Daily Brief Health Care: Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdin, Pro-Dex , Acotec Scientific Holdings, Oryzon Genomics and more

• Six+ weeks ago, the founding family which controls a 33% stake in cash-rich Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdin (4581 JP) announced a Tender Offer MBO to buy out minorities.
• ¥8,620/Share is 0.85x PBR but the takeover is at 0.72x operating assets with net debt at zero That’s low – comps are 2+x book and twice the EV/EBITDA ratio.
• But the scourge that is cross-holding investors blindly following management means they have 61-63% before this gets started, and only one small firm has voiced an objection.

• Pro-Dex specializes in the design, development and manufacture of autoclavable, battery-powered and electric, multi-function surgical drivers and shavers used primarily in the orthopedic, thoracic, and maxocranial facial markets. 
• Pro-dex has patented adaptive torque-limiting software and proprietary sealing solutions which appeals to their customers, primarily medical device distributors
• They also manufacture and sell rotary air motors to a wide range of industries.

• After 23H1 results were released, we have seen some positive business progress in internationalization. There has been no obvious negative news about performance. Acotec’s future prospects are still relatively optimistic.
• Contrary to solid fundamentals, Acotec’s stock price continues to decline. The sluggish stock price performance is not directly related to fundamentals, but rather to poor liquidity and unsatisfactory capital inflows.
• Stock price hasn’t bottomed yet, so investors’re not advised to rush to buy the dip.For market value management, Acotec’s management need to invest more energy/time to maximize shareholder value/investors’ returns.

Oryzon Genomics has announced top-line results for the Phase IIb trial (PORTICO) assessing vafidemstat in borderline personality disorder (BPD), and while the primary endpoints (Borderline Personality Disorder Checklist (BPDCL) and Clinical Global Impression – Severity Agitation/ Aggression (CGI-S A/A)) did not reach statistical significance, vafidemstat was favoured over placebo in all efficacy measures, with nominal statistical significance in two key secondary endpoints (Borderline Evaluation of Severity (BEST) and State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory 2 (STAXI-2) Trait Anger). Further, the drug was found to be safe and well-tolerated, consistent with prior studies. Management plans to conduct a detailed analysis of the trial data across the coming months and intends to request an end-of-Phase II (EoP2) meeting with the FDA in early Q224 to discuss a potential registrational Phase III programme. There are currently no approved drugs for this indication and hence gold-standard endpoints are yet to be established. We therefore believe that there is still a significant opportunity for Oryzon in this space, however, further clinical progression will be heavily reliant on the EoP2 meeting request and outcome.