SAN DIEGO, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SpectraScience, Inc., disclosed today that its Chairman and CEO, Jim Hitchin has issued the following letter to shareholders:
As the end of the year approaches, we are pleased to announce that through the recent closing of a $4.3 million round of equity financing, we are undertaking several initiatives critical to ramping our business performance as we head into 2010. We are making key additions to our European sales force. We are increasing our sales and marketing activities and we are working to accelerate studies which will lead to the broader commercialization of our WavSTAT cancer screening platform.
In addition, key opinion leaders in growth markets such as France and Germany have recently placed orders for the WavSTAT. This is an important milestone and validation of our commitment to providing physicians and healthcare organizations with the capability to reduce cancer mortality through more effective and accurate screening, which also reduces time and expense for these procedures. In the healthcare community, preventative care continues to move to the forefront in terms of priority for caregivers and patients alike, and the WavSTAT is uniquely positioned as an adjunctive tool to make a difference.
The WavSTAT is currently FDA and CE Mark approved for colon cancer screening, and it has CE Mark approval for cancer screening. We believe that in addition to higher screening sensitivity, an important differentiation, appeal and value in our optical biopsy technology is the number of other cancers for which this single platform can also be used. Our vision is for clinics and physicians to leverage our technology to identify, at earlier stages, a broad range of cancers in addition to colon and esophageal, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), stomach, pancreatic and even lung cancer. While there is an important human element to healthcare which should never be overlooked, there has to be an economic model which can be made for caregivers to adopt new technologies to provide a better standard of healthcare.
Our goal is to unify a higher standard of healthcare and better business economics for the caregiver. This is the message that we intend to deliver through the launch of a comprehensive marketing and sales campaign designed to reach practitioners, the healthcare and financial media, and the healthcare consumer. Our marketing efforts will commence in both the United States and Europe. In addition, we have increased our marketing budget to include a broader presence for SpectraScience at key industry trade shows.
On the sales front, and in keeping with our commitment to accelerating our efforts in Europe, we have hired Michel Coville, an industry veteran with more than 30 years experience in medical device sales at leading firms including Karl Storz Endoscopie, DMS Dopler Laboratories, Pierre Fabre and Laboratories Bottu. Most recently, at Karl Storz Endoscopie, Mr. Coville served as General Manager where he reorganized the company’s sales and marketing force. He is also experienced in developing and commercializing new products, serving as European Manager of New Products at Karl Stortz Endosopie from 1994 through 1996. Mr. Coville will play a key role in developing and managing our growing dealer network in Europe, and we expect this to translate into increased sales.
We are developing a program to achieve higher enrollment and participation in our esophageal study. One of our newest centers is in Glasgow, Scotland. Here, patients are being enrolled starting this week for inclusion in our study. Interestingly, Scotland has a high incidence of esophageal cancer (ahead of even lung cancer). Another two centers are going through the usual ethics committee approvals which we expect to finalize in the next several weeks. Also, we have retained a distinguished contract research organization (CRO), Bielderman (www.bielderman.net) to ensure our trials are managed well and with a sense of urgency.
We continue to introduce the WavSTAT System to physicians who are recognized in the healthcare community as key opinion leaders throughout our target markets in Europe. We have received good reviews and many positive comments from these physicians who see in WavSTAT a simple and accurate solution. This ground work should help set the stage for future sales results as these key opinion leaders communicate with their colleagues and publish results.
“Heard it on the Street” recently wrote that,
“A developing story in the cancer screening and diagnostics industry is that an increasing amount of attention is turning to optical biopsy as a more effective screening technique than narrowband imaging (NBI). Certainly, it’s a valuable adjunctive tool to NBI. The advantage of an optical biopsy is that it gives an absolute answer with high certainty, whereas NBI provides a surveillance view that still requires interpretation, a physical biopsy and expensive pathology screening. Think about going through the colon, for instance, and touching what looks like suspicious tissue and getting a green light - real-time objective screening analysis. This enables the physician to keep moving through the procedure. It saves time and there is no bleeding compared to a physical biopsy, no risk of infection and, of course, it reduces the cost of pathology.
The bottom line is that more physicians and experts are recognizing that optical biopsy is a faster, more accurate screening for pre-cancerous dysplasia, while it lower risks to the patient and lowers cost to the physician and clinic. Consider the ability of a physician being able to do a Barrett’s investigation in 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes. That gives the physician time to screen an extra patient and obtain more revenue!”
Our patent portfolio related to our optical biopsy technology is extensive and deep. We believe this puts us in a remarkably strong position to establish a foothold in the cancer screening industry, which is getting larger every day. Part of our business strategy is to leverage our IP to develop strategic partnerships on a global basis with companies that are larger, with significantly greater resources than we currently have. We continue to make progress on this front as we accelerate other aspects of our business.
In particular:
We are committed to creating and increasing shareholder value. We have made significant strides toward this goal in 2009, and have never been better positioned than we are today. We want to thank our shareholders for remaining patient and confident in our value proposition to the healthcare and cancer screening markets. As we roll out our marketing campaign in 2010 we look forward to creating a better and more broadly recognized value proposition, to the media, to physicians, and to healthcare consumers.
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause SpectraScience’s actual results to differ materially from results discussed in forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by SpectraScience in this news release, its most recent Form 10-K and in SpectraScience’s other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect SpectraScience’s business. These forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by the cautions and risk factors filed by SpectraScience in its annual report on Form 10-K and other documents.
CONTACT: Jim Hitchin, Chairman and CEO of SpectraScience, Inc.,
+1-858-792-9350
