The Australian life sciences sector's annus horribilis has been confirmed with both PricewaterhouseCoopers and Intersuisse confirming a near 30 per cent drop in biotech stocks in the last quarter, to March 31.

Excluding the big three of CSL, Resmed and Cochlear, Australian biotech stocks declined by 29 per cent in the three months, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' latest report.

The Intersuisse Biotechnology Index showed a fall of 23.9 per cent in the quarter.

PwC found that only four out of 130 companies in its index managed to make positive ground, including Antisense Therapeutics, Clinuvel and Genepharm.

PwC life sciences partner Craig Lawn said it was "crunch time for biotechs".

"Companies nearing the end of their capital raising cycle in [the fourth quarter] or later will undoubtedly feel the effects of softening pricing," Lawn said.

The medical device sector was largely responsible for the poor showing, the report found. While the pharma/biotech sector was down 7.4 per cent, medical devices dropped by nearly a quarter.

"This quarter's results are a complete reversal of last quarter's for the medical device sectors," Lawn said.

Mesoblast was still making news, however, releasing details of the Phase II trial being carried out by its sister company in the US, Angioblast.

Angioblast is trialling a proprietary mesenchymal precursor cell technology in cardiac patients. The trial involves a direct injection of allogeneic stem cells into damaged heart muscle by cardiac catheter.

25 patients are currently enrolled in the trial and one, a 65-year-old man treated at the Texas Heart Institute, was treated 10 days after suffering a massive heart attack. Angioblast said he was discharged from hospital within 48 hours.

The co-leader of the trial, Dr James Willerson, said his team expected to see the stem cells develop into blood vessel and heart muscles cells and heal the damage caused by the heart attack.

"People should be excited by this," he said.

Mesoblast has announced it will accelerate its clinical trial timetable following encouraging safety data from its ongoing Phase II spinal fusion trial.

The company now hopes to go into Phase III in the middle of next year. The company said it will expand its Phase II trials to include 10 new sites in the US.

South Australian-based LabTech Systems will "soft" launch its MicroStreak microbiology diagnostic at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Spain next week.

LabTech signed a licensing agreement with French diagnostics giant bioMerieux worth an initial $3.2 million last year for MicroStreak, which was invented by Dr John Glasson, chief scientist in clinical pathology at South Australia's Institute of Medical and Veterinary Sciences.

LabTech Systems CEO Luisa Guthrie said the device would be launched in the US in June.

The company has also received an extra $640,000 from the Federal Government to bring its Commercial Ready Grant funds up to $2.78 million.

Perth's NeuroDiscovery has released early stage results in its trial of NSL-043 for neuropathic pain.

The Phase I results show the oral formulation of the drug had no meaningful adverse effects compared to placebo and that it was well tolerated at high doses.