The Emyria Ltd (ASX: EMD) share price is seesawing today despite the company winning a digital health monitoring grant with the University of Western Australia (UWA).
Shares in the healthcare technology and services company rose to an intraday high of 15 cents, before slightly pulling back. At the time of writing, the Emyria share price is up 3.5% to 14.5 cents.
Emyria, formerly known as Emerald Clinics, operates a network of specialist medical clinics and purpose-built, remote patient monitoring technologies. The company captures real-world clinical data and uses this to provide consultation letters, containing information on prescription, recommended dosage, and duration of cannabinoid-based medicines.
What did Emyria announce?
The Emyria share price is moving in both directions today as investors digest the company's latest announcement.
In its release, the company advised that it was recently awarded a grant from Western Australia's Future Health Research and Innovation Fund.
The grant aims to boost the state's digital health infrastructure and capacity in dealing with future health concerns. In light of this, Emyria highlighted that it will take the leadership role in collaborating with major health services and universities. The company will seek to develop improved monitoring of mental health at-risk individuals and COVID-19 patients using its contactless remote monitoring platform, Openly.
The total grant is valued at $880,000. Emyria predicts it will receive around $320,000 to $400,000 over two years.
What is Openly?
Initially developed to remotely screen and manage COVID-19 patients, the platform moved into the digital health and wellness screening space. Using smart mobile devices, Openly collects real-world data by monitoring heart rate and heart rate variability. The information is then presented to a medical team who can act on any abnormal changes to vital signs.
Openly was registered as a class 1 medical device with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in September last year.
Management comments
Emyria managing director Dr Michael Winlo commented on the successful grant:
It's very pleasing to see our unique contactless remote monitoring platform – Openly – recognised through this competitive grant process. Emyria's unique digital health technology and clinical team will be playing a major role in improving how we monitor the clinical and mental wellbeing of vulnerable populations in WA.
Openly – the core technology of this grant – will also support and monitor patients during our upcoming clinical trials. These pivotal studies will support the registration of our leading drug candidate EMD-003 – targeting unmet needs in psychological distress and the symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress.
About the Emyria share price
Looking at the historical Emyria share price chart, its shares are dead flat from this time last year.
The company's shares have been on a rollercoaster ride, diving to as low as 3.8 cents in August then rising to reach a 52-week high of 16 cents just two weeks ago.
Based on the current share price, Emyria has a market capitalisation of $32 million.
