Yes Joel l too have written to the company on many occasions but have received replies after l have written again requesting an answer.
Unfortunately their replies never properly answer my concerns with either a very generalised statement or using their licencees as the blame for lack of market penetration with the SPL7013 products.
As an example l sent this letter below to JF in June. Please note the spacing of words below is a result of a cut and paste. Maybe l should have asked SPL to cut and paste for me as they have considerable experience!!
21/06/2022
Dear DrFairley
As a longterm shareholder l have become very concerned at the fact that Vivagel for BVhas not had an impact on the market and that many tens of millions of dollarsraised from shareholders expended on the program are not producing results.
In regards to the Australian market l have recentlyspent considerable time researching BV on both Google and Bing using differentsearch criteria as a quasi BV sufferer in an effort to stimulate Aspen'sdigital marketing weaponry.
3 days later l have not seen any advertisingappear promoting Fleurstat. As a comparison l have looked to men's clothingsites, car parts and other random items and always get bombarded with directedadvertising within hours.
I note that Aspen are responsible for marketingand advertising however surely the team at SPL would oversee and approve anyinitiatives.
In addition to my browsing into BV l spent sometime looking at Government sponsored websites from around Australia for inforelating to treatment for BV.
The sites l visited:
·Melbourne Sexual Health Centre
·Health Direct
·Better Health Channel
·Australian STI management guidelines
·Royal Women's Hospital Vic.
·Jean Hailes for women’s health
·Healthy WA
·Playsafe Health NSW
·Health ACT
·Gold Coast Health
Every single site promoted antibiotics as thefirst line treatment with not one mention of Fleurstat.
Continuing I then looked up "Buy treatmentfor Bacterial Vaginosis Australia". On Google 25 products displayed andBing 18 displayed in one area with 44 in another.
Not one displayed Fleurstat.
Further to this l have alsosearched the web to purchase Fleurstat on line. Often many of these sites aremarked as “out of stock”. This is in urgent need of attention.
Despite the fact that the licencee’s areresponsible for marketing it is ultimately the responsibility of the CEO and boardof directors at Starpharma to ensure this is undertaken effectively of which itis clearly not.
It is also very obvious thatdespite Vivagel for BV being approved in many, many countries across the globethat sales are extremely disappointing.
I wish to know if the CEO andboard of directors are concerned about the poor sales and are they prepared tomake major changes to rectify the situation especially given the appeal andpotential this product has?
Yours faithfully
The reply which came back from Investor Relations
Thank you forcontacting Starpharma.
We agree that VivaGel®BV has great potential to penetrate the market given the product’snon-antibiotic formulation and the extensive scientific data supporting it.
As you note, Aspen isresponsible for the sales and marketing of VivaGel® BV (Fleurstat) inAustralia. We confirm that Aspen has a marketing strategy for the product toachieve market penetration, which includes promotions specifically designed forimportant decision makers in BV Management such as healthcare practitioners andpharmacists. They also have direct to consumer programs, which include digitalmarketing strategies across a range of platforms (Instagram, Google, etc),however, as you would be aware, unless you are the target demographic (i.e.,women suffering from BV), it is unlikely that you will see these ads online.
We also note that thesites you mention would not make brand-specific recommendations and so this isthe reason that clinical guidelines are an important resource in this regard.External publications on the product, such as the recent peer-reviewed articlehighlighted in our recent Shareholder Newsletter, also further supportmarketing activities and the product’s inclusion in clinical treatmentguidelines for BV.
Please be assured thatStarpharma monitors and works with its partners to facilitate the product’sbrand awareness.
Thank you and kind regards
This is typical of their reaction to shareholders legitimate concerns. Duck for cover and blame anything and anyone but themselves. I could go on but l think you get the picture.
Go Joohnno!!!
(20min delay)