How Often Should Men Masturbate? An Expert Weighs In
If you have ever found yourself wondering how your intrapersonal sexual habits compare to others, you aren't alone. For most people, the act of self-pleasure is a deeply private one and often, it can be hard to tell whether your personal masturbation habits are in line with the population. The truth is that there is no official consensus on how often you should masturbate.
Whether you masturbate regularly, not at all or somewhere in the middle, every person is different and understanding the role that sexual desire plays in your day-to-day life is critical for evaluating what is 'healthy'. If you engage in self-pleasure often and still lead a satisfying, healthy life, then there is no reason to alter your behaviour. However, if your compulsive masturbation is impacting your working life or relationships, you may need to consider seeing a sex therapist.
The important consideration is acknowledging that masturbation as an act is inherently human. In fact, recent studies have shown that not only is self-pleasure commonplace in Western society, but that over two in five people use sex toys at least once a week.
Image: Eleanor Hadley
How Often Should You Masturbate?
While you may have asked yourself how often you should masturbate, the answer is not always as straightforward as it seems. According to sensuality coach Eleanor Hadley, frequency is entirely dependent on your relationship with masturbation, your libido and how much partnered sex you're having.
'Everyone's body and needs vary greatly, so I would suggest doing what feels right for you. As long as you aren't noticing any patterns of dependence on masturbation, I believe a regular masturbation practice can have several health benefits,' she says. 'Self pleasure is a really healthy practice that can increase endorphins, improve sleep, reduce stress and enhance self-esteem and body image.'
Recent studies have also supported the notion that there is no 'normal' frequency for masturbation. A recent survey, conducted by sexual wellness brand The Handy in conjunction with UCLA-trained psychiatrist Dr. Sham Singh, found that some men masturbate weekly, others daily, while certain respondents claimed to hardly masturbate at all. Importantly, all of these frequencies are considered within the normal range for men.
'Masturbation is a common and healthy part of human sexuality. However, how much you want to masturbate varies from one individual to another, depending upon his or her overall lifestyle, personal relationships, and state of mind,' Dr. Sham Singh said. 'But in general terms, for most individuals, a few sessions of daily masturbation does not go out of the ordinary at all in terms of being healthy and average.'
Furthermore, Dr. Sham Singh suggested that masturbation may actually have some serious benefits. According to a 2016 study by the European Association of Urology, men who ejaculated 21 times a month or more were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. This was compared to men who ejaculated four to seven times per month. While the statistics must be taken with a grain of salt, it does suggest that regular masturbation can be beneficial to overall health.
Understanding Masturbation Shame
Both Hadley and Dr. Sham Singh acknowledge that while masturbation is inherently normal, the collective shame that surrounds the topic can often make discussions about sexual health difficult. The taboo nature of self-punishment, Hadley reveals, can often be traced back to early childhood.
'Many men start masturbating quite young and depending on their upbringing, may have internalised shame or taboo around self-pleasure,' Hadley explains. 'Often it was something that they felt the need to hide or to do quickly so as not to get caught.'
According to the expert, the fear of public ridicule for the behaviour can lead to an unhealthy relationship with self-pleasure and sexual intimacy. Hadley explains that this psychological phenomenon may not serve us well in the long run, both for our self-esteem and for future relationships. Instead, she suggests breaking the cycle and changing the way you view male masturbation.
'Just like any habit, the more that we get used to doing something the same way every time, the harder it is to break. For a lot of men, they are masturbating the same way they always have – essentially training themselves to reach orgasm in one type of way and often in a short period of time,' she says. 'Switching up your masturbation routine is a really great practice to get into in order to explore new sensations and to train yourself to last longer, too. One of the biggest misconceptions around male masturbation, and sex in general, involves the use of the phrases 'climax' and 'orgasm'
Chatting with the sex expert, it's easy to get caught up in the prospect of shameless self-love, but in the real world, it's not always as simple as that. In fact, a lot of issues are spurred by a lack of knowledge. So, let's start at the top and dive into how to masturbate.
What is the Difference Between Climax & Orgasm?
One of the biggest misconceptions around male masturbation, and sex in general, involves the use of the phrases 'climax' and 'orgasm'. While we'd all like to believe we are killing it in the bedroom each and every time, whether that be by ourselves or with a partner, understanding the stark differences between the two is important. According to Hadley, if you understand your own body, you're much more equipped to satisfy someone else's.
Climax – A climax refers to the peak point of pleasure, where your pelvic floor muscles involuntarily contract and is often short and sharp, like reaching the top of the mountain. You can make your way up, then quickly drop down again.
– A climax refers to the peak point of pleasure, where your pelvic floor muscles involuntarily contract and is often short and sharp, like reaching the top of the mountain. You can make your way up, then quickly drop down again. Orgasm – An orgasm refers to the deep feeling of pleasure and relaxation you experience just before reaching that point. Most often, ejaculation occurs at the same time as orgasm, but they can actually occur independently of one another. And, as mentioned before, it is entirely possible to experience orgasm without ejaculation, with practice.
Can You Masturbate Too Much?
While it might seem improbable, masturbating too much is a common concern. As bodybuilders and fitness nuts know, even healthy habits can become unhealthy if done in excess or to an extreme. Sadly, this is also true of masturbation. Just how much is too much, however, varies from person to person. In a 2020 interview with MBG, sex and relationship therapist Shadeen Francis, LMFT, explained that some people masturbate several times a day with no negative outcomes.
'There is no objective measure of how much anyone should masturbate,' Francis said. 'Your health is an individual consideration. If your masturbation habits are causing you mental, emotional, relational, or physical distress, that is an indicator that you may be masturbating more than is currently healthy for you.'
What Happens When You Abstain from Masturbation?
While male masturbation is considered healthy and perfectly normal, not everyone indulges in the act. This may be due to religious or spiritual reasons, cultural concerns or simply because they just don't like it; this is also very common. In terms of benefits and risks, abstaining from masturbation has its anecdotal evidence, but nothing overly concrete. A 2003 study published in the Zhejiang University Press suggested that no masturbating may be linked to increased testosterone, however, the test was focused more on short term behaviour.
A lot of men believe in the act of semen retention. By all accounts, this spiritual sexual practice sees people avoid ejaculation 'because they believe semen is a source of life force energy'. According to Hadley, there is no scientific evidence that reports semen retention being specifically beneficial or harmful.
'Many men choose to abstain from masturbation or more specifically, ejaculation, to enjoy longer sex when with a partner,' she says. 'This a tao and tantric practice referred to as semen retention in which you intentionally avoid ejaculation while energetically channelling your sexual energy in order to experience more powerful orgasms.'
Image: Frenchie
How to Improve the Intensity of Your Orgasm
With the basics covered, we turned to sensuality coach Eleanor Hadley for advice on how to make the most of your masturbation time. Focusing on improving the intensity of your orgasms, Hadley revealed five key tips to incorporate into your routine. Here's what she had to say:
1. Take Your Time
When you rush to the end goal, you'll often experience a short, sharp peak followed by a quick decline in pleasure. When you take your time to slowly build up before reaching your climax, you'll experience much more intense orgasms as a result.
2. Practice Edging
This is a really great practice if you're struggling to slow down. When you feel yourself getting towards the point of no return, simply hold back a bit, slow down or move your focus elsewhere. Then start self-pleasuring again until you reach that point once more. Repeating this pattern multiple times will lead to far more powerful orgasms and help you last even longer.
3. Lube Up
Make your self-pleasure sessions much more enjoyable by using plenty of natural lubricant, like Frenchie's Oh La La Love Lube. Using lube increases pleasure, mitigates the risk of abrasions due to friction on the delicate tissue of the penis, and intensifies orgasms.
4. Breathe Deeply
Tuning in to your breath and taking long, slow, deep breaths during masturbation can help to channel your sexual energy upwards throughout the body, allowing for full-body orgasms. When you breathe deeply, you oxygenate your blood and increase blood flow, resulting in deeper pleasure. Rather than holding your breath at the point of orgasm, try visualising your breath moving up along your spine towards your head. With practice, this can lead to much more intense orgasms.
5. Explore Different Sensations
Explore the world of blended orgasms by adding in different sensations to your usual masturbation routine. Try touching different parts of your body at the same time as stimulating your penis such as your nipples, neck, thighs, anus. Adding in a sex toy such as Frenchie's Double Entendre is a great way to add in more sensation and increase orgasmic potential. You can try turning the vibration on and holding it to the tip of your penis, curving the flexible body of the vibe around your shaft or exploring anal pleasure. Variety is the key to enhanced pleasure and heightened orgasms.
How Often Should Men Masturbate FAQs
How often should men be masturbating?'
There is no official consensus on how often you should masturbate. According to sensuality coach, Eleanor Hadley, everyone's body and needs vary greatly. Provided you lead a satisfying, healthy life, then there is no reason to alter your behaviour. However, if your compulsive masturbation is impacting your working life or relationships, you may need to consider seeing a sex therapist.
What is the difference between climax and orgasm?
A climax refers to the peak point of pleasure, where your pelvic floor muscles involuntarily contract and is often short and sharp, like reaching the top of the mountain. Whereas an orgasm refers to the deep feeling of pleasure and relaxation you experience just before reaching that point.
What happens when you abstain from masturbation?
Many men choose to abstain from masturbation or more specifically, ejaculation, to enjoy longer sex when with a partner. This a tao and tantric practice referred to as semen retention in which you intentionally avoid ejaculation while energetically channelling your sexual energy in order to experience more powerful orgasms. There is no scientific evidence, however, that reports semen retention being specifically beneficial or harmful.
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Man of Many
20-05-2025
- Man of Many
How Often Should Men Masturbate? An Expert Weighs In
If you have ever found yourself wondering how your intrapersonal sexual habits compare to others, you aren't alone. For most people, the act of self-pleasure is a deeply private one and often, it can be hard to tell whether your personal masturbation habits are in line with the population. The truth is that there is no official consensus on how often you should masturbate. Whether you masturbate regularly, not at all or somewhere in the middle, every person is different and understanding the role that sexual desire plays in your day-to-day life is critical for evaluating what is 'healthy'. If you engage in self-pleasure often and still lead a satisfying, healthy life, then there is no reason to alter your behaviour. However, if your compulsive masturbation is impacting your working life or relationships, you may need to consider seeing a sex therapist. The important consideration is acknowledging that masturbation as an act is inherently human. In fact, recent studies have shown that not only is self-pleasure commonplace in Western society, but that over two in five people use sex toys at least once a week. Image: Eleanor Hadley How Often Should You Masturbate? While you may have asked yourself how often you should masturbate, the answer is not always as straightforward as it seems. According to sensuality coach Eleanor Hadley, frequency is entirely dependent on your relationship with masturbation, your libido and how much partnered sex you're having. 'Everyone's body and needs vary greatly, so I would suggest doing what feels right for you. As long as you aren't noticing any patterns of dependence on masturbation, I believe a regular masturbation practice can have several health benefits,' she says. 'Self pleasure is a really healthy practice that can increase endorphins, improve sleep, reduce stress and enhance self-esteem and body image.' Recent studies have also supported the notion that there is no 'normal' frequency for masturbation. A recent survey, conducted by sexual wellness brand The Handy in conjunction with UCLA-trained psychiatrist Dr. Sham Singh, found that some men masturbate weekly, others daily, while certain respondents claimed to hardly masturbate at all. Importantly, all of these frequencies are considered within the normal range for men. 'Masturbation is a common and healthy part of human sexuality. However, how much you want to masturbate varies from one individual to another, depending upon his or her overall lifestyle, personal relationships, and state of mind,' Dr. Sham Singh said. 'But in general terms, for most individuals, a few sessions of daily masturbation does not go out of the ordinary at all in terms of being healthy and average.' Furthermore, Dr. Sham Singh suggested that masturbation may actually have some serious benefits. According to a 2016 study by the European Association of Urology, men who ejaculated 21 times a month or more were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. This was compared to men who ejaculated four to seven times per month. While the statistics must be taken with a grain of salt, it does suggest that regular masturbation can be beneficial to overall health. Understanding Masturbation Shame Both Hadley and Dr. Sham Singh acknowledge that while masturbation is inherently normal, the collective shame that surrounds the topic can often make discussions about sexual health difficult. The taboo nature of self-punishment, Hadley reveals, can often be traced back to early childhood. 'Many men start masturbating quite young and depending on their upbringing, may have internalised shame or taboo around self-pleasure,' Hadley explains. 'Often it was something that they felt the need to hide or to do quickly so as not to get caught.' According to the expert, the fear of public ridicule for the behaviour can lead to an unhealthy relationship with self-pleasure and sexual intimacy. Hadley explains that this psychological phenomenon may not serve us well in the long run, both for our self-esteem and for future relationships. Instead, she suggests breaking the cycle and changing the way you view male masturbation. 'Just like any habit, the more that we get used to doing something the same way every time, the harder it is to break. For a lot of men, they are masturbating the same way they always have – essentially training themselves to reach orgasm in one type of way and often in a short period of time,' she says. 'Switching up your masturbation routine is a really great practice to get into in order to explore new sensations and to train yourself to last longer, too. One of the biggest misconceptions around male masturbation, and sex in general, involves the use of the phrases 'climax' and 'orgasm' Chatting with the sex expert, it's easy to get caught up in the prospect of shameless self-love, but in the real world, it's not always as simple as that. In fact, a lot of issues are spurred by a lack of knowledge. So, let's start at the top and dive into how to masturbate. What is the Difference Between Climax & Orgasm? One of the biggest misconceptions around male masturbation, and sex in general, involves the use of the phrases 'climax' and 'orgasm'. While we'd all like to believe we are killing it in the bedroom each and every time, whether that be by ourselves or with a partner, understanding the stark differences between the two is important. According to Hadley, if you understand your own body, you're much more equipped to satisfy someone else's. Climax – A climax refers to the peak point of pleasure, where your pelvic floor muscles involuntarily contract and is often short and sharp, like reaching the top of the mountain. You can make your way up, then quickly drop down again. – A climax refers to the peak point of pleasure, where your pelvic floor muscles involuntarily contract and is often short and sharp, like reaching the top of the mountain. You can make your way up, then quickly drop down again. Orgasm – An orgasm refers to the deep feeling of pleasure and relaxation you experience just before reaching that point. Most often, ejaculation occurs at the same time as orgasm, but they can actually occur independently of one another. And, as mentioned before, it is entirely possible to experience orgasm without ejaculation, with practice. Can You Masturbate Too Much? While it might seem improbable, masturbating too much is a common concern. As bodybuilders and fitness nuts know, even healthy habits can become unhealthy if done in excess or to an extreme. Sadly, this is also true of masturbation. Just how much is too much, however, varies from person to person. In a 2020 interview with MBG, sex and relationship therapist Shadeen Francis, LMFT, explained that some people masturbate several times a day with no negative outcomes. 'There is no objective measure of how much anyone should masturbate,' Francis said. 'Your health is an individual consideration. If your masturbation habits are causing you mental, emotional, relational, or physical distress, that is an indicator that you may be masturbating more than is currently healthy for you.' What Happens When You Abstain from Masturbation? While male masturbation is considered healthy and perfectly normal, not everyone indulges in the act. This may be due to religious or spiritual reasons, cultural concerns or simply because they just don't like it; this is also very common. In terms of benefits and risks, abstaining from masturbation has its anecdotal evidence, but nothing overly concrete. A 2003 study published in the Zhejiang University Press suggested that no masturbating may be linked to increased testosterone, however, the test was focused more on short term behaviour. A lot of men believe in the act of semen retention. By all accounts, this spiritual sexual practice sees people avoid ejaculation 'because they believe semen is a source of life force energy'. According to Hadley, there is no scientific evidence that reports semen retention being specifically beneficial or harmful. 'Many men choose to abstain from masturbation or more specifically, ejaculation, to enjoy longer sex when with a partner,' she says. 'This a tao and tantric practice referred to as semen retention in which you intentionally avoid ejaculation while energetically channelling your sexual energy in order to experience more powerful orgasms.' Image: Frenchie How to Improve the Intensity of Your Orgasm With the basics covered, we turned to sensuality coach Eleanor Hadley for advice on how to make the most of your masturbation time. Focusing on improving the intensity of your orgasms, Hadley revealed five key tips to incorporate into your routine. Here's what she had to say: 1. Take Your Time When you rush to the end goal, you'll often experience a short, sharp peak followed by a quick decline in pleasure. When you take your time to slowly build up before reaching your climax, you'll experience much more intense orgasms as a result. 2. Practice Edging This is a really great practice if you're struggling to slow down. When you feel yourself getting towards the point of no return, simply hold back a bit, slow down or move your focus elsewhere. Then start self-pleasuring again until you reach that point once more. Repeating this pattern multiple times will lead to far more powerful orgasms and help you last even longer. 3. Lube Up Make your self-pleasure sessions much more enjoyable by using plenty of natural lubricant, like Frenchie's Oh La La Love Lube. Using lube increases pleasure, mitigates the risk of abrasions due to friction on the delicate tissue of the penis, and intensifies orgasms. 4. Breathe Deeply Tuning in to your breath and taking long, slow, deep breaths during masturbation can help to channel your sexual energy upwards throughout the body, allowing for full-body orgasms. When you breathe deeply, you oxygenate your blood and increase blood flow, resulting in deeper pleasure. Rather than holding your breath at the point of orgasm, try visualising your breath moving up along your spine towards your head. With practice, this can lead to much more intense orgasms. 5. Explore Different Sensations Explore the world of blended orgasms by adding in different sensations to your usual masturbation routine. Try touching different parts of your body at the same time as stimulating your penis such as your nipples, neck, thighs, anus. Adding in a sex toy such as Frenchie's Double Entendre is a great way to add in more sensation and increase orgasmic potential. You can try turning the vibration on and holding it to the tip of your penis, curving the flexible body of the vibe around your shaft or exploring anal pleasure. Variety is the key to enhanced pleasure and heightened orgasms. How Often Should Men Masturbate FAQs How often should men be masturbating?' There is no official consensus on how often you should masturbate. According to sensuality coach, Eleanor Hadley, everyone's body and needs vary greatly. Provided you lead a satisfying, healthy life, then there is no reason to alter your behaviour. However, if your compulsive masturbation is impacting your working life or relationships, you may need to consider seeing a sex therapist. What is the difference between climax and orgasm? A climax refers to the peak point of pleasure, where your pelvic floor muscles involuntarily contract and is often short and sharp, like reaching the top of the mountain. Whereas an orgasm refers to the deep feeling of pleasure and relaxation you experience just before reaching that point. What happens when you abstain from masturbation? Many men choose to abstain from masturbation or more specifically, ejaculation, to enjoy longer sex when with a partner. This a tao and tantric practice referred to as semen retention in which you intentionally avoid ejaculation while energetically channelling your sexual energy in order to experience more powerful orgasms. There is no scientific evidence, however, that reports semen retention being specifically beneficial or harmful.
West Australian
18-05-2025
- West Australian
Andrew Miller: Shonky health gurus and anti-vaxxers are as pointless as astrological signs
What star sign are you? Mine is Cancer, which means nothing at all. We don't involve astrologists in patient care or engineering because people would inevitably die if we relied on fun falsehoods rather than verifiable science. A simple experiment — go back and look at the horoscopes in New York newspapers on the morning of September 11, 2001. Unless they show that everyone was meant to have a one-star day, then we know these predictions are worthless. Also harmless perhaps, but I am not grumpy because I'm Cancerian. I'm just a middle-aged man, disappointed by the decline of Western civilisation — and because Married at First Sight seems to have replaced Shakespeare. Humans often prefer to believe in confident myths rather than simple truths, which are boring and often involve some hard work. Avoid cigarettes and alcohol, get regular exercise and eat a Mediterranean diet in moderation. Yeah, nah — surely there is a supplement or wonder diet I can briefly try instead? Cash is like science — honest, predictable and very useful. You can rely on fifty bucks to do exactly what it says it will do, so if given the chance to spin nonsense into money, many people will grab it. The multibillion-dollar wellness industry is just another horoscope. Unnecessary remedies for imaginary disorders and unscientific cures for real problems abound. In the US, the sensible leaders of medical science are rapidly being replaced by grifters of alternative medicine, whose only convincing qualification is fealty to President Trump. His latest dramatically inappropriate nominee for US Surgeon-General is Dr Casey Means, who doesn't even hold a medical licence, but does have more than 800,000 followers on Instagram and a website selling her books, courses, creams, teas and glucose monitors. She stars in nodding podcasts with taglines like 'making decisions with our body awareness rather than our rational minds'. Dr Means' book, Good Energy, couches the standard biochemistry of a healthy diet and exercise as good v bad energy, while suggesting that the evil mainstream medical industry is perpetuating illness for profit. She is an avid fan of anti-vaxxer Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who last week reportedly took his grandkids for a bracing dip in a waterway contaminated with raw sewage. He literally went up s..t creek — you can't make this stuff up. As a registered healthcare practitioner, I would rightly be disciplined for sabotaging public health, but here in Australia senator Gerard Rennick and others have apparently been amplifying anti-vax, anti-science theories for years. They won't be helping out when someone's unvaccinated kid ends up in the ICU with encephalitis or pneumonia from measles. Social media is a monetised, fame-hungry open sewer of misinformation, disinformation and dross, obscuring occasional nuggets of truth. How do the public know what to believe? We must seek out reliable, qualified voices, and having a regular GP is the best place to start. These days I swallow a few regular medications for blood pressure and cholesterol. I even bought a pill dispenser labelled with the days of the week. Next stop, Velcro slippers. The reason I will take whatever my GP recommends is because there is good risk-benefit evidence for them. It's boring, safe and effective. The new weight loss drugs might be of great assistance to many folks in time — but rely on your GP, not the influencers or drug companies, to help decide what is useful for you. Being born with the right genetics is also handy, but hard to plan. Mum is going strong at 98 — maybe she should pass on more of those good genes. 'Think of the reality TV possibilities if you had IVF — we could make a motza!' I told her. 'Stop being ridiculous and get me another chocolate,' she said. Typical Aries.
News.com.au
22-04-2025
- News.com.au
East Meets West: AdAlta navigates China–US divide to drive biotech value
AdAlta subsidiary AdCella brings cutting-edge cellular immunotherapies from Asia – particularly China – into Western markets AdCella has backing of SYNthesis BioVentures Fund, which invests in therapeutics development The biotech fund believes AdCella's East to West strategy is particularly appealing in current US-China trade war As trade tensions between the US and China escalate, a small-cap ASX biotech could become a strategic gateway for bringing Asia's next wave of cellular immunotherapies into lucrative Western markets. AdAlta (ASX:1AD) and venture capital firm SYNthesis BioVentures Fund (SYNBV) launched AdCella in 2024 to bring cutting-edge cellular immunotherapies from Asia, particularly China, into Western markets. SYNBV was co-founded by Professor Andrew Wilks, who, alongside Amplia Therapeutics (ASX:ATX) CEO Dr Chris Burns, received the 2024 Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation for co-inventing momelotinib, an FDA-approved treatment for myelofibrosis. Until recently AdAlta has been focused on treating fibrotic diseases with its lead asset AD-214 for kidney and lung fibrosis. The drug has demonstrated safety in phase I clinical studies and efficacy in multiple preclinical models of fibrotic disease. Managing director and CEO Dr Tim Oldham said that while AD-214 remained a valuable asset with potential to be monetised through external partnerships, it became clear that expanding AdAlta's pipeline would require looking beyond its drug discovery efforts. "Our history of developing assets from scratch was too long, too slow and too expensive to be appropriate for a listed company," he said. "It was perfect for a private company but not a listed one. "We needed to find assets we could in-licence that would be in clinical trials relatively quickly, then figure out where we could gain a sustainable edge, how to be competitive in securing those opportunities and add real value in the process." Rise of East to West cellular immunotherapy strategy Leveraging Dr Tim Oldham's deep expertise in cellular immunotherapies and extensive operational experience in Asia, AdAlta adopted an East to West strategy, aimed at identifying and advancing promising Asian cancer therapies into regulated Western markets. Oldham said he'd been fortunate to witness firsthand the rapid evolution of China's biotech sector and the remarkable progress in cellular immunotherapies for cancer treatment over the past 15 years. He was previously CEO of Cell Therapies, a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) based at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Cell Therapies has manufactured CAR-T therapies for nearly 20 years, including Novartis's Kymriah, the first FDA-approved CAR-T treatment in 2017. The East to West cellular immunotherapy strategy for cancer is now a core growth priority for AdAlta and a key driver of future pipeline growth and value creation. "Cancer is the area where cellular immunotherapies are proving to have the greatest commercial impact and we know that the hotspot of innovation in this space is Asia, particularly China," he said. Oldham said 60% of global clinical trials into chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy – a type of cellular immunotherapy – was in China. He said Asia was overweight in its level of innovation in the field, with 40% of companies developing cellular immunotherapy products based in the region. "The advantage we bring to the table is the ecosystem we have in Australia in cell and gene therapy, particularly CAR-T cell therapies, with decades of developmental experience," Oldham said. "In Australia we treated the first CAR-T patient in a commercial clinical trial outside of North America, which was for Novartis. "We supply today as many CAR-T products per million of population as the US and that is five times the market penetration of Europe or Japan, so we've got some advantages here." Oldham said Australia runs more than 50 cellular and gene therapy trials with good manufacturing capabilities. "We can also run clinical trials here for a much lower cost than in the US and that is before any available R&D tax incentive." China innovation meets Aussie expertise Oldham said AdCella was now positioned to take advantage of a hotspot of innovation in China. It has secured non-binding term sheets for three CAR-T therapies targeting various solid cancer tumours, such as colorectal, lung, gastric, ovarian, and pancreatic. The therapies have delivered encouraging results in early clinical trials, showing potential to be more effective than current treatment options. They also include advanced features like safety kill switches, which enable doctors to shut down the therapy if serious side effects occur, secreted checkpoint inhibitor molecules that help overcome immune suppression, and non-viral vector manufacturing – a newer, potentially more efficient way to engineer the cells without using viruses. "Our business model is to license cellular immunotherapy assets for solid cancers developed in China which are derisked to some degree with clinical data," Oldham said. "We bring those assets into an Australian legal entity and move manufacturing out of China into Australia because you can't manufacture human cells in China for Western markets. "We're conducting the first clinical trial under a US Investigational New Drug (IND) application in Australia, which is significant for our Chinese partners, as it demonstrates that their work in China translates effectively to Western patients." Oldham said they've also removed many of the transaction costs for big pharma if they were to do similar deals, making their East-West projects more attractive. "They know they'd have to go into China, do the translation of the work, due diligence, move manufacturing and a whole bunch of work which we are eliminating," he said. "Just as importantly, in the current geopolitical environment the intellectual property is sitting with a Western company that should be more immune to the effects of the Biosecure Act and US-China trade wars." AdAlta has appointed Dr Kevin Lynch MD as consultant CMO and is working with specialist partners such as Cell Therapies and Dark Horse Consulting to bring further market leading expertise to the opportunity. As US and China relations deteriorate better strategy looks SYNBV co-managing director Amir Zalcenstein said the AdCella East to West strategy was appealing to the fund, which invests in therapeutic development. The fund is putting in $500,000 now and might add $1.5m later to own up to 25% of AdCella (through convertible shares). They also have the option to put in more money (up to $5.5m) when AdCella raises its next big round of funding, but AdAlta will still own most of AdCella. "We've been very impressed with the quality of diligence, and it's been a very long and arduous process," Zalcenstein told Stockhead. "We're convinced that these are the three best projects that matched ours and AdCella's criteria and the management team can execute." Zalcenstein said the East to West strategy was highly attractive in the current geopolitical environment. "The strategy itself has a unique element to it which is the worse things get in terms of geopolitics the better it looks," he said. "The more there's a breakdown of trade relations between the US and China, there will be an increased desperation by Chinese biotech companies to find avenues to bring their therapies to the west. "You don't necessarily get rich selling medicines in China even if you're Chinese, but you can certainly do that if you have a blockbuster in the west." Zalcenstein said establishing a conduit where you have a company like AdCella licencing drugs out of China then bringing them to Australia as a mid-way point to other Western jurisdictions makes sense. Other US venture firms and big pharma companies also considering ways of getting biotech assets out of China for Western development. "I'm not saying more trouble equals less risk, but I am saying more trouble equals more attractiveness to this strategy and that was a factor for us," Zalcenstein said.
