LBT Innovations shares hit a five-day high of 3.3 cents on Thursday, March 14, one day after the company announced the successful completion of primary validation for its Automated Plate Assessment System (APAS) PharmaQC.

The price moderated slightly to close 85.71 per cent up on Friday at 2.6 cents, having entered the week trading at 1.4 cents.

Shareholders were emboldened by the PharmaQC news, with the completion of primary validation for its technology that automates imaging, analysis and interpretation of microbiology plates “the final step in the product development and technology commercialisation”.

As such, the APAS PharmaQC technology is commercially ready, and gives the product “a significant body of evidence that assesses the performance of the product against pharmacopeial requirements as an alternative microbiology method”.

“Culture plate reading and reporting during environmental monitoring is a critical step for pharmaceutical manufacturers to release drug products,” LBT Innovations said.

“Improving quality control, traceability and data integrity of results is important in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

“It is common practice in the pharmaceutical industry for prospective customers to request validation performance data.”

It also finalises the company’s development project with AstraZeneca, which will now undertake an internal secondary validation of the system within its own manufacturing process, expected in the third quarter of the calendar year.

“Evidence based automation is incredibly important in the biopharmaceutical industry,” LBT Innovations CEO and managing director Brent Barnes said.

“The completion of our primary validation is a valuable asset to the company.

“We expect this data to build confidence in our technology and assist customers with their adoption of APAS PharmaQC.”

Cooper Energy also made it into the Winners list this week, riding on the back of higher energy prices.

Antara Lifesciences, Prophecy International and Whitebark Energy also landed in the top five Winners.

There was little news amongst the Losers this week, but Power Minerals landed in the bottom five after resuming trade and confirming the Supreme Court of Western Australia heard the company’s application seeking orders in relation to its inadvertent error in not lodging a cleansing notice, as required under the Corporations Act.

Neurizer topped the Losers list with a 33.33 per cent drop, and was joined by Andromda Metals, Vintage Energy and Axiom Properties.

The full list of Winners and Losers for the week ending March 15:

Data compiled by Baker Young Limited analysts.