The following is a Stockhouse Q&A interview with M Pharmaceutical Inc. (C.MQ, Stock Forum) CEO George Tsafalas:
1. How does the eMosquito device set itself apart from the many existing products in the US $16.7 billion diabetes monitoring, treatment and drug delivery market?
The device replaces fingerpricking by providing a wearable, pseudo-continuous (I.e. Sufficiently frequent) glucose monitoring from whole blood samples extracted by bites by miniature, single-use mosquito-like cells, assembled together in a cuff or a bracelet.
2. What demographic is the eMosquito geared toward and just how big is the potential, how many people suffer from diabetes worldwide?
The device aims at helping insulin-dependent diabetics, who are at the moment about 100 million people worldwide. The fingerpricking blood glucose monitoring market is 8.5 billion $. The continuous blood glucose monitoring market is about 200 million $. Initially, we aim at taking a similar chunk from the fingerpricking market, 200 million $, but grow it to 1 billion $ and beyond, as we perfect the technology.
3. What possibilities are there for recurring revenue streams related to the eMosquito?
Each e-Mosquito cell is a single-use, so the revenue stream is recurring, with the same model as the fingerpricking devices of today. Each cell contains one needle actuator and one standard test stripe. We aim at equalizing the cost of the actuator and the test stripe, so that the cost of a single glucose test would be at most two times the cost of a present-day fingerpricking, with the benefit of being pre-programmed, not noticeable by the patient, and automatic.
4
. Who is behind the patent-pending technology that brought about the eMosquito?
We are three inventors, two professors from the U of C, Martin Mintchev and Orly Yadid-Pecht, and our PhD graduate student, Mr. Joseph Wang.
5. What are the major milestones M Pharmaceuticals expects to hit in 2015?
The following are the Company's current milestone goals, together with an approximate timeline of achieving the same.
· Development of a pilot prototype of the eMosquito (Q2 2015)
· Preparation of a medical device registration strategy (Q2-Q3 2015)
· Pilot prototype testing in laboratory (Q3 2015)
· PCT Conversion/Continuous patent management (Q4 2015)
· Pilot prototype testing on experimental animals (Q4 2015)
6. The global market for the management of diabetes is expected to grow to over $114 billion by 2018. Where does M Pharmaceuticals see itself within this space in terms of market share?
We would like to start market penetration by reaching 1M $ in sales within 2 years after market entry, and double sales every 2 years thereafter, to reach a steady state value of 1 billion $ for the cuff version, and 4 billion $ for the patch version of the device.
FULL DISCLOSURE: M Pharmaceutical is a Stockhouse Publishing client.