Week 4 – Life Imitating Art

Hope all is going well.  I want to start out this month’s blog by sharing two personal thoughts.  First, I was saddened to learn of the passing of one of BioSurfaces’ investors, Richard Slifka.  Richard (or as many people would refer to him as Richie – I just couldn’t get used to calling him that) was one of first people to invest in BioSurfaces.  I remember like it was yesterday meeting with Richard and several other individuals in 2018 when Tina and I were first exploring the possibility of bringing in outside investment to help grow the business.  We were new to this area of business.  I was so impressed by the business and financial knowledge of this group.  Tina and I have even been told by some investors that they would never invest in a husband and wife-owned company.  For some foolish reason, they would rather invest in these “pie-in-the-sky” companies that burn out after 3-4 years after raising tens of millions of dollars.  We are so grateful to our investors like Richard that overcame this foolish notion and believe in our technology and mission.  I remember at the end of that first meeting, I thanked Richard for his willingness to invest in BioSurfaces.  He told me that he expected not to get anything from this investment as most of his biotech investments ended up folding or not working.  I told him I wanted to be his first success story.  Those words are what continues to drive me as I never take any of what our investors have put into our business lightly.  I am saddened to hear of his passing and that he won’t be able to directly see that his belief in us is going to pay off.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Richard’s wife Rosalyn and his family during this time. 

Second, I want to wish my beautiful wife Tina a very happy 34th wedding anniversary.  People always say to us that they could never work with their spouse.  I truly count this as one of the blessings in my life.  It can be difficult because we both know what is going on at the company and in challenging times, that can be extremely stressful.  We’ve had a few good cries over the years.  BioSurfaces would not be where it is today without Tina’s unwavering support and dedication.  While I am the face of the company (not a pretty one – just the face), Tina is the heart of the company.  She makes this company run smoothly behind the scenes without getting the acknowledgment she deserves.  She always says to me that she is inspired that I get up every morning, even when things were at their lowest and keep pushing forward without complaining.  She doesn’t realize that she lifts me up by just being there.  She believes in our team and our technology, in that order.  I am so blessed to be able to see her every day and know that she believes in what we are trying to do.  I look forward to many more years of working with her to bring this technology forward and getting it out there to really help people.  We never lose sight of this mission.

Today’s blog topic focuses on life imitating art.  I know this is typically listed the opposite way (art imitating life), but you’ll understand why I put it in this order.  Tina and I saw a great new movie the other night called Nonnas (it is currently on Netflix -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDJxJd3FzDY).  Now, you may be wondering why I would be mentioning it in this blog.  The movie, based on a true story, is about a person (Jody "Joe" Scaravella) deciding to start a restaurant after his mom Maria passes away.  He has no business experience but believes that this is his calling.  I will not give you any other information since I do not want to spoil the movie.  For those of you who are entrepreneurs, I would suggest you bring a box of tissues when you are watching it.  This will hit close to home in terms of the struggles of opening and running a small business.  Tina and I were a mess because it truly hit so close to home.  It is also inspiring about following your dreams and the roles that total strangers, friends and family play in your journey.  I strongly suggest you watch it.

We continue to be busy on several fronts in the company.  We received official word this month that Bio-Spun™ has received trademark approval.  You will begin to see Bio-Spun® soon on all products and information once we complete some final paperwork.  This provides the company with a strong marketing tool for brand awareness on all of our technology that uses Bio-Spun™.  On the IVRT side of the business, we executed two distributor agreements, which will begin to bring our products into China and Japan.  Who would have thought that our initial foray into the IVRT space would lead to our products being purchased by different researchers around the world.  This adds to the other 2 other distributor agreements that we executed in the first quarter of this year. We also have two existing distributors that are currently selling our products.  We will be putting out some additional details on our website and social medias very soon about our distributor network.  This is in addition to BioSurfaces selling our IVRT products directly to customers.  We also executed a co-marketing agreement with Lifeline Cell Technology, in which customers will be able to purchase Lifeline’s cell and medium and will get information about our Bio-Spun™ scaffold technology.  This will also happen in reverse on our website.  More information will be coming soon.  Lastly, we are in advanced negotiations with several global leaders in the IVRT product space to bring our technology to their large customer base.

On the cell therapy delivery space, we executed a distribution agreement with Primetech to bring our Bio-Spun™ Cell Chambers to investigators in Japan.  We continue to work with companies in the liver and diabetes space, which are currently evaluating our Bio-Spun™ materials to deliver their specific technologies.  We are also making advances with our Bio-Spun™ Cell Chamber, with funding provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to deliver biotherapeutic levels of an anti-HIV drug for people in low- and middle-income countries.  With the US backing away from global leadership in aid and relief funding for agencies like USAID, it will become more imperative to develop this type of device to help people who become even more desperate for treatment.  We cannot forget that any disease that is not treated somewhere in the world will likely end up on our doorstep in the not-too-distant future.  COVID is a stark reminder of this.   We are committed to bringing this technology to this disenfranchised group of people.  We continue to work with our Bio-Spun™ Cell Chambers to deliver human islet cells with the goal of treating diabetic patients.  We have a long road ahead but we are encouraged about our current data.  More to come soon.

The last area we are focused on and we are starting to see some traction with is with various co-development opportunities.  For these opportunities, BioSurfaces uses its Bio-Spun™ technology to provide a solution for these companies’ existing or new technology applications.  These companies focus on areas such as cardiac, vascular and gastrointestinal.  We have seen a resurgence in interest for our NuSpun™ Vascular Graft technology (at least groups kicking the tires which is encouraging).  This is personally exciting for me as this is the technology we started the company on.  It is also the area where Richard’s investment was focused on advancing so the timing is interesting.  We’ll see where it goes but definitely more companies are starting to reach out.

We anticipate summer to slow some progress down but based on the way the year has shaped up so far, this might not be the case.  You will get no complaints from us.

Until next time!

Matt

Photo Credits: https://danceabilityinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/update.jpg