Week 11 – Reflecting on a Busy Year

Hope all is going well.  Hope that our US readers had a great Thanksgiving!  I want to take this time to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all of our Jewish readers.  Cannot believe that Christmas is under a week away.  Time between Thanksgiving and Christmas just seems to fly by each year.  It is hard to sometimes take stock in such a special time of the year.  In year’s past, business tended to slow down each day in December as the holiday closed in.  This has not been the case this year.  In some ways, it has been a positive sign that our little business is starting to gain some traction.  This does not mean that everything is sweet sailing.  I know this will be some people’s thoughts after reading this statement.  It just means that we are beginning to see the seeds that we’ve been working hard to sow are starting to sprout.

Much of my month has been focused on various aspects of our business, from modifying and creating new PowerPoint slide decks related to raising capital and developing PowerPoint slide decks that provide information about various applications created by using our technology to updating financial projections.  This is a team-effort so we can put together information that is concise, accurate and easy to digest.  Our previous deck, in my opinion and I can say this because I made this deck, was not giving the investor a clear indication of what we have and what is our approach.  We have heard this over the year and continued to try to make changes as we went along but even with these changes, we were getting similar feedback.  We could keep doing the same thing or really make some significant changes.  We decide to take that approach, which meant more work.  In the end, I think we’ve finally a bringing a clearer message.  Time will tell when we get feedback or raise our Series A round.  It has taken us a while to get there as sometimes you are just to close to a deck and making changes is hard.         

This time of the year allows me to look back on the year that was.  As you might recall, the start of 2024 was challenging as the business was quiet.  It was scary (business always is but this was especially scary) to say the least.  Toward the middle of 2024, business began to pick up but was more not consistent.  It made us question what 2025 would look like.  I am happy to report that business in 2025, even with all of the uncertainty that has been created, far exceeded our business in 2024.  Our IVRT product line continues to grow, both from a sales standpoint as well as from a customer standpoint.  Various companies have been evaluating our Bio-Spun™ scaffolds for different tissue models.  There is nothing better that seeing data that looks similar to what we’ve been developing in-house.  We formed agreements with distributors around the world, with us getting our first sales this year.  I cannot believe that this little company from Ashland, MA is starting to ship our products around the world.  We have also continued to internally develop new tissue models so our customers will have “recipe” to make these tissues right in their own labs.  We are already lining up orders for early next year, including from a global leader in this space so we are anticipating 2026 to be very busy.  Our engineering and manufacturing team are ramping up for a busy year to meet this projected demand.

We also saw an uptick in outreaches by customers looking to apply our technology to either an existing device or to use our technology to create a new device.  These types of programs are always interesting because no two programs are usually the same.  You can have companies looking to develop devices in a similar area but the devices are different.  It allows the group to be creative and use its deep knowledge to help develop a device specific for the customer.  This brings value to the customer as many groups can provide either material information or end-use information, but not typically both.  This gives us a significant benefit over our competitors.  If we pair this development with our capabilities to manufacture, it makes us a one-stop shopping for the customer.

2026 also has been a year for us incrementally advancing our own internal device technology.  We have spent many years developing different devices that have undergone a lot of testing.  When we have capacity, we always look to assess these technologies.  Our NuSpun™ Vascular Graft, which we’ve done the most work on, was evaluated by several companies this year.  It was great to finally see this technology getting a look after sitting on the shelf for a few years.  Feedback has been very good, with several interested in continuing this assessment early in 2026.  We are also seeing advancement of our cell therapy delivery device, which was funded by our Gates Foundation grant.  We have chambers that are being evaluated long-term in a preclinical studies.  Other customers are also looking at our cell chamber materials as well for their respective applications.  Lastly, our Bio-Spun™ Fistula Plug which has been sitting even longer on the shelf, is being resuscitated.  We are working on a grant application that might help us bring this to testing in people.  Again, optimism is growing for advancing our internal technology.   

A final thanks to our readers for making this blog a part of your schedule.  We never take this support for granted and from the feedback we receive, it helps to motivate us through all the different emotions that come with running the business.  Tina and I would like to wish you and your families a safe, healthy and happy holiday season.

Matt