It has been one year since I shared with our shareholders that MVMD was commencing our transition from an R&D-focused biotech start-up business into a commercially focused biotech entity.
And what a great year it has been! I am very proud of how the team has significantly advanced our three core lines of business -- which include novel innovations that improve the administration and efficacy of nutraceutical health and wellness products, an agricultural plant signaling technology that organically drives increases in crop yields and supports the reduction of fertilizer usage, and the application of solubilized drugs to positively impact the health of husbandry animals and aquatic species.
I am very pleased with the progress of the anticipated launch of our partners’ products in December in the nutraceutical and animal husbandry space, as well as the amazing results we are seeing with our Agrarius business development efforts.
A few business highlights:
NUTRACEUTICALS
Our initial product formulation work and dissolution testing has been completed for Circadian Wellness for its Eons branded sleep, energy and immunity products. And per our licensing framework with Circadian, we have received fees from Circadian for the proprietary formulation work that has been completed for their products.
We have been doing some very interesting testing on the effectiveness of the Eons sleep product and the initial feedback is very strong to showcase the benefits of Quicksome™. We are seeing longer sleep, reduced latency, deeper sleep, and deeper REM sleep through participant monitoring studies using Oura rings. The Oura ring is an award-winning wearable device that tracks biometrics like heart rate, body temperature, blood oxygen, and more. It also provides daily scores for sleep, readiness, and activity, and offers personalized insights and recommendations to help improve overall health and wellness. The sleep study has been a great validation of the product’s effectiveness and anticipated consumer experience. And as a reminder, the Eons proprietary sleep product uses only an infant serving of melatonin and valerian root extract, and a small amount of Reishi mushroom extract given that Quicksome™ technology enables the use of a fraction of the ingredients that we see in typical orally consumed competitive products, while delivering a powerful effect. In the age of doing more with less as consumers are more aware of what they are putting in their bodies, we believe this will be a powerful advantage for Eons in the marketplace.
It is anticipated that Circadian will be introducing its mushroom-infused Eons sublingual sleep product that embodies MVMD’s technology in December this year so that is very exciting to see this first product officially coming to the marketplace.
And while our immediate focus is on supporting our partners launch of Eons in December, we have also commenced our business development planning with our manufacturing partner who has a broad list of clientele who currently purchase “white label” and proprietary products from them. As we look to secure additional nutraceutical licensing partnerships, our “Mountains Of” brand will be an important tool for GMP sample development. We originally had a narrower trademark approval for Mountains of Sleep, Energy, Relief, Libido, and Lean, but more recently were successful in expanding to all combinations of “Mountains of …” in an effort to more-broadly protect the “Mountains Of” brand and create unlimited future product applications.
HUSBANDRY ANIMALS / AQUATIC SPECIES
For those that have been following our story, you are aware that we have worked closely with our Soluvec™ Licensee and its partners inside Bangladesh on the previously disclosed animal pharmacokinetic trials. These trials were conducted under the supervision of The People's Republic of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock for the injectable Soluvec™ 1% solubilized Ivermectin technology, and Soluvec™ 1% coated standard fish feed across farmed fish species. Our agreement provides our Licensee with the exclusive rights within Bangladesh, to coordinate the manufacturing and distribution of related Soluvec™ 1% products, both in injectable and food coating applications.
We are very pleased to confirm that our Licensee partner has recently verified that they are currently on track for the commercial launch of Soluvec™ 1% inside Bangladesh in December of this year.
And while the focus is on a successful initial launch in Bangladesh, we remain very excited about the expansion of Soluvec™ 1% product licensing opportunities in new key territory targets globally. In conjunction with initial positive business development conversations with prospect licensees, we have also made initial filings for Quicksol™ patent protection in key markets we have deemed strategically important, a total of 12 additional markets outside of the United States.
We announced in August this year, the peer-reviewed publication of its Soluvec™ study data in the journal, Therapeutic Delivery. The published study highlights the benefits of the Company’s patented Soluvec™ formulation; a novel, solvent-free aqueous Ivermectin invention. The study confirmed that parenteral administration of Soluvec™ led to an Ivermectin drug exposure approximately seven times higher than traditional oral drug dosing, with greater bioavailability, offering potential for enhanced therapeutic effectiveness. If you are interested in reading the publication, you can access at the following link: https://www.future-science.com/doi/10.4155/tde-2023-0021
AGRICULTURE
I have just returned to Toronto from a recent trip to Panama and I continue to be amazed at what our team is accomplishing with our Agrarius™ agricultural sales efforts. We have been going through an extensive product trialing phase, working with large-scale strategic farming operations to trial the product across numerous crop types. Every result we have seen so far, either completed or in process, has been outstanding in demonstrating improvements in crop yields and overall plant health.
One of the things we looked at on this recent trip was reviewing the results of our Agrarius™ trial application on distressed citrus trees. The harsh impact of citrus greening disease is among the most formidable problems facing citrus growers and agriculture professionals globally and can devastate entire crops in months with no real documented cure that we are aware of to date. I have read articles that suggest since the greening disease was first discovered in 2005, it has contributed to billions of dollars in loss in revenue for citrus growers and has impacted the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. Our citrus greening trial results are very positive, and the initial observations is that the trees have fully reversed course to their original health and Agrarius™ applications have contributed to fully reversing the greening disease outbreak. This is exciting on many levels and we are working closely with this partner to look at the benefits to apply Agrarius™ to their entire citrus operation and to formally document the trial.
There are countless positive impacts that Agrarius™ has had in our trials in Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Colombia, and more. Right now the only thing I believe that is standing in the way of MVMD recognizing revenue for Agrarius™ is obtaining registration approvals in key jurisdictions in Latin America. Our team has been responding to registration related process inquiries in a timely manner and do not foresee any issues at this time and I am still optimistic that we will be seeing revenue from Agrarius™ sales activity in the near future.
Despite the slight delay on the timing for revenue with Agrarius™ and some of the real-world complexities we have been navigating, I hope you can really appreciate my personal excitement for what we are building here and how focused we are on profitability that will contribute to our long-term company health and shareholder value.
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I want to remind you as well that we have recently updated the MVMD website and there is a lot of new information you can access, including a recent archive of our Annual General Meeting. We reviewed our entire business and commercialization approach across all three lines of our business, and we discussed our future R&D strategy and hosted a broad Question and Answer session for our shareholders. MVMD.com is a great resource and if you have not signed up already, this is where you can register for ongoing shareholder updates.
Thank you for your continued support. As always, please reach out if you have any questions – info@mvmd.com. I know that MVMD continues to do great and important work as we focus on advancing our positive impact on human, plant and animal health.
