Uscom: Lung Cancer, Infectious Diseases Breath Test
Uscom executive chairman Prof Rob Phillips says the company is developing a breath test for lung cancer and infectious diseases.
In a stock brokers’ investor meeting presentation, posted to the ASX, and under the heading “Confidential”, Prof Phillips said that the diagnostic was based on the company’s Spirosonic asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease diagnostic.
Prof Phillips said that the lung was “an excretory organ” and when people breathed-out cells, including cancer cells, could be detected. “The challenge is how to harvest and filter those cells,” Prof Phillips said.
Prof Phillips said the project was funded by a $3.8 million grant to a consortium of his company, the Hungarian Academy of Science and the Budapest-based Semmelweiss University Medical School.
In 2015, Uscom acquired the Budapest-based Thor Laboratories for its high fidelity digital Doppler technology for measurement of respiratory function, later renaming the equipment Spirosonic (BD: Sep 1, 2015).
In 2013, the company bought New Zealand’s Pulsecor for its BP+ supra-systolic central blood pressure device, Cardioreporter pulse pressure wave analysis software, 34 blood pressure measurement and analysis patents and four trademarks (BD: Jun 18, 2013).
Today, Prof Phillips told the investor meeting that the acquisitions were strategic to place the company with technologies for monitoring and diagnosing cardio-vascular and respiratory health, which were responsible for 75 percent of all human mortality.
He said the company had sold more than 1,200 Uscom 1A ultra-sonic cardiac output monitors, with the BP+ and Spirosonic in the process for approval in the US and China.
Prof Phillips said that while revenue was “lumpy” from month-to-month and quarter-to- quarter, the company was cash-flow positive for the three months to December 31, 2017 and the company was “getting close to being cash-flow positive”.
Prof Phillips said that Uscom had a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent a year for the past five years, with revenue of $3.5 million in 2017.
He set short, medium and long-term revenue targets of $10 million, $20 million and $50 million, respectively.
Prof Phillips said that all the previous revenue was due to the Uscom 1A, with seven new products in the market this year and a broadening of the revenue base.
Prof Phillips said that the publication of the 500th peer-reviewed publication on the technologies was “a monumental landmark”.
He said that with governments around the world seeking to reduce health costs and with an ageing population, electronic health was a focus and one his company had embraced. “Anyone can build a software platform, but what they all need is front-end sensors,” Prof Phillips said. “We are in five [electronic] health studies.”
Prof Phillips said that the company was fully engaged with the People’s Republic of China and he had made many visits to the country. Prof Phillips noted that China had 2.6 million doctors, a similar number of nurses, 23,170 hospitals and an electronic health spend “approaching $US2 billion”.
He said Uscom had eight distributors in China but the arrival of Steven Meng as a substantial shareholder company was expected to pave the way for increased access. Prof Phillips said that Mr Meng was an experienced pharmaceutical executive and was familiar with China’s regulatory, intellectual property and legal frameworks as well as the politics of doing business in China.
The investor presentation said that Mr Meng became substantial in Uscom in February with a holding of 23,158,475 shares or 16.88 percent, through Smart Top Overseas.
Uscom fell one cent or 3.8 percent to 25.5 cents
UCM Price at posting:
25.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)