Is CSL giving you a headache? Here are 6 ASX biotech firms for the watchlist

Some of the most exciting innovations in healthcare are happening right on our doorstep. Think new treatments for autoimmune diseases, game-changing cancer treatments and ongoing advances in radiopharmaceuticals as just a few options. Innovation is one part, the ability to take a successful clinical product and commercialise it for profit is another.

There are some big deals being signed at the moment.

Consider Dimerix (ASX: DXB) which signed deals totalling $1.4bn for future sales of its kidney disease drug across 2025. Or Recce Pharmaceuticals’ (ASX: RCE) recent research deal with the US army to test its treatment for infected burn wounds.

This may all come as a timely reminder to investors hurting from CSL (ASX: CSL) that there are plenty of other fish in the (healthcare) sea.

But, which companies are worth watching? What do deals like these actually mean for the future?

Analysing biotechnology companies comes with more nuance compared to many other sectors. Understanding the technology itself can be a challenge for those outside of the medical field.

In light of this, I spoke to two experts to find out which companies they are watching (in particular, those with short-term catalysts) and some of the innovations they are most excited about.

• Dr Charlie Williams, HB Biotechnology
• Dr Melissa Benson, Barrenjoey Capital Partners

6 companies on the radar

Top picks from Dr Charles Williams

To be on Williams’ watchlist, a company needs to have a catalyst in the next six-12 months, is looking undervalued and looks interesting from a risk-reward perspective.

1. Syntara (ASX: SNT)

Syntara is a clinical-stage drug development company focused on treatments for extracellular matrix dysfunction – this is linked to chronic and inflammatory illnesses, such as cancer and fibrosis.

Williams notes that the business was heavily sold off when it announced it was unable to move from phase 1 into phase three trials. He believes Syntara is in a good position for its phase 2 trial, with plenty of options for funding the trial and notes from the FDA.

“They have results coming out for myelodysplastic syndrome and this is an underappreciated catalyst for the company,” Williams says, noting there is more in the pipeline to like and room to surprise on the upside.

2. Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX: TLX)

The radiopharmaceuticals company has been hard hit in the last year, with two FDA rejections and an ongoing SEC probe. Williams sees this year as space for Telix to “clear events” and “regain trust with investors.”

As he notes, “you can easily look at the share price and you are picking up the base operating business at a discount and there’s some optionality in the future.”

3. Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX: CU6)

Williams also sees an interesting year of catalysts for Clarity Pharmaceuticals, a competitor to Telix in the radiopharmaceuticals space.

“Clarity recently presented results from their Co-PSMA, head to head imaging study in prostate cancer which showed superior diagnostic performance, especially in low PSA prostate cancer patients. They should have results from a registrational, late-stage imaging study this year too. We could also expect results from their expansion cohort trial for the treatment of metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer,” Williams says.

Top picks from Dr Melissa Benson

Benson also sees an interesting year for radiopharmaceuticals coming, and Telix and Clarity feature in her picks too. In addition, she has nominated three picks with major clinical trials in play.

1. Immutep (ASX: IMM) 

Immutep works on immunotherapy treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. It is a pioneer in therapeutics related to harnessing the Lymphocyte Activation Gene-3 (LAG-3), which has a key role in regulating the immune system.

Benson highlights that Immutep has a major trial progressing this year in lung cancer, called TACTI-004.

“The premise of Immutep’s drug, Efti, is to boost the immune system to work alongside existing blockbuster cancer drugs, such as Keytruda, to expand the number of patients that see benefit, and also improve survival/durability of treatment. The TACTI-004 trial is the big make-or-break point for Immutep,” says Benson, who says the data so far has been “consistent and compelling”.

“There is a big valuation mismatch given the opportunity in front of IMM,” she adds.

2. Clinuvel (ASX: CUV)

Clinuvel develops treatments for patients with genetic, metabolic, systemic and life-threatening acute disorders. It has the only approved treatment (SCENESSE) for patients suffering from erythropoietic protoporphyria, which is a rare inherited disease, and is investigating the use of this treatment for other diseases, like vitiligo (a skin pigmentation condition), in an important phase 3 trial readout.

“All of the prior trial data has been very supportive of SCENESSE’s ability to help re-pigment vitiligo patients – the big data readout in the second half of this year will be important validation of that,” says Benson.

“It’s been a long time coming for Clinuvel. We don’t think the market has appreciated how important this trial and opportunity is.”

3. Neuren (ASX: NEU)

Neuren develops new therapies for debilitating neurodevelopmental disorders that emerge in early childhood. It has had a tough six months and was caught up in a broad market sell-off.

Benson notes that Neuren’s second-generation drug NNZ-2591 is in its first late-phase III trial, with more to come later this year and is expected to improve on its first product, DAYBUE.

“A key attribute of Neuren’s is that it can apply a single drug to multiple rare diseases – that is very uncommon. That is valuable commercially, as you not only get the benefits of selling into a rare disease market (high pricing, limited competition, market exclusivity benefits), but you get to repeat this across several diseases, with significant leverage,” Benson says.

Innovations the experts love

With all the amazing medical advances across the globe today, it’s really saying something when an innovation has the experts excited.

“Radiopharmaceuticals continue to be a big focus area for me, and whilst we have products approved on market, there is a slew of trials underway that should be very exciting to guide where the market can go,” Benson says, pointing to trials for Clarity and Telix.

“I’m excited to see if Novartis’ (NYSE: NVS) PLUVICTO is able to expand its reach into a new prostate cancer setting (hormone sensitive) in the form of FDA approval later this year. This would effectively double the market size for PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy (which has positive implications for Telix and Clarity),” Benson adds.

She is also watching Bristol Myers Squibb’s (NYSE: BMY) study into neuroendocrine tumours - the first big test of a much-hyped alpha-emitter.

Williams cautions that being excited about a technology might not translate into commercial prospects. It’s something he’s seen in the past, for example, with CRISPR technology for gene editing.

He is interested in bispecific antibodies, which are being used in immunology and cancer. He sees potential for the autoimmune treatment side with bigger markets.

“There were great results using CAR T-cells targeting lupus with 100% remission rates in patients with severe lupus a few years ago, but it has been difficult to replicate. While bispecifics may have less durable responses than CAR-Ts, the ability to conveniently re-dose could have them play a large role in moderate to severe immunology populations,” Williams says.

Another innovation he loves and has included in his own portfolio is using protein degradation as a therapeutic modality.

“In protein degradation, you utilise the body’s own protein clean-up system to mark-up a disease-causing protein and attract the body’s ubiquitin proteasome system (the protein clean-up system) to turn it back into amino acids and recycle it into the body,” Williams explains. 

He is currently focused on two versions of this – PROTACS along with molecular glue degraders.

A big year to come

There’s a lot going on in healthcare. After all, some of the larger healthcare stocks are facing into patent cliffs in coming years and working hard to combat this via M&A, alongside their own innovations. But, the space to watch closely could be the smaller end of town.

Bruce Booth, Atlas Venture, highlighted in his 2025 Year in Review that roughly 75% to 85% of new FDA drug approvals were from small, emerging biotech companies.

“Small to mid-cap biotechs, private or listed, play a critical role in this ecosystem to get new drugs approved from both a health perspective, along with a revenue perspective,” Williams says.

Australia continues to offer more than its share of innovative names to watch; just keep in mind the commercial prospects at the end.