Pfizer bid gives lung healthstart-ups some air timeBy Emma...

Pfizer bid gives lung healthstart-ups some air time

By Emma Koehn

April 19, 2022 — 5.00am

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The pandemichas put diagnostic respiratory health on the radar of major players with Pfizermaking a bid for an ASX-listed health start-up and putting a spring in the stepof other home-grown firms hoping to crack the international market.

Investor interest was piqued lastweek when vaccine maker Pfizer lobbed a $100 million bid for Brisbane business ResApp, which is trialling a smartphone technology designed to help diagnose coronavirus by listening to recordings of a patient’s cough.

Dr Andreas Fouras is ready tobring his company’s real-time, lung-tracking technology to the US market.CREDIT:WAYNE TAYLOR

The businesshas also entered into a research and development deal with Pfizer to work onprojects related to COVID-19. ResApp shares closed at 12 cents on Thursday,marking a gain of 64 per cent year-to-date, compared with the broader ASXhealthcare index, which is down 13 per cent over the same period.

But ResApp is not the onlyASX-listed biotech wanting to overhaul the way that doctors track lung healthin a post-pandemic world. Other home-grown biotechs are also chasing internationalreach in the hopes of becoming the next ResMed - the sleep and respiratory technology maker with a market capitalisation of $US34 billion ($46 billion).

The boss of4DMedical, Dr Andreas Fouras, will be travelling backwards and forwards betweenAustralia and the US multiple times in the coming months as his company worksto prove the value of its lung-tracking software in the US market.