Morgans says cryopreservation company Vitrafy Life Sciences Ltd (ASX: VFY) is at a crucial juncture in its development, with success likely to unlock significant value.
Vitrafy shares are already up 163% on a 12-month basis, but Morgans has an even more bullish price target on the company which I'll get to shortly.
Firstly, let's have a look at the business.
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Major developments over the past year
Vitrafy said in its recently-released annual report that while it remained an early-stage business, progress made during the year had, "materially strengthened the foundation for the Company's future''.
The company's technology involves software and controlled freezing techniques, which it says "preserves biomaterial value, enhances reproducibility, and streamlines cryopreservation workflows at scale''.
The company said further in its annual report:
The clear highlight of the year was the successful completion of our Phase II in-vitro platelet study with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research ("USAISR"), part of the Defense Health Agency. Conducted across 20 donors at commercial volumes — our largest blood testing program to date — the study found that every protocol tested using the Vitrafy ecosystem met or exceeded the relevant regulatory and quality guidelines for platelet use. Our simplified "no-wash" protocol achieved a mean post-thaw platelet recovery of 94%, outperforming the wash-based standard on platelet recovery, clot strength and the retention of the platelet receptors critical to clotting function.
Vitrafy said its technology could provide "surge capacity" in settings where a reliable supply of platelets was constrained, such as regional hospitals, emergency response, or battlefield environments.
The company added:
With no FDA-approved no-wash cryopreserved platelet product currently available in the United States, the Board believes these results position Vitrafy to address a genuine unmet market need with a differentiated, first-line offering, supported by independent U.S. Army validation.
Vitrafy in FY26 grew revenues 80% to $3.6 million and made a net loss of $16.2 million.
Shares looking cheap, broker says
Morgans said in a research note to clients that the company had spent the year "turning a single commercially unproven cryopreservation platform into three separate, partially validated commercial pathways''.
The broker said the success of the current year would turn on whether those pathways could be converted into material contracts.
They added:
Commercial success is far from a foregone conclusion, but strong scientific data, a forced re-equipment cycle, and a funded runway make VFY a viable contender, in our view, to become the replacement standard in US frozen blood infrastructure, with Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) and animal reproduction providing optionality on top of that core case.
Morgans has a 12-month price target of $5.06 on Vitrafy shares, compared with $3.43 currently.
Vitrafy is valued at $213.8 million.
