Paul Chew of PhillipCapital has maintained his “buy” recommendation on Catalist-listed pharmaceutical company, iX Biopharma, following the recent release of its FY2026 results ended June 30.

In his Aug 31 report, Chew mentioned that iX Biopharma’s FY2026 results were below his expectations. “Revenue and net loss were 72% and 170% of our FY2026 forecast respectively,” he elaborates.

Chew says that the transfer of a machine from Australia to the United States (US) resulted in lower medicinal cannabis sales for iX Biopharma. “Additional expenses, such as professional fees and the performance share plan was not modelled,” Chew says.

With the commencement of the US$40.9 million ($52 million) Wafermine Programme (funding the Phase 3 and EUA development of Wafermine), $1.2 million worth of revenue has been recognised as development services.

“We expect revenue to climb as more development work for EUA and Phase 3 is undertaken,” Chew adds. At the same time, he believes that the EUA submission and preparation for the Phase 3 study for Wafermine are advancing according to schedule.

Meanwhile, Chew is incorporating higher upfront costs from iX Biopharma’s US wholesale compounding pharmacy operations and an increase in performance shares. “The expected tripling of revenue in FY2027 will be driven by compounding pharmacy, through the partnership with Orion Speciality, Wafermine sales, and development services,” Chew predicts.

Apart from the higher revenue, Chew believes near-term profitability for iX Biopharma will depend on the start-up costs of operating the compounding pharmacy operations with US partner Orion Speciality Labs, which will provide the manufacturing and distribution licensing and expertise.

As such, Chew is keeping his “buy” recommendation with unchanged DCF SOTP target price of $1 on iX Biopharma.

“The major milestones ahead will be the Wafermine EUA submission (4Q2026), EUA approval (1Q2027), EUA production (2Q2027) and Phase 3 trials approval (2Q2027). We also expect the US production line to commence in 1Q2027, with another three in 2Q2027,” Chew concludes.

As at 2.30pm, shares of iX Biopharma were trading 3.5 cents higher, or up 8.64% at 44 cents.