Week 3 – Best Kept “Little Secret”

Hope you all are doing well.  Things have been a little hectic at BioSurfaces since my last blog.  Like many companies in this current topsy-turvy economic environment (especially as it relates to science and investment), we are having to be even more conservative as compared to last year so every area of the company is affected.  I wish we were like some of the few chosen companies where money just seems to flow like a river.  That has never been the case for us.  What is more frustrating is when these same companies lease expensive space, go on massive spending sprees and irresponsibly grow.  A few years later, they are out of business.  We have always been a company that has tried to do the right thing, being honest about our technology and treating our customers and collaborators fairly.  It is so hard when you see some of these companies getting ahead with so-so technology compared to what we’ve been able to show year in and year out.  I have dreamt about having just a portion of this funding and what we could accomplish.  Our longevity, which is considered a negative in the traditional investing world (go figure) says that we do have something special and it is slowly gaining some traction.  In science, sometimes you are just ahead of the curve and must wait for people to catch up.  There are days, to be honest, when I see this and wonder why we are doing this.  It can be deflating at times.    

But then we get some little signs here and there and start to reaffirm that we might have something here.  For example, our IVRT business has continued to see growth, with sales doubling compared to the same time last year.  It is truly amazing because we have not had the ability to put a lot of resources behind making the world aware of how special our Bio-Spun^® scaffolds are.  Even without having extra funding, the IVRT business line has continued to grow.  You might be asking yourself how that is possible.  Our customers that have been using our Bio-Spun^® scaffolds have seen promising data and continue to expand their use.  Word of mouth from them within their company spreads the use of our products.  With little resources, we can use social media to get the word out about our IVRT products, bringing in some new customers.  We look to attend a meeting to present data that the team or our team in conjunction with customers have generated, demonstrating the benefits of our Bio-Spun^® scaffold when used to make more human-relevant tissue models.  It is exciting to see this business start to really grow and the interest that it is gathering.

There has been some renewed interest in medical devices that we developed a few years ago, specifically our NuSpun™ Vascular Graft and our Bio-Spun^® Fistula Plug.  Both devices have undergone extensive benchtop and preclinical studies and have been waiting for a partner to move them forward.  When we first started the company, we thought that we would be the next large medical device company, bringing this technology all the way through to people.  As we looked at that strategy, we realized that this was a huge undertaking that was going to require tens of millions of dollars to execute on our own.  Not having connections with a businessperson that had strong ties to the investor community made this seem to be an impossible task.  I did not have those connections and would not have known where to look.  I was strictly a scientist (and in many ways, still am) and did not really understand that for us to move in this direction, we needed that person.  Recently, companies have been reaching out to look for next-generation technologies that they could acquire and bring them to completion.  This would allow other companies to then license or acquire the specific device.  This was not an area that I was expecting an uptick in so we’ll have to see where we finally end up.  I would love to see these devices move forward, and being an eternal optimist, this could be that chance.         

The other area where we have been seeing some outreach is companies that are asking for our help to use our technology to advance their applications, what we refer to as development or co-development projects.  Throughout the past 22 years, we’ve had quite a few of these types of programs, from small start-up companies to large global companies.  We have tended to thrive in this area because unlike a company that just understands one thing (for example, electrospinning), we pride ourselves on being a full-service provider.  We look to understand the pain-point for the end user and build a solution based upon solving their problem.  This type of work uses all our skillsets, from engineering and bioengineering to cell biology and manufacturing.  These types of projects can be challenging and sometimes they do not work out as you planned.  Sometimes, the outcome exceeds your expectations.  The latter is more of the norm.  I am always impressed by how our team tackles these challenges.  Since we have a collaborative group, there is nothing better than watching the team work together like a well-oiled engine.  While we’ve provided many solutions, we have yet to see one head into people.  Many times, the business folks at the company we are working with do not see eye-to-eye with the technical people, which can kill good technology.  Nothing is more frustrating than seeing good preclinical data and then watching the program die due to administrative issues.  This is the most challenging part of this type of work.  A lot of our data comes from these studies where outside groups validate our Bio-Spun^® materials.    

I do believe that we are the best kept “little secret.”  Over the past few months, I feel like the secret is getting out there.  Question is who will take advantage of our technology for their specific applications.  We are excited to find out!

Matt