Clever Culture Systems (ASX:CC5)<\/a> is expanding its reach across North American and Singapore pharmaceutical manufacturing markets through a new sales partnership with PSC Biotech.<\/p>\nUnder the agreement, PSC Biotech will identify sales opportunities for CCS\u2019s flagship APAS Independence automated microbiology platform across the US, Canada and Singapore.<\/p>\n
APAS Independence is the only artificial intelligence (AI) technology cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for automated culture plate reading. The platform is used by pharmaceutical manufacturers to read environmental monitoring culture plates.<\/p>\n
CCS has established the technology in the sterile drug manufacturing market over the past two years through a \u201cland and expand\u201d strategy targeting major pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, CSL and Thermo Fisher\u2019s contract drug manufacturing organisation.<\/p>\n
The partnership provides an additional sales channel to reach regional, medium-sized and large pharmaceutical manufacturers beyond CCS\u2019s direct sales focus on global pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n
PSC Biotech has more than 500 employees globally and serves more than 1000 customers, providing validation, engineering and regulatory consulting services to the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n
As part of the deal, PSC Biotech has committed to purchasing an APAS Independence instrument for installation at BioTechnique, its wholly owned contract drug manufacturing organisation in York, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
The instrument will be qualified and validated onsite for good manufacturing practice (GMP) use, creating a live pharmaceutical manufacturing environment and a US centre of excellence for product showcases, customer demonstrations and prospective customer evaluations.<\/p>\n
PSC Biotech will refer qualified sales opportunities to CCS, which will retain responsibility for closing sales, setting instrument prices and generating recurring software and service revenue. The partnership could also create opportunities for PSC Biotech to sell its validation services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PSC Biotech is a new partnership, which complements CCS\u2019s existing commercial strategy,\u201d Power said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCCS\u2019s strategy is to be the new standard for environmental monitoring in sterile drug manufacturing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Morgans downgrades EBR, cuts price target<\/p>\n
Morgans has reduced its 12-month price target and rating on EBR after the company missed the broker\u2019s expectations for implants of its WiSE wireless cardiac pacing system for heart failure in Q3 CY26.<\/p>\n
EBR Systems completed 40 implants of WiSE in Q3, down 13% quarter-on-quarter.<\/p>\n
Over the quarter purchasing agreements increased by five to 57, trained physicians grew by 10 to 100, activated hospitals rose by 10 to 40 with 20 sites completing three or more implants.<\/p>\n
In a research note Morgans healthcare analyst Derek Jellinek wrote the shortfall appeared attributable to sales force disruption, a leadership transition, implementation of a refocused commercial strategy and additional field training.<\/p>\n
\u201cNotably, WiSE adoption requires a sustained, high-touch sales effort, with representatives previously focused on prioritising the opening of new sites rather than supporting existing accounts and generating repeat procedures,\u201d Jellinek wrote.<\/p>\n
CEO John McCutcheon has assumed responsibility for the commercial organisation while the company recruits a new commercial leader.<\/p>\n
McCutcheon has made changes to the commercial team including promoting Michael Sot from area director to director of US Sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cManagement is redirecting resources towards activated centres, strengthening territory accountability and changing its sales training model, with early feedback encouraging,\u201d Jellinek wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to see value in WiSE\u2019s differentiated technology, clinical utility and substantial potential market opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, disappointing execution, greater commercial intensity and uncertain adoption trajectory warrant more conservative forecasts and a materially lower valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgans now has a speculative buy rating on EBR and has reduced its 12-month price target from $1.95 to $1.20.<\/p>\n
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The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interview in this article are solely those of the interviewee and do not represent the views of Stockhead.<\/p>\n
Stockhead has not provided, endorsed or otherwise assumed responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.<\/p>\n
Disclosure: Scott Power owns shares in Cogstate and EBR Systems. Morgans Corporate Limited was joint lead manager to the placement of shares for EBR Systems in June 2026 and has received fees in this regard.<\/p>\n
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While EBR Systems and Clever Culture Systems are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ASX healthcare sector flexed its muscles in a week of volatility for global markets. Pic: Getty Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-931155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}