Here’s Oscar Schafer’s plug for ULUR (from
Barron’s). I had never heard of ULUR until now.
The breast-implant application strikes me as far-
fetched, but the other stuff sounds intriguing. They
have only 11 employees, however, so you have to
be a little skeptical of these claims.
>>
My second pick has a market capitalization of only $300 million. It is relatively illiquid. Uluru [ULUR] is an early-stage company with an exciting technology and tremendous opportunities in large market applications. It is developing a portfolio of products using two innovative delivery technologies. The first is OraDisc, a transmucosal-delivery system, which has been approved by the FDA. The second involves hydrogel nanoparticle aggregate technology. The company already has three FDA-approved products and is in clinical trials on several product applications.
How do these technologies work?
OraDisc can deliver drugs systemically across the mucosal surface or into the oral cavity. The device, which is effectively a small oral patch, can be tailored to various erosion rates to deliver therapeutics over different time intervals. This technology has numerous potential applications including oral, dental, systemic drug delivery and veterinary, and the company has signed several licensing arrangements with industry partners.
What are the benefits of the hydrogel technology?
Uluru's hydrogel nanoparticle aggregate technology has been used to form a bio-material of varying strength and elasticity that has extensive applications in a range of potential uses. The most interesting include an alternative breast implant, projected to be a billion-dollar business; dermal fillers, another billion-dollar market, and advanced wound dressings, part of a $15 billion market. You have this small, white nanoparticle powder in an envelope, and let's say you're wounded in Iraq. Open the package, put the powder on your wound and it turns into a bandage, with antiseptics and antibiotics incorporated in it.
Uluru has an outstanding management team, lead by President and CEO Kerry Gray, and is in discussions with large numbers of industry players about developing these applications and bringing them to market. It reported positive cash flow in the first quarter and has a low expense structure, but it is too early to track the company on a quarterly earnings basis. It is an investment with a three-to-five-year horizon, which from its current price of about 5 a share could be a five-to-10-bagger. [Is Oscar Schafer actually croumagnon? :-)]
Nice. How did you happen upon Uluru?
It was brought to me by a friend in the business for 30 years. The company came to see us when the stock was about a dollar. It had a total enterprise value of $50 million. They did a $38 million financing, and we bought $10 million worth. We now own a little less than 20% of the company.
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