RICHMOND, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(MARKET WIRE)--Nov 5, 2008 -- BioCurex Inc. (OTC BB:BOCX.OB - News) has incorporated a fully-owned subsidiary, BioCurex China, in Shanghai. This followed a lengthy legal process - required of all foreign companies - that took several months to complete.
The subsidiary will initially operate as a clinical laboratory for RECAF testing and will serve both local hospitals and physicians.
This expansion is completely separate from the licensing agreements BioCurex has with Abbott Laboratories and Inverness Medical Innovations. There is no direct or indirect collaboration with these licensees on this Chinese venture, which relates solely to BioCurex’s determination to accelerate the commercialization of its technologies.
There are several major points worth noting, as to the “how” and “why” of this expansion.
(1) No new financing from the market will be required - thus there will be no share dilution.
(2) At least initially, the revenue from these manual assays marketed in China won’t be comparable to the far greater anticipated revenue to come from Abbott, Inverness and any third licensee. These companies remain BioCurex’s #1 priority.
(3) Fast, low cost cancer detection fills a universal need. This is particularly applicable for emerging nations with limited resources and low labor costs. In these markets, a manual assay is affordable, while automated instruments are out of reach. To launch this program, BioCurex is establishing itself in the largest city in the world’s largest nation, Shanghai - making it highly cost-effective and an ideal test market.
(4) “Home brew” tests in clinical labs generally require less regulatory approvals than commercial kits - making them ideal for expanding into other regions.
(5) In a second stage, marketing in China will be extended to other large cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Hong Kong. In addition, BioCurex China will seek distribution of the finished kits to other clinical laboratories throughout the rest of the country.
The technical and regulatory aspects of BioCurex China will be managed by a former BioCurex scientist, who moved back to Shanghai after helping to develop the RECAF technology. Legal and accounting issues will be handled by independent firms reporting directly to BioCurex Inc.
In its previous licensing agreements, BioCurex has reserved the right to manufacture, sell and license manual RECAF blood tests to an unrestricted number of clients or licensees. Again, while we anticipate that the bulk of our future revenue will originate from our semi-exclusive licensees, this first direct step towards commercialization represents an important move forward for BioCurex. It also offers the potential for generating significant sales within a relatively short time.
Dr. Ricardo Moro, BioCurex’ CEO, comments: “We are particularly excited by this development but we realize that it will not be a substitute for future revenues from licensees.
“It will give us the opportunity to commercialize our RECAF technology for the first time and provide us with a revenue stream. Just as important, we will also have the freedom to expand this manual testing as quickly as possible, without being at the mercy of our licensees, time-frame.
“While royalties from our semi-exclusive licensees will likely represent the bulk of our revenues, our monthly expenses are very low and it is anticipated that net revenue from manual assays will exceed them in a short period of time.
“The recent change in the world’s economy poses a challenge to high technology companies in the process of commercializing their technologies. Our response to that challenge is to focus all of our resources in generating revenue as soon as possible, from signing a third semi-exclusive licensing agreement to commercializing manual tests. It is difficult to tell where the first revenues will come from; our licensees or direct sales, but working on all fronts in parallel maximizes our opportunities and expedites the process. To the best of our knowledge, no other technology can match this product. The profit margin should be considerable.”
About BioCurex:
BioCurex, Inc. is a biotechnology company that is developing products based on patented/proprietary technology in the areas of cancer diagnosis, imaging and therapy. The technology identifies a cancer marker known as RECAF(TM), which is found on malignant cells from a variety of cancer types but is absent in most normal or benign cells.
BioCurex has signed licensing agreements for its cancer detection blood tests with Abbott Laboratories and with Inverness Medical Innovations (for further information on these agreements see: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1092562/000100487808000117/sb2amnd4s1april08.txt).
The cancer marker RECAF(TM) has emerged as a potential biomarker that may be useful in the development of new cancer diagnostics tests. Preliminary studies from the investigators at BioCurex have reported a high level of clinical sensitivity and specificity for RECAF in many of the most common cancers, including prostate, breast, colorectal, lung and others.
To read more about the Company, please visit the News section in our web site (www.biocurex.com).
Note:
The Company has not authorized the release of this information in any form that contravenes the Communication Act and will not be responsible for unsolicited massive distribution of this material by e-mail or facsimile by unauthorized parties. Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning given to that term in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. Since these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, the Company’s actual results could differ materially from expected results.
Contact:
Contacts: BioCurex, Inc. Ricardo Moro (604) 207-9150 Website: http://www.biocurex.com
AGORACOM Investor Relations Website: http://www.agoracom.com/IR/Biocurex
Source: BioCurex, Inc.
