I agree totally. Historically they have made good progress in relatively short timeframes. There has been nothing significant for far too long. Hopefully midday next Friday will be interesting.
Errant apostrophe there Simla - tch, tch.
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I'll take that as a compliment...
Great news article from Oz here - http://culturedcare.com/2010/07/21/p...-australia-tv/
Yes indeed.
Well, if we weave the Australian TV Clip with the Nestle news story, we might ponder some things...
1. It's all about food ...
Go back to this interview (Nov 2009) which said that the future of Blis was with food. http://www.moosylvania.com/blog/file...ason+quote.pdf "For K12 the future may lie increasingly in food and beverage products. Washington-Smith says BLIS has been working with the ingredient in yoghurt applications. “Our yoghurt delivery system is well advanced,” he says. “I see greater and greater effort going into the functional food space, especially the yoghurt area. In South East Asia and Singapore we have had a lot of discussion with companies about the inclusion of K12 in yoghurt products. Our future is going to be in functional foods.”
And the last annual report (p7) http://blis.co.nz/userfiles/file/BLI...rt%202010.pdf: "Following the Food Standards Authority of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) ruling in 2009 allowing the use of BLIS K12 in foods, BLIS is now actively working with Frutarom to develop new commercial opportunities in Australia."
(And is gum a food? Maybe, as lots of people swallow it.)
2. Extra human trials for GRAS, for food
The last report said (p6):
"[anticipated] that [a GRAS] application would be filed with the FDA in early 2010. However ... the decision was made to provide additional human data; this will ensure the Company can provide the most robust application possible and also establish the regulatory standard which other potential oral probiotic companies must obtain in the future. Consequently, and assuming no further unforeseen changes in the regulatory environment, the timeframe for this approval is now anticipated in late 2010."
3. Nestle need human trials too
The Nestle story http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...-98373589.html said, "Nestle HCN ... agreed to stop claiming ["that its probiotic product would prevent kids from getting sick or missing school" unless] backed by at least two well-designed human clinical studies."
4. And here's at least one human trial in NZ completed apparently?
The Australian TV story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYdIneidn7g was about some NZers who "took part in trials in NZ" (past tense) with CulturedCare gum. One participant talked of "staying healthy", which would conveniently seem to answer the question Nestle faced.
I am not suggesting Nestle and BLT are working together on this, but it certainly does show BLT seem to be where they need to be.
5. And meanwhile in Europe ...
And the annual report p11 again, "Preparation of these submissions [on safety in Europe] currently represents one of the most important activities undertaken by the Company."
So, what does that all add up to? I'm not sure. But it does suggest the company is pursing a pretty clear and active policy here with a clear goal in mind.
That TV clip said "The gum could be approved for sale in Australia within a year." Is CulturedCare gum destined for world-wide release then? That would make it the first international K12 product we've seen, wouldn't it? And were those excellent computer graphics really done just for that TV story?
I use Blis Throatguard regularly and my experience has been that I still get the occasional cold, but I recover in a couple of days and do not experience weeks of the usual complications of sinusitis, persistent cough and earache that in the past often lasted for weeks. By the way, is Prof. Tagg Australian as claimed in that TV item? He does appear to have an Oz accent, so I guess we cant accuse the Australians of yet again claiming one of ours as one of theirs...
I am also a long time user of Blis Throatguard. I swear by it. Anyone mentions a sore throat within earshot of me gets the full sales pitch. :-) I have just returned from purchasing another box from a Upper Hutt Chemist to find they had the full range of Blis products displayed in the prime spot behind the counter. Looked great. I was in Wellington yesterday and a pharmacy near the railway station had a full window display of Blis. That looked very impressive in one of the highest foot traffic areas in the city.
Rod
Canadian Health magazine has just published a feature on CulturedCare Probiotic Gum with BLIS K12 – “Chew Your Way To Fewer Infections” - in their summer issue. (Canadian Health magazine is published by the Canadian Medical Association and is placed in doctor and dentist offices across Canada.)
Good to see plain, positive support for the company expressed publicly, Cannibal. It seems to be in short supply lately. I can't understand it personally, as this still seems a hugely exciting business to me.
The company has two halves actively running now.
The ingredients business has been very extensively developed, with many manufacturers and multiple countries, and we're told there will be more. Yes, sales in this area didn't seem to grow much last half (but yes, it did grow, when you remember that NZ drops away over summer), but there's still heaps of activity, and Costco is apparently going nationwide with Bioguard shortly according to that clip above. And CulturedCare are looking very active. BLT is undoubtedly working hard on growing this area.
And the ingredients business seems to me to have made a profit of at least half a million last year (sales revenue less cost of goods), which money supported the company through its fixed costs and its second business development.
The second business is the food business, on which they are clearly going at it hard. Having pulled off the extraordinary achievement of setting up a successful ingredients business network, they seem to be going just as hard at the food ingredients area now. (Is the gum in the food area, or the ingredients, I wonder?)
Even then, we are aware the company is working on a third area which is relationships with companies with a global reach. Nestle is here already, but they hint at others being looked at.
All this is laid out in the strategy section on p6 of the last report.
So, yes, I'm expecting the Friday report to continue a trend of good developments.