Hope all is going well and that our readers in the United States had a great Thanksgiving. It’s always a great time of the year where you get to eat too much and enjoy some time with family. It was nice to have a more normal holiday this year, although we are well aware that COVID-19 is not done with us yet. We are fortunate that our family is fully vaccinated (with boosters coming very soon) so that helps to derisk the gathering a lot. We are also fortunate to have a small family in this case since we know that many large families had to make hard decisions as to how to gather safely. I should also say a belated “Happy Hanukkah!” or “Hanukkah sameach!” to our Jewish friends.
I believe that this time of year makes you think of things you are thankful for in your life. While I have a long list of things that I’m thankful for (I won’t bore you with it), one thing I am very grateful for is the number of people that take time each week to read this blog. I’ve had several people reach out to me over the past few weeks to let me know how much they enjoy reading it. I often wonder if what I’m writing about is all that interesting so it is good to hear that some people think so (and I didn’t even have to bribe them to say that). I cannot thank you enough for making this a small part of your busy life. When I get this positive feedback, I get more motivated to continue. I must say that I miss posting when I have not done it in a while. I feel like this is my little way to let you know how things are going at the company. It is sort of my therapy so I technically should be paying you to “listen.” But then again, I am a small business owner so I don’t have the free cash to do so. Such a conundrum!
Back to business. We are still working to fight the good fight to get some loose ends tied up before the next holidays are upon us. I know you are probably thinking that it is only December 3rd, but so many people start winding things down within the next 2 weeks. It reminds me of one of my favorite things that Tina and I try to do each spring. We travel down to Plymouth, MA (good place to reference around the Thanksgiving holiday) to watch the herring run. For those of you not familiar with this event, huge numbers of herring swim in from the ocean up a fast running stream so they can spawn (https://www.plymouthriverherring.org/). I am always amazed at the tenacity of these little fish. They “stop” only for short periods of time before they make the hardest trek up a steep man-made fish ladder to a pond. At this time of year, I feel like them. I am trying to get things done and so many obstacles are put in the way. And like them, I need to keep pushing forward until there is success. While we are swimming against the holiday “current,” we continue to have discussions with potential strategic partners. Since the last blog release, we’ve had several video conference calls, emails and LinkedIn messages with different potential strategic partners related to different aspects of our technology. Several more are scheduled in the upcoming couple of weeks. There should be enough time to get the process initiated with one or more of these potential strategic partners so we can hit the ground running in the New Year. This way, I can go enjoy the holiday break, allowing myself a little mental vacation from the business.
During the short break, we were able to execute one agreement and are in the process of executing another.
Unfortunately, I cannot mention either company based on them wanting to keep their name confidential. First, we were able to provide positive data to a global medical device company in the first proof of concept study. This led to the company wanting to further these studies. We are evaluating using our Bio-Spun™ technology either alone or on their current device to enhance healing while delivering an anti-clotting drug over an extended period of time. We are hopeful that completion of this phase will lead to preclinical studies in the next round of testing. We are also in discussions with a global cosmetic company regarding entering a new phase of our collaboration after positive results from an initial proof of concept study. The goal is to deliver various actives and makeup in a more effective way with the ability to increase the potential delivery amount. We are also working with this cosmetics company on developing a new benchtop skin model grown on our Bio-Spun™ scaffold for testing their future products. This separate study further develops our 3D scaffold business. These are on top of the already productive co-development relationship we have with Takeda related to our Bio-Spun™ Cell Chamber, fistula plug and drug delivery devices. In January, we will be releasing a new animation related to our cell chamber that we are working on with Life Science Animation (https://life-science-animation.com/), an outstanding team to work with for any animation needs in the life science space.
Hard to believe our last blog of the year will be the next one on December 17th. We will give our dedicated readers a break to enjoy the holiday season with their family and friends. Until the next blog…
Matt