There’s no gilding the sow’s ear. August was a bad month for Australian biotechnology. That said, it will make the Spring bounce-back look terrific or we really are in trouble.

Apart from CSL’s 21.5 percent divestment write down, Telix announced a second FDA complete response letter wiping $2,028 million from its market capitalization and Mesoblast posted its first Ryoncil profits that didn’t meet “market expectations”. Luckily for the Biotech Daily Top 40 Index (BDI-40), on the monthly basis, Mesoblast was up $52 million to $3,098 million, despite Friday’s sell-down, which curiously started on Thursday.

Biotech Daily believes the markets are skittish due to “global concerns”, also known as the unpredictable nature of the Donald J Trump presidency of the United States and the bizarre behavior of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy.

While the US does not have much impact on Australian biotechnology, the so-called “masters of the universe” are in full panic mode. The Telix complete response letter does not affect forecast revenue. Mesoblast has just begun selling Ryoncil. The CSL divestment of Seqirus is expected to add value.

In the last month of Southern Winter, the Biotech Daily Top 40 Index (BDI-40) fell 10.1 percent to a collective market capitalization of $18,900 million – its lowest point since May 31, 2024, while the benchmark ASX200 improved 2.6 percent to 8,973 points. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI) rose 4.9 percent in August.

All four Big Caps, Cochlear, CSL, Pro Medicus and Resmed (which are not included in the BDI-40), fell in August, down 13.0 percent to $215,588 million. CSL lost $28,181 million or 21.5 percent to $102,992 million, followed by Pro Medicus 6.8 percent to $31,353 million, Cochlear 5.7 percent to $19,633 million and Resmed 0.9 percent to $61,610 million.

In August, 15 BDI-40 companies were up, with nine up by more than 10 percent, while 23 fell, with 14 down by more than 10 percent. Two were unchanged.

4D Medical was the best, climbing $153 million or 136.6 percent to $265 million, followed by Curvebeam (51.6%), Cynata (42.9%), Actinogen (34.2%), Starpharma (23.8%), Emvision (14.8%), Prescient (13.2%), Neuren (13.0%) and Nanosonics (11.3%).

Syntara lost $54 million in August, down 55.1 percent to $44 million; followed by Universal Biosensors (42.9%), Amplia (31.6%), Medadvisor (29.8%), Telix (28.5%), Clarity (27.2%), Avita (19.4%), Genetic Signatures (18.7%), Alcidion (16.9%), Impedimed (16.8%), Optiscan (15.9%), Paradigm (15.6%), Compumedics (13.1%) and Resonance (11.9%).

Cannabis Corner climbed a collective 2.75 percent in August to $299 million. Avecho climbed $6 million or 37.5 percent to $22 million, while Neurotech led the falls, down $6 million or 28.6 percent to $15 million.

On the Nasdaq, Neuphoria (Bionomics) jumped 45.8 percent to $35 million followed by Eyepoint (16.3%), Incannex (10.6%) and Protagonist (8.1%).

Imricor replaces Universal Biosensors in the BDI-40.