SPL is in a bit of a strange stock category. We're not a totally...

SPL is in a bit of a strange stock category. We're not a totally speculative stock, as we have a robustly proven and unique product with no competitors (DEP). None at all.

However, we haven't made the kind of breakthrough - or, more accurately, made it in the way - that inspires the wider consumer or investor markets. Bacterial vaginosis is an important women's health issue, undoubtedly. However, it is - in the scheme of things, medically - still quite a niche area of treatment. Viraleze, of course, could be the breakthrough that we've been waiting for: Global pandemic + high efficacy + ease of use + ease of storage = Mother lode just waiting to be struck.

However, for an ideal product to break out of a bubble of abstract perfection (held only in the minds of its creators and owners), it has to be aggressively marketed. To grasp what this truly requires, we have to view the product as someone with no vested interest in it, by emptying our minds of all that we know (as those with a vested interest) about Viraleze and its brilliant, unparalleled technology.

In doing this, just think of the general skepticism out there, especially in the internet and social media age.

Think of the widespread erosion of confidence in the scientific method and principles or, worse, the anti-scientific prejudices that now have more currency due to social media (when once, pre-internet, they remained on the outer fringes).

In this vein, think of the anti-vax movement (dating back before Covid) and the more recent anti-lockdown/anti-mask skeptics.

Then think of the repeated waves of Covid and its new variants in much of the world, how aggressively this virus seems to rear its ugly head, over and over again. The average consumer would rightly believe that it's a very stubborn and pernicious pathogen. And that no one, no authority or institution or scientist, seems to have a real handle on it.

Think of the mishaps and cockups in Europe and the US in their pandemic response and vaccination rollout.

Then, on this combined and complex backdrop, think of the average consumer suddenly being told, in fairly small-scale ads and the odd snippet of news here and there, that a nasal spray from a company no one's heard of promises to inactivate >99.9% of the Covid virus in less than a minute. But that there's been no large-scale randomised controlled trial. And that it doesn't replace the need for masks, physical distancing and vaccination.

I'd very much understand that same consumer taking a step back and giving me a raised eyebrow, if not a narrowed suspicious eye, asking, "Well, how can I be sure it works? I mean, I don't trust any of those boffins anyway, let alone some drug company from - where did you say it was from?", "And why bother handing over 15 quid if I still need to wear a mask and do all those other things?"

The marketing not only needs to be aggressive; it needs to be saturating. It needs to take a leaf out of Viraleze's own book - it needs to be broad-spectrum and take on all comers, old media, new media, hard-form and digital. Again, we need to empty our minds of all that we know about our great product and put ourselves in the shoes of the average consumer.

In other words, there is so much that needs to be done to reach breakthrough point. And breakthroughs are relative, dependent on the context in which we're trying to break through.

At the very least, we need a major jump in earnings and, eventually, dividends for a breakthrough in the SP.

I think the wider investor market knows all this.

So we can't just blame the bots and algorithmic trading, as convenient as that is.