The following are recent questions that have been posted to this discussion forum with answers from Dr. Moro. We thank those for their contributions and we also thank you for your patience. Neither the questions to Dr. Moro, nor the answers provided by him, were edited by AGORACOM.
From: Erthang
Title: Good Dr.
Body:
Being that I am one of your largest investor's w/ approximately $250K invested, "concerned" would be an understatement. Silence is deafening. I am thinking of all of the company's liabilities (Smithline), costs of doing business and research expenses. Then, I think of the unchartered waters that will be necessary for you to navigate through in these uncertain economic times to bring a viable and sought after product to market. I'm not necessarily losing faith, but I am beginning to lose sleep. Do you anticipate any good news on the horizon??? I am scared I could lose my name's sake, "Erthang"!
There are many irons on the fire and if we have not yet made any announcements it is because there is nothing concrete to announce yet. Sometimes this happens and then we have a bunch of announcements coming out in short sequence. Rest assured that we are doing our best to move ahead. Times are difficult but we have seen them and overcome them before. And today we are much better positioned now than we were then.
Company: BioCurex
From: i_invest_utrade
Title: Patent Approval
Body:
On July 29, 2008 Biocurex announced that they were filing for new patent protection.
http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/080729/04200...
When does Biocurex expect this patent to be approved?
There is no way to tell. The process is as follows: First we filed a “provisional” application, which gives us a date in case someone else comes up with the same idea. Within 12 months, the provisional application must be made effective, best via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) because that allows for less expensive multi-country application. Then, the patent goes to the national stage for each country or for example, in the EU to the European Patent Agency, which is then followed by an application in each country. As you can see, this IS a lengthy process because we want to include many countries. However, the patent protection is provided from the time of the filing (the patent is then “pending”). That means that if someone tries to infringe it, they could be liable for (a) all the money they made (b) damages to the owner of the patent and (c) punitive damages. The owner of the patent has a very strong case only and when the patent is finally granted and if it is not, then the infringer can get away with it. However, given the long time it takes to get the patent granted, very few if any try to infringe a patent, because if the patent gets granted, then the amount they owe the patent owner is huge. One other point merits discussion: The patent office does not ‘require’ more information (by the way, the FDA proceeds similarly). Instead, they simply reject the application and the applicant then addresses the deficiencies and resubmits using the same number, thus maintaining the filing date. Thus, a rejection by a patent office is not an indication that the patent will not be accepted in the future but rather an integral part of the process of obtaining a patent.
Is this patent application a major roadblock in the commercialization of ELISA-RECAF, SERUM-RECAF, or RIA-RECAF? or all three?
Not at all; we do not need that patent to commercialize either technology. We filed it because it relates to crucial aspects necessary in the manufacturing of the test components and provides the company with an extra 20 years of protection.
Does the unresolved status of this application delay the licensing of Biocurex's imaging, and/or therapeutic technology?
No. What is delaying the licensing of other applications is that given the current market conditions, all of our efforts and resources are now re-directed to generate cash flow from the blood tests.
Company: BioCurex
From: Lawman
Title: Conferance?
Body:
Are we the shareholders going to recieve a update as to what was presented at the conference in Spain?
We addressed the conference in Spain in a recent press release.
Company: BioCurex
From: Half Full Glass
Title: Piggy Backing a non competing FDA Trial
Body:
Dr. Moro,
Is it possible or probable to piggy back on an upcoming trial. It is my understanding that FDA trials are very expensive. If a company was already assembling say 1000 people with X cancer and was already paying for blood to be drawn and etc. etc the trial costs would be mostly covered.
Recaf tests do not pose any physical harm to an individual. All we need is blood / Saliva and if the current trial was already geared similar to the other parameters we are looking for..well you get the idea.
The company sponsoring the trial could be given x percentage of future Recaf sales as an incentive to allow the piggy back...
We are discussing exactly this with a well know company in the industry that does FDA approvals as a business. The problem is the cost per application ($1M-$1.5M). They have a library of samples that they use for several clients, which according to them include several major diagnostic companies. They do not take anything but cash (I think because of the conflict of interest, but I am not sure) and we are trying to find alternative solutions to this issue. Also, there is a second group that has approached us but it is too early to comment.
From: Half Full Glass
Title: ultimate goal of commercializing our RECAF technology
Body:
You had expressed that we would "soon" reach commercialization but It is difficult to tell where the first revenues will come from; our licensees or direct sales. While not mentioning either of the licensees so as not to cause any difficulties... am I reading this correctly that soon may be our China Venture and or one one of our licensees? We are all looking forward to either but it would be very comforting to hear that mass tests are forthcoming. Please see the below paragraphs from two separate letters to understand where this question was derived from. Any update on either front would greatly be appreciated.
Quite frankly, I do not know which will be first. Also, I would not restrict it to China because we are simultaneously working on similar initiatives in other countries. That is why I said above that there are several irons in the fire. While manual tests could generate revenue first and, given our low budget allow us to break even sooner, the big bucks are with the licensee. One more thing: We have one more semi-exclusive license to issue and the corresponding down payment is another potential source of revenue.
Company: BioCurex
From: dude2
Title: Update
Body:
In the update you sent to shareholders dated October 10, 2008, you stated you were in the early stages of negotiations with other companies and that hopefully by the end of 2008 you would have more licensees: are those same negotiations still ongoing?
We were discussing with two companies that by chance went into mergers during our conversations. One requested some months to revisit the issue and the other is still talking but as it usually happens in these cases, we’ll have to wait for the dust to settle before anything concrete happens with them. In the meantime, it is very likely that we’ll be further advanced with someone else.
Since Biocurex has full control of the project in China can you legally give us a update on any progress made towards commmercialization of your technology in China.
Not yet.
Company: BioCurex
From: i_invest_utrade
Title: RECAF studies
Body:
Dr. Moro:
Would you say that the Serum-RECAF diagnostic test has completed a series of restrospective studies?
Is the Serum-RECAF test entering a stage of prospective studies?
What is the status of other RECAF tests in terms of restrospective and prospective studies?
Could you please supply answers for RIA, Serum, ELISA, Saliva, and Urine?
For retrospective and prospective I am using definitions from the Canary Foundation.
Prospective Study - A research study that follows individuals over time, and compares samples from, groups of individuals who are alike in many ways but differ by a certain characteristic and compares them for a particular outcome. An example of a prospective study is one that follows a set of female nurses who smoke and another set that does not smoke and compares rates of development of lethal lung cancer between those two groups. [definition from NCI]
Retrospective Study - A study that compares samples collected in the past from two groups of people: those with the disease or condition under study (cases) and a very similar group of people who do not have the disease or condition (controls). For example, one group may have cancer and one group may be healthy, or one group may have lethal cancer and another group may have non-lethal cancer. Also called a case-control study. [definition from NCI]
I cannot comment on this yet since it relates to some of the collaborations we discussed during the congresses in Barcelona. By the way, there is a way to do some prospective studies retrospectively (!): Scientists in hospitals working on this field keep patients samples frozen. Thus, you can get an entire collection of samples say taken at monthly intervals for each patient over a period of several years, along with the clinical history of the patient. If we wanted to study the usefulness of RECAF to monitor cancer recurrence, we would test all those samples, from the one previous to surgery to the last sample over a period of months or years and see if the blood RECAF increased before a clinical recurrence. That way, instead of waiting for months or years to complete the study, the time it takes is the time to do the tests.
Company: BioCurex
From: Half Full Glass
Title: Ulterior motives
Body:
Dr. Moro,
It is obvious that some person or persons are intentionally driving the share price lower. The last trade today was for 1000 shares at .065. this would equate to $65 dollars minus a $8 commission = $57.00
I know times are tough right now but I have a hard time believing that someone needed an extra $57.00 to survive on.
Some can argue that the markets operate on a true supply and demand and that this activity is all on the up and up. I believe it is not, nor has it been in the recent past. I understand that it is based on very small volume but enough is enough.
Do you know who might be able to look into the true trading activities of BOCX in the recent past to verify that we are not being targeted by a group intentionally driving the price down for ulterior motives?
Yes, the SEC. Unfortunately it is not reasonable to expect that they would respond to every company complaining that their stock is being manipulated.
In reference to depressing the market with that small amount, the opposite is probably also true; some buying would bring the price up. We have 3,500 shareholders and I am not suggesting that they do this, but if each one of them bought $1,000 (which is a small amount for anyone playing the market), that would represent $3.5M of buying which one would think it would result in a substantial price increase. Of course, I cannot recommend, request or suggest that you do that, because it could be construed as solicitation. I am just bringing it to your attention because you are the owners of this company and that appears to be an obvious way to protect your previous investment.
While that would certainly help the market, the money would not go into the company. For that, we need private placements, as we have done so many times before and we hope to continue doing in the future. Should you be interested in making one, our phone number is (604) 207 9150.
