VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 1, 2015) - Med BioGene Inc. ("MBI" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:MBI) is pleased to provide the following report of the Company's activities over the last four months for the benefit of the shareholders and the investment community. Since the last report to shareholders on February 3rd, 2015, there have been a number of developments of which shareholders should be aware.
Summary:
- The preparatory work required for the commercialization of GeneFx®Lung is continuing in
the US and in other jurisdictions.
- The MBI Board has been expanded to five Directors.
- Peterson Capital has been retained to expand MBI's profile in the investment community.
- In early May MBI management met with the CEO of Helomics™ in Vancouver.
- Helomics™ and MBI are developing commercial strategies to enhance their revenue streams.
- MBI has issued 1.4 million options to its Management and Directors.
Since early 2015, Helomics™ and MBI have been involved in discussions aimed at enhancing the commercial opportunities available to both companies. These discussions passed a milestone in early May when Neil Campbell, the CEO of Helomics™, was able to visit Vancouver to hold meetings with MBI management. The meetings were productive and enabled both companies to gain a more complete understanding of their medium and long term objectives.
At the conclusion of the meetings with Helomics™, and working with Peterson Capital, MBI prepared an Investor Fact Sheet, which is available for viewing on the Company's website, outlining what management believes to be conservative and achievable milestones in the GeneFx®Lung commercialization process. These milestones are within the range of estimates MBI presented in the February 3rd, 2015 news release. The Peterson Capital team will be proactive in keeping the existing capital market audience aware of progress towards the milestones, and increasing awareness among other market participants who will be learning about MBI and Helomics™ for the first time.
The purpose of the work being carried out this year is to develop commercial strategies intended to supplement the core business of MBI, and to be of a substantial mutual benefit to both companies over the next 3 to 10 years. The companies have identified opportunities which should enable them to employ new strategies to expand their markets in the field of personalized health care, and the value added services they provide.
Currently, MBI's primary source of future earnings will be the milestone payments and royalty stream resulting from the commercialization of the GeneFX® Lung test procedure. The countries in which patent protection exists are Canada, USA, UK (and the other European countries signatories of the European Patent Convention, EPC), Japan, and Australia. The combined number of new Non Small Cell Lung Cancers, NSCLC, in North America and Europe which are amenable to analysis by GeneFX® Lung is expected to be approximately 170,000 cases per year. Other than the costs typically associated with the operation of a publicly traded company, MBI maintains the previously stated opinion that royalty revenues could be distributed to the shareholders commencing in Q4, 2016.
MBI's cost of generating this royalty stream should be low because all sales related expenses costs will be borne by Helomics™, but the gross revenue stream to MBI is potentially limited by the number of GeneFx®Lung tests carried out on new NSCLC cases developing in the targeted markets, and by the number of post-treatment tests undertaken by clinicians. As has been noted before MBI's projected gross revenue stream is currently dependent upon the commercialization and market growth of GeneFx®Lung. In view of this MBI's management team has been exploring strategies for diversifying the revenue streams which are available to the Company. Any diversification, or expansion, of these will be accretive to the core business. In addition, any new strategy will have to demonstrate the ability to provide a ROI of better than 20%.
Two separate approaches are being evaluated, both internally and in conjunction with Helomics™. In both cases these approaches would be mutually beneficial to MBI and Helomics™, and would be synergistic with the long term goals of Helomics™.
The recent series of meetings held in Vancouver between Neil Campbell and members of MBI's management team were wide ranging and dealt with the need to identify strategies to develop net revenues. The discussions resulted in the broad outline of the two additional revenue generating strategies and the specifics of these are now being developed in Vancouver and Pittsburgh.
Because of regulatory and commercial considerations, MBI anticipates that it will be late 2015 before the specifics of these strategies can be made public. However, shareholders should be aware that these additional actions designed to enhance the value of MBI, as well as the Company's long term revenue growth, are proceeding.
Simultaneously with MBI's work on developing additional revenue streams, Helomics™ is continuing the time consuming process of commercializing GeneFX®Lung with health care providers in the US. This work is proceeding in conjunction with the commercialization of GeneFX®Lung in other jurisdictions in a manner which will generate additional revenue by utilizing other technologies owned by Helomics™.
Conclusions:
- The activities associated with the planned commercialization of MBI's genome based test procedure, GeneFx®Lung, are proceeding in the US and in other jurisdictions in accordance with previously established schedules.
- Helomics™ and MBI are working on mutually beneficial opportunities based upon their strong working relationship.
- Additional opportunities for net revenue generation for MBI have been identified, and these will be evaluated in terms of commercial viability, and their benefits for shareholders.
About Med BioGene Inc.
MBI is a life science company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is currently focused on managing the license and rights to GeneFX® Lung, a prognostic genomic based test procedure. MBI's common shares are listed for trading on the Exchange. For more information, please visit www.medbiogene.com.
This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States legislation. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release