Roger Gale Stated:
Roger Gale - Calypte Biomedical Corporation - Chairman and CEO
Thank you, Tim.
Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on the call today. I would like to make a few high level comments before we review the financial and operational results in more detail.
Everyone always asks about our cash situation. In that regard, we are quite optimistic about the near term prospects, and we have re -thought our approach to the timing and amount of cash resources that we need at this time. We continue to work with two placement agents and expect to have a definitive announcement in this regard before too long.
We had previously announced to you that we intended to raise $15 to $20 million. As we indicated in last week’s press release, we don’t think that is appropriate or necessary right now. Put in simple terms, we have no intention of selling the family silver at these current market prices. Rather, while we plan to raise sufficient funds to execute on our business plan - we expect the amount to be significantly less, as much as $10 million less. Why? Due to our recent progress and our expectations for significant improvements in the first half of 2007 - both in terms of sales and key country approvals - we have significantly reduced our expected financing requirement. We now believe that we will only require funds necessary to maintain operations at approximately current levels pending the achievement of several milestones over the next 6 to 8 months.
From the November 15, 2006, conference call. You do the math.
Other things Roger Stated:
(3) We have received initial charity orders from The Mineseeker Foundation and the Congress for African Development - primarily in South Africa. There is the possibility of an initial program order of 1.0 million tests that could eventually lead to orders approaching 20 million over the next one or more years. We have produced and are ready to ship the first 35,000 tests, which will primarily go into South Africa.
(4) We expect that China will be coming on line by Q1 or Q2 2007, India by Q2 2007, and following our recent approval in Russia, we are expecting an initial order of 50,000 OMT tests in December for shipment in Q1 2007. In the Middle East, we received approval from the UAE and next week we ship our first 100,000 OMT OTC tests. We have a commitment for an additional 600,000 tests in this region in the next 9 months. The UAE approval is already leading to interest from other countries in the region and we expect further orders.
Third, Calypte is leveraging our partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Calypte is currently selling the BED Incidence Test, which was developed in conjunction with CDC and we expect sales to build to $1.0 million in 2007. We are developing two additional products with CDC (Syphilis and a rapid BED Incidence Test).
Let me make one final comment on near term sales: All of the programs range in size from several 100,000 tests to several millions of tests annually, also some as small as several thousand. And, we have a high degree of confidence that several of these larger initiatives will occur over this focus period in the next 6 to 8 months. I would also add that we have amended every member of staff’s terms of reference. Every one is now a sales and marketing executive: from our scientists through to our finance team. Indeed, Rick Brounstein, our EVP, is directly responsible for the first large sale to the Middle East and he expects the Middle East to be one of our strongest markets in the near term. We are all believers.
AI
