has a cancer treatment pipeline of products at the clinical and commercial stage that aim to address unmet medical needs in oncology and rare diseases. The Company has operations in the United States, Belgium and Switzerland, and Japan. Telix was listed on the ASX in 2017 at 65 cents a share and is also listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the same Ticker code, TLX.

Telix now listed on the Nasdaq

In a quiet start to its Nasdaq listing this week, Telix American Depository Shares (ADS) commenced trading on light volume with just 33.977 shares changing hands on the first day of trading. This compares to an average daily volume over the past 5 trading days for Telix shares on the ASX of 898,000 shares.

Telix ADS trading volumes on the Nasdaq are likely to remain subdued for several months. The reason for the low Nasdaq trading volume initially is that the US Custodian bank holding Telix ADS must first buy the underlying Telix shares on the ASX before transitioning them into securities that can be bought by US investors. This means that until trading activity in the US-denominated ADS builds, liquidity will remain soft until available supply of ADS catches up with underlying US demand. This process is being managed by JP Morgan Chase Bank, which has been appointed as the depository, custodian, and registrar for the Telix ADS program.

Why is Telix listed on the Nasdaq?

The Nasdaq appeals to global technology, digital, and biotechnology companies at the cutting edge of innovation and product development and is the world’s largest securities market for global biopharmaceutical firms like Telix.

Companies listed on the Nasdaq are typically growth-oriented businesses looking for growth capital from patient investors. Telix, is a biopharmaceutical company focused on product development that requires ongoing development capital to commercialise its radiopharmaceuticals and associated medical devices. Accordingly, it is well-suited to a Nasdaq listing.

This position has been confirmed by the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Telix, who stated that given the growth trajectory and expanding footprint in North America, the Nasdaq listing is an important milestone in the Company’s history. It will provide Telix with ready access to equity and structured debt solutions from US and global investors. He also explained that the Nasdaq listing will facilitate streamlined access to Telix shares for a significant portion of the company’s workforce.

What’s next?

Enhanced reimbursement terms recently announced by the US Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services covering specialised diagnostic radio pharmaceuticals for Medicare Fee for Service patients have been welcomed by Telix. The changes mean that physicians and patients will base purchasing decisions for diagnostic tools on their clinical significance and not purely on their reimbursement structure. This will facilitate equitable access to advanced imaging agents for all US patients into the future.

The key benefit for Telix is that its existing Illuccix imaging product and its pipeline of investigational diagnostic imaging agents, will be more widely available at a subsidised cost to US patients. These reimbursement arrangements apply to Telix’s new product for PSMA imaging of prostate cancer, as well as its products for kidney cancer imaging and brain cancer imaging. This will commence after approval by the Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The changes will promote continued investment by Telix in bringing new imaging agents to market for various diseases. This is because the Company can see a clear commercial pathway to recouping the investment in product research and innovation and recovering the significant infrastructure and operational costs of delivering high quality healthcare services to patients.

While it wasn’t explicitly stated, shareholders can reasonably anticipate a fresh capital raising in the foreseeable future now that Telix has ready access to the deeper capital market afforded by its recent Nasdaq listing.

Investors should see this as positive because the development pipeline of cancer imaging agents that enable a precise diagnosis of various cancers requires equity capital. As these imaging agents, (Illucix for example) gain regulatory approval, they can be patented and generate long-dated royalty streams that create sustainable shareholder value, including dividend income.