Key Concepts and Questions about Immuron

Immuron - when I read the name, I had never heard of it before and I was a little nervous even more so when I found out it was a biopharmaceutical company. Not really educated on the pharmaceutical world, I was concerned that I may not be able to understand the company let alone their financial records. After some researching, I was pleasantly surprised, I actually found them quite interesting, easy to read and navigate. I might even say I enjoyed reading their financial statements.

Since January 2020, Covid-19 has been negatively affecting public wellbeing as well as the global economy. In regard to Immuron being a biopharmaceutical company, I was actually shocked to find out they too were heavily impacted by the current world pandemic. Naively I assumed that anyone (person/business etc.) associated with the health industry were majorly safe from the effect of Covid-19.

Travelan, one of the two products marketed throughout Australia by Immuron was impacted due to the pandemic; resulting in a dramatic decline in sales. Sales were impacted as a consequence of major airlines becoming grounded resulting in the reduction of air travel. Immurons’ Non-Executive chairman Dr. Roger Aston does not expect the business to recover until regular travel is back to normal.

Ingredients used to create Travelan and Protectyn showed antiviral activity against Covid-19 in preliminary laboratory studies. This technology now proposes a new potential for an oral therapeutic approach to target SARS-CoV-2 in the gastrointestinal tract; this is where Covid-19 causes inflammation and collateral damage.

Group directors decided to forgo an amount of cash payments from their salary and receive shares of that value instead due to Covid-19.

All except one of the companies’ directors have either a background in medical, science or psychology which was surprising as only one of the five directors has a degree in law. I was surprised finding this because earlier in my studies, I came to learn that about half of all CEOs have an accounting background; this was not true in this case.

While reading the financial reports I was confused as why some numbers have brackets and others do not. My suspicions were correct, those numbers are negative. Immuron suffered a loss for financial year ending 30 June 2020 of AUD $2,927,206. The groups net assets decreased to AUD $5,643,913 compared to 30 June 2019 at $7,351,136 including cash reserves of AUD $3,250,468 (June 2019 $5,119,887).

I have found I am pleased with Immuron as my company, I have learnt a lot just from reading their annual report.