Scott Power: ASX Healthcare snaps losing streak on good news week | Stockhead

• The ASX Health sector is up 2.66% for the past five days while the broader market is up 2.81%
• Lomos secures US CLIA waiver for its flagship point-of-care (POC) respiratory test FebriDx
• Amplia reports four new confirmed responses from its combination stage Ib/IIa pancreatic cancer

Healthcare and life sciences expert Scott Power, a senior analyst with Morgans Financial for 27 years, gives his take on the ASX healthcare sector and his ‘power play’ stock picks for the week.

After seven weeks in the red, the ASX healthcare sector has returned to positive territory this week.

At close on Friday, the S&P/ASX 200 Healthcare Index (ASX:XHJ) has risen 2.66% over the past five trading days, while the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) has risen 2.81% over the same period.

He said the market was still buoyant with US President Donald Trump’s comments on the Middle East conflict sending markets swinging in both directions, along with news of inflation, a slowing economy and supply issues.

“After a series of down weeks we’re up this week but it’s still a very nervous or risk-averse investor environment,” Power said.

Locally, it was a week of positive news for ASX Healthcare, providing a much-needed boost to the sector.

Lomos achieves key regulatory milestones, conducts capital increase

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted CLIA exemption after 510(k) clearance. Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX) The flagship point-of-care (POC) respiratory test for differentiating between viral and bacterial respiratory infections FebriDx.

The waiver expands the use of FebriDx beyond mild-complexity clinical settings to more than 300,000 locations in the U.S. healthcare market including physician offices, urgent care clinics, retail health and pharmacy clinics, and community health centers that are waiver-certified.

This unlocks access to a market opportunity of over US$1 billion – about 15 times larger than before – and expands potential usage to ~80 million patients annually in over 300,000 healthcare locations.

The waiver also triggers a payment of US$5.5 million under a US$317m distribution agreement with PHASE Scientific.

Lumos will also receive a US$507,377 milestone payment from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA), which helped fund the CLIA-waiver project.

In other good news, Lumos has completed a strong funding round of US$14m (A$20m) for institutional, professional and sophisticated investors, and will launch a share purchase plan (SPP) targeting a further US$2m target for existing shareholders.

Existing shareholders Ryder Capital and Tenmill have also confirmed they will exercise at least 43.9 million options, providing an additional $3.1 million.

“This is an important milestone for Lumos to receive CLIA-exemption in the United States and on the back of it they have raised capital to help fund their sales and marketing efforts,” said Power.

“The company has done a great job over the last 12 months or so and has gone from about 2 cents to 28 cents so it’s one of the sector’s great success stories.

“It is these kinds of success stories that bring investors back into the sector and especially those catalysts independent of geopolitical and macroeconomic crises.”

Lumos shares are up 1200% in the past year.

Amplia builds on pancreatic cancer trial results

Amplia (ASX:ATX) Shares soared more than 100% this week after reporting four new confirmed responses (CRs) from its combination phase Ib/IIa pancreatic cancer trial Accent.

The update is the result of an independent analysis, bringing the total CRs to five. CR means that all symptoms of cancer have disappeared for two months or more.

Accent patients received a 400 mg dose of Amplia candidate normafotinib, along with standard of care chemotherapy.

With 64 patients enrolled, Amplia CEO and Managing Director Dr Chris Burns said the five complete responders represented an “unprecedented” 7.8% response rate, which “provides new hope for patients with this very aggressive cancer”.

The analysis also detected an additional partial response, raising the overall response rate to 23 patients (35%).

Overall survival increased to 11.1 months, a two-month improvement over that achieved in the benchmark study with chemo alone.

Amplia expects the study to be completed in the September 2026 quarter and is scheduled to present trial data at the American Cancer Society’s annual conference in San Diego next month.

“This is a huge milestone for a company with pancreatic cancer, a very high bar to jump and what they’ve achieved is amazing,” Power said.

“This is another great result for the sector.”

Strong back-to-back ads for Blinklab

Blinklab (ASX:BB1) There were two positive announcements this week, including the selection of Morocco’s nationwide, government-sponsored autism screening program and the start of enrollment for this important study.

Under a multi-ministerial national framework endorsed by King Mohammed VI, BB1’s Dx1 smartphone-based screening device will be deployed throughout Morocco for early autism screening from 18 months of age.

This program addresses a major national public health need, with ~600,000 births per year in Morocco and 400,000 people living with autism in the country.

Importantly, all implementation costs will be financed by the Moroccan government and the Foundation Mohamed V Solidarit, while BB1 ​​retains ownership of all data generated.

“Morocco is a great validation and read on how the test will work in a real-world setting,” Power said.

Blinklab has also initiated Dx1 core trial enrollment to support US FDA 501(k) clearance.

Double-blind, multicenter design study at 10 leading US institutions with recruitment directed at ~8 months and FDA submission by end of CY26.

“The big key item going forward remains the core study which is now live so the pace of recruitment will be a very closely watched KPI over the next two quarters,” Power said. Power said.

Mayo Clinic selects the 4DX ventilation perfusion device

4D Medical (ASX:4DX) Up ~48% on leading US hospital news this week Mayo Clinic will adopt its proprietary ventilation perfusion device CT:VQ.

Mayo Clinic became the sixth academic medical center to deploy the technology as it received FDA approval in September 2025.

CT:VQ has now been successfully launched at Stanford, Cleveland Clinic, UC San Diego Health, University of Chicago Medicine, and the University of Miami.

4DX said Mayo will use CT:VQ for ventilation and perfusion analysis, enabling its clinical teams to develop familiarity with the technology’s advanced diagnostic products, and evaluate its application in multiple clinical use cases.

“It’s a strong endorsement that Mayo Clinic, one of the best hospitals in the world, is choosing CT:VQ,” Power said.

“They don’t take new technology lightly and clearly see a lot of potential in it.”

The company’s shares have risen an impressive 1823% in the past year.

Power Power Play: Echo IQ Expands Mayo Clinic Partnership

Echo IQ (ASX:EIQ) Power stocks surged more than 60% for the week following market announcements including Mayo Clinic.

Echo IQ said it is supporting the potential commercial rollout of its AI heart failure solution EchoSolv HF with the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, a non-profit organization of the Mayo Clinic.

The revised agreement allows Mayo Clinic to resell and distribute EchoSolv HF through Solution Studio, the Mayo Clinic platform, providing access to Mayo Hospitals, its broader health system, and more than 80 partner hospitals.

Importantly, the updated terms include better business economics for EIQ and an automatic extension that could extend the partnership for up to six years, Power said.

EchoSolv HF uses artificial intelligence to analyze ultrasound scans of the heart (echocardiograms). The software automatically reviews images and measurements to help doctors detect heart failure.

The announcement follows a Mayo-led validation study of EchoSolv HF that demonstrated strong diagnostic performance.

Echo IQ has submitted an FDA application for 510(k) clearance for EchoSolv HF and is preparing for potential commercial deployment, positioning the company to tackle the large and underdiagnosed US heart failure market.

“The key milestone the market is looking for is FDA clearance for EchoSolv HF,” Power said.

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