The post Nanollose (ASX:NC6) – Raffaele (Alfie) Germano appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
Working from the ground up. I have been blessed to have commenced life inside a manufacturing family. This provided me with a lot of early skills that steered me well through college. As the sunset on Australian manufacturing in the early ’90s, the sun rose in Asia. I spent 25 years in Hong Kong and other countries working inside some of the largest Textile and Apparel companies on the planet where I zig-zagged up the corporate ladder. I think what prepared me for this role is saying yes to every challenge along with varied tasks and the accountability that came with it. I think a CEO must have a Swiss Army Knife skill set.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Nanollose is an Australian based “Future-Tech Bio-Materials” company that is developing a Clean-Tech process and supply chain ecosystem that will utilize organic liquid waste from the food and beverage sectors to extract a natural raw material called microbial cellulose that is then applied to multiple industrial applications. Our initial commercial focus is textiles. In short, we take liquid waste and make clothes.

Over the past 18-24 months, we have been developing and paving our commercial path in all the 3 traditional industrial sectors.

In the Primary Sector: We have signed supply agreements with 2 food processing companies in Indonesia and China that allow us access to early bulk amounts of raw material for trails and initial commercialization. Also, in this space, we have been developing tech and IP around alternative waste streams, accelerated fermentation methods along with industrializing the actual raw material processing towards large tonnage scale. This sector is an import space of us to develop as it ultimately the fulcrum to which all our tech is based on. We had many interactions with stream provides that are keen to develop an alternative to just wastewater treatment.

In the Secondary Sector: Nanollose has signed a collaboration agreement with Aditya Birla-Grasim this past January. We are not only happy but enthused to have an industrial partner and a platform to commercially develop within that ultimately results in producing nullarbor fibre (Tree-Free). We are in the process of mapping out schedules around trials and form their commercialization steps. At this point, all our focus is on optimization.

In the Tertiary Sector:  We don’t just see ourselves as only a technology developer and fibre provider, but also as a brand. Our names and trademarks have been a powerful tool in communicating our vision and branding. We want to be the Bluetooth in our space.

Given our scale, exclusive amounts, and initial higher costs we have targeted apparel sectors that have larger margin elasticity opportunities. This is within the Designer/High fashion apparel sectors. Here is where we have had significant interest and engagement.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
Alfie: The current COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge with the greatest headwind for us being how to navigate around the slower logistical speeds that include the ability to travel.

Much of our work now is around delivering raw material, making fibre and activating product with brand partners. Thought this would seem slower it does present us with other opportunities around bolstering our tech and development.

On a personal level, I am a natural optimist. I often reflect on quotes in times of need, for example. ‘Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path” I view what is happening as a moment and an inflection point in time. Complaining about it will not a winning strategy, be grateful that you are safe and remember “When life gives you lemons make lemonade, and if you are Italian make Limoncello”.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The excitement doesn’t come from one thing it comes from a cluster of things.

• Pioneering in our space.
• Developing a technology that can plug in and play into already existing infrastructure seamlessly.
• Building an ecosystem that will be able to provide sustainable alternatives to an industry I cherish.
• Being able to positively contribute to the environment and future generations by stop cutting down so many trees to make clothes.
• Watching the industry shift and change. Brands, retailers and manufacturers are vocal and urgently seek sustainable alternatives that is all driven by customer demand.
• Getting closer to making it real both physically and fiscally.
  
  

How do you measure success?
In this case measuring success as an end to end scorecard.

1. Establishing a scaled raw material supply chain that delivers volume, quality, and cost
2. Optimised tech that converts and scales our raw material into nullarbor fibre
3. Having 2-4 key up takers brand partners that share and support the same ethos
4. Building a healthy balance sheet from all of the above.
   
   

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
To avoid a complex answer, and subject to the business maturity of a listed company, I think one of the most important qualities of a CEO is a vision. Vision is key to what to you want to be, how to set out to do it with resources and how to get it done against market dynamics.

C =Create
E =Execute
O =Operate

We live in a world that is enamoured with acronyms.

What is your favourite book?
Non Fiction: The world is flat.
Biography: To Kill a Mockingbird and Life and Death in Shanghai.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
I have always admired the industrious DNA of Asian people. So much can be achieved with creativity and hard work. Entire industries were built from nothing and most certainly from the ground up.  I would imagine that much your readership has come from histories like this and still bestows these qualities.

In Asia, much of the world’s textiles are either procured, manufactured, assembled, and now even retailed. Being ahead of the curve in the space would come with a high disruptive edge. My message is that we all needed support along the way, Nanollose is not a pipe dream but a strong value partner contender that has the same DNA.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Website: https://nanollose.com/

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The post PharmAust (ASX:PAA) – Dr. Roger Aston appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming an Executive Chairman?
Through an insatiable appetite to understand the underlying features and mechanisms of disease and to try to find therapies, I have travelled a circuitous journey from leading peptide and antibody companies to Oncology and device companies. This path offered a broad and diverse educational experience which I now hope I can share through the CEO and Chairmanship of Biotech and Healthcare businesses.  My CV pasted below should you need an extract.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
During the past 6 years PharmAust (ASX:PAA) identified and developed a drug that could offer benefit to both human and veterinary oncology. The drug in question is a registered product owned by a global major specialising in veterinary products; this drug (MPL) is now being repurposed by PharmAust for applications in oncology and other indications. One of the principal modes of action of the drug is known as the mTOR pathway, a central metabolic pathway in all eukaryotic cells, which therefore enables potential intervention and regulation in many diseases. The repurposing of a known drug allows PharmAust to access substantive manufacturing and toxicology information from its partner with whom it has granted a global option to license the technology. To date, PharmAust has concluded two important evaluations of MPL in canines with cancer and a safety and efficacy evaluation in Man at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. PharmAust’s commercial strategy is to seek commercialisation, marketing and distribution partners for the veterinary and human applications, as the Company validates the technology on a product by product basis. Harnessing the marketing and distribution capabilities as well as the financial muscle of a global major offers a fast track journey to market.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
In these strange times plagued by COVID-19, PharmAust as well as the rest of the Biotechnology industry has had to adapt and comply with guidance and safety measures introduced by governments. Face-to-face meetings have taken on a new meaning with a heavy reliance on communication technology platforms such as Zoom, Google and Microsoft. Once the new routines were embraced by PharmAust the R&D side of the business could proceed with alacrity unhindered. The latter was further made possible because PharmAust sub-contracts its research studies to academic and commercial collaborators and partners. The synthetic medicinal chemistry business, Epichem, has continued to produce reagents and drugs for customers whilst complying with the imposed measures to minimise transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Progress and successful R&D provides the basis of products that can impact health and wellbeing of Man and animals. What could be more exciting? Of course, success in R&D also brings benefits to shareholders who invest their hard-earned dollars to enable progress.

How do you measure success?
Success has to start with the basics, products need to be safe and effective. In these circumstances’ success milestones would include: partnering and licencing, product approval by regulatory agencies and of course seeing the dollar return on investment.

What do you think is the most important quality of being an Executive Chairman of a listed company?
Communication! A CEO’s ability to communicate an opportunity to investors and shareholders underpins the funding for a biotechnology company. An ability to communicate an opportunity to commercial partners is the basis of establishing Option and Licence agreements. Communication with staff enables sharing of visions for the Company.

What is your favourite book?
That’s a tough one, I have many favourite books from both the Classics and Fiction, however, it is hard to beat the Tolkien trilogy of the Lord of the Rings.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Never give up! Perseverance in your endeavours is the only way to achieve success. The growth in Asia over the next decade is a wonderful opportunity to ride the wave to commercial success.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Website: https://pharmaust.com/

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The post Orthocell (ASX:OCC) – Paul Anderson appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a Managing Director?
I started with a health science background working within the hospital critical care setting before moving into a sales role within the surgical medical device, capital goods and consumables industry. From these roles I graduated into management positions before being presented with an opportunity to enter into a start-up company in the area of tissue regeneration back in 2000. I started as a national sales director before migrating into the Managing Director role. From there we drove the company to a trade sale with an American multinational company effecting one of the early regen med transactions. Following this I started Orthocell (ASX:OCC) on the back of some very exciting intellectual property (IP) that I became aware of from the University of Western Australia that addressed an area of clinical need for soft tissue repair and regeneration. Along the way, I have built knowledge of how to translate and guide growth of new medical technologies and approaches.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Orthocell works in the musculoskeletal regenerative medicine space and has developed two product platforms that are used in a variety of degenerate or torn soft tissue injuries. Firstly, a collagen based medical device that assists in the surgical repair and regeneration of Bone, Tendon and Nerve tissue and secondly a non-surgical cell-based therapy for the regeneration of degenerate tendon tissue. Both are in advanced stages of development and regulatory approval processes with our first product recently approved for sale in Europe. Further to this we are driving our products into the US market and are actively involved in the regulatory submissions of our products into the USA, Europe and Asian markets.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
Certainly, these have been challenging times both professionally and personally. We have had to closely examine all the potential risks to our business and to proactively manage those risks. We have enacted the appropriate spacing guidelines and procedures and have managed our workforce enabling those who can work from home to do so. We have had some disruption to our surgical cases, however we are a pre material revenue Company and hence not greatly affected by a temporary suspension of surgeries. We have continued to drive our R&D activities and to continue to develop the regulatory submissions which are so important to the increasing value of our opportunities. We look for the positives in this situation and whilst we have seen some interruptions, I have been delighted with the professionalism of our staff, the maintenance of our productivity and the ability for us to embrace technology to improve our communication internally and across our stakeholders.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
To develop products and technologies and to guide those technologies through proof of concept, animal studies, human studies and regulatory approvals is a deeply satisfying process. However, the most fulfilling experience is to see those products make profound impacts on peoples’ lives and this has been and is an absolute privilege beyond my expectations.

How do you measure success?
Ultimately success is governed by the Company’s ability to continue to add value and maximise shareholder return. This in my mind however is also entwined with the ability to contribute to society and to add to the net national benefit through the generation of IP and the upskilling of our workforce to effectively make a difference.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a Managing Director of a listed company?
Certainly, one needs to be robust, however the key attributes lie in understanding the strategic pathway of the Company and the experience of how to create a team, build culture within a team, and to lay out a defined pathway enabling them to execute. We want our employees to have ownership of their positions and projects, to work with passion and enthusiasm and to underpin this with a knowledge-based approach all within a quality assured process.

What is your favourite book?
That’s a tough question! I do enjoy non-fiction and have a fascination for maritime history. However, I have recently finished a book Titled ‘As Far as The Eye Can See; A History of Seeing’. A fascinating historical look at how we see things through our eyes and the effect changing technology has on what we see and who we are as a society. A fascinating and thought-provoking work by a great new Author in S Denham Wade.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Orthocell is company with a suite of innovative, largely de risked regenerative medicine products that are strongly differentiated in the global market. We are well funded with a run way that will enable the achievement of our significant milestones and multiply our market capitalisation.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Website: https://www.orthocell.com.au/

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The post InteliCare (ASX:ICR) – Jason Waller appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I followed a fairly unusual path because I started my career as an Air Force pilot. I did this for over 20 years and had the privilege of holding commands in both combat and peace-time operations. I decided to leave the Air Force so my family could have a more stable life, but also to challenge myself on a new front. It turns out, the skills required when leading a combat unit are very similar to a CEO in business. In the end, it’s all about people, and people have the same traits, wants and motivations across nearly all disciplines.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
InteliCare is an Australian technology company founded in January 2016 that has commercialised a predictive analytics engine hardware and software system for use in the aged care and health industries. InteliCare believes Australians deserve to age with dignity and through its business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) solutions built on its proprietary internet of things (IOT) platform utilising smart sensors and artificial intelligence (AI), InteliCare aims to enable people to stay in their own homes for longer while empowering healthcare providers to deliver higher quality, more efficient services. The R&D phase was largely completed in 2019 and now a full commercialisation program is underway.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
I felt fairly on in the piece that we were heading for isolation, so as a company we practiced the procedure at smaller scales and then had a full stay-at-home exercise well before it became the norm. We then went into stay-at-home mode before it became required by the government. Hence, it really wasn’t a big speed-bump, if anything, COVID-19 has made us busier. This is because the system has highlighted the need to protect the elderly. On a personal front, I’m really enjoying working alongside my wife and three University-aged kids. It’s unexpected but very welcoming family time. I do miss the day-to-day camaraderie of the team. However, we’re all on a continuous Microsoft Teams call during the day, so there’s lots of interaction.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The people – it’s always about the people. Seeing what they can do, how innovative and entrepreneurial they are and how they solve complex problems is really what fascinates me. It also keeps me on my toes as I have to keep up with them. The feeling when it all comes together, especially when there were hard, intractable problems, is terrific. It’s very much what the military strives to foster, and it’s just as powerful in the private sector.

How do you measure success?
For a listed company, it’s folded into the share price. At the end of the day, we are about creating shareholder wealth. However, and it’s a BIG “however”, doing good by helping society is core to our company’s values. Therefore, I will measure my success more on building and selling a great product that changes lives, because that will deliver the shareholder returns in the end.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Leadership, end of story.

What is your favourite book?
I have many favourites because I read across lots of different domains. However, an unusual pick, but one I have recently recommended to many people, is “Open”, the autobiography of Andre Agassi. I would hardly ever read, let alone recommend a biography, but this is more a lesson on overcoming failure. You can’t put it down. It’s even better if you don’t really follow tennis. I’d love to meet the man.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
InteliCare Website: https://intelicare.com.au/

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The post Uscom Limited (ASX:UCM) – Rob Phillips appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I was born on the east coast of Australia, and grew up in Fiji, then a small outback city in central Australia and was educated at the University of Queensland, in Brisbane Australia. I have both a clinical and commercial background which is important for managing a medical technology company. I have a PhD and MPhil in medicine and am an Adjunct Associate Professor in cardiovascular physiology and ultrasound monitoring in the School of Medicine at The University of Queensland and am a visiting Professor in Cardiovascular Physiology and Critical Care at the Jining University Medical School, in Shandong, China.

I developed the technical and clinical concepts of the USCOM 1A haemodynamic monitor and converted these concepts via translational research into new technologies and global, lifesaving medical devices. I received an Australian Post Graduate Award, the Singaporean Global Entropolis Technology Award, and was a finalist in the CNN, Google, Time, Science, NYSE World Technology Awards in Health and Medicine recognizing technologies most likely to change global health.

I am active in teaching, writing, researching and reviewing in the field of ultrasound, circulation and cardiovascular monitoring, and am an innovator and pioneer in the field of digital Ultrasound having authored over 40 patents, 75 publications and 200 international presentations.
I am the founder of Uscom Limited and took the Company to public listing, and now have more than 15yrs experience as Chairman and CEO of an ASX listed medical technology company. I have grown the company to cover 4 continents, and successfully raised capital and engineered the acquisition and integration of two international medical device companies.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Uscom Limited is a medical technology company specialising in non-invasive cardiovascular and pulmonary medical devices. Our mission is to conceive and develop innovative technologies which provide global health solutions that can be utilised at the critical care level all the way through to home care environments. It’s amazing that we depend so critically on the circulation for survival, yet measure and manage it so poorly and infrequently. This also means we know so little about the underlying pathophysiology of heart failure, hypertension, sepsis, asthma, and COPD, diseases which are responsible for more the 75% of global mortality. We believe that the highest quality technologies drive the best quality medical care, and will improve their treatment, and it’s our devices which can lead this clinical charge. Care of the heart, vessels and lungs is critical for survival, and it is our speciality. We have three suites of devices, some developed in house and the others acquired by strategic acquisitions.

Commercialisation is a complex business requiring development of products, technical testing and clinical validation of the technologies, manufacturing logistics, regulatory approvals across global jurisdictions to a variety of specifications. Once the product is complete the development of a business model, global distribution channels, and operational management across multiple legal and commercial jurisdictions is required to convert this science into revenue. Uscom has manufacturing and operational centres in Sydney and Budapest, and has recently opened a wholly owned subsidiary to service the Chinese market. We are committed to the Chinese health system having operated there for over 15 years and see China and SE Asia as our neighbours and regional markets. The recent opening of our Beijing based subsidiary is an exciting step for us, and one which is immediately impacting our profitability.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
From a business point of view Uscom creates devices which are critical to the management of infectious diseases, and specifically COVID-19, so we have been busy on the frontline in Wuhan with our Chinese colleagues, as well as supporting our global clinicians as they implement optimal strategies throughout the rest of the world following the spread of the disease. Our USCOM 1A device was specifically recommended as the technology to treat adult and children with severe COVID-19 disease by the Chinese Health and Medicine Commission of the People’s Republic of China and the international Society for Critical Care Medicine Guidelines for treatment of sepsis in Children, so we are definitely at the centre of events in COVID-19. While most people are aware of the risk of COVID-19 pneumonia, the latest data demonstrates that you are 10 times more likely to die from heart failure as you are respiratory failure, so the USCOM 1A, which measures, monitors and guides cardiovascular therapy in sepsis, should be more frequently deployed than ventilators. As hospitals around the world stabilise and recognise the importance of adequately equipping hospitals to deal with the increasing incidence and severity of annual infectious diseases, and with our COVID-19 experience, we expect a significant number of new commissions from health care systems around the world.
At a personal level I’m accustomed to running my business from a computer out of a briefcase in a hotel room before leaping on a plane. So, for me things haven’t changed much, except I’m unit bound, and my home office provides slightly more comfort and permanence than the average airport terminal.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Opportunity; clinical and commercial. We are on the cusp of changing the way medicine is delivered to patients with diseases that kill 75% of the human population. We are saving lives of adults and children around the world and reducing the cost of delivering that care in critical care, paediatrics, emergency care, anaesthesia, maternal health, oncology, and increasingly eHealth. We are developing new digital service delivery models in eHealth, and believe that the future of eHealth is based on the quality of the front-end sensors. While software can be created in a few months and is without barrier to entry, high quality core physiologic sensors take years of development, testing and evolution. It is these advanced sensors which determine the value of results eHealth can deliver, and its Uscom which has the highest quality non-invasive cardiovascular and pulmonary sensors. That is exciting. Commercially of course having the highest quality digital technologies to deal with cardiac, vascular and pulmonary disease creates an almost untappable abundance of opportunity. Bringing clinical and commercial expertise together to create a global health vision creates a unique opportunity to build a great global medical technology business of scale and social impact at a time when the value of world health is perceived as increasingly critical.

How do you measure success?
Corporate success is developing and executing a global strategy to achieve sustained revenue growth to generate shareholder wealth and social benefit. Personal success is the pleasure you get from your life. It differs for each of us and is both endogenous and cultivated; life is a function of your circumstances and what you make of it. Im fortunate, I love my work and have plenty of interests.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Bravery. You have to be brave enough to lead, inspire, motivate, and achieve. You have to be brave enough to be decisive and attack, and brave enough to respond to change and retreat if necessary. A perfect decision today may be a fail tomorrow, so knowing your business in detail and monitoring the changes in global culture, economics and sentiment are critical to maintaining a fine-tuned international strategy.

What is your favourite book?
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A view of the world through the eyes of a tortured soul that asks the questions that make us profoundly uncomfortable and helps explain the world around us.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Do good and do well. Uscom is committed to a clear and progressive global vision based on scientific leadership and a sound commercial strategy. Asia is our home, and a perfect market for us with rapidly increasing health expectations and increasingly sophisticated medical systems keen to adopt the most advanced technologies.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Uscom Website: https://www.uscom.com.au/

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The post ResApp Health Ltd (ASX:RAP) – Tony Keating appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
After completing my PhD at The University of Queensland, I moved to the US to work at the University of Maryland as a Postdoc. At UM I worked on research projects that were funded by the US DoD and NASA. After two years in Washington DC, I moved to Boston to join Exa Corporation. Over 90 manufacturers in the automotive and aerospace industry used Exa’s engineering software to optimise the performance of their products. At Exa, I started in research and moved quickly into a technical business development role, helping develop and execute our aerospace market entry strategy. I returned to Australia in 2010 and joined UniQuest, the commercialisation company of The University of Queensland. At UniQuest, I led the commercialisation of engineering technologies, including identification and development of opportunities as well as sourcing and negotiating transactions with investors and strategic partners. During that time, I acted as interim CEO for a number of start-up companies. In my portfolio were a number of biomedical engineering technologies, one of which was the technology that become ResApp. Working closely with Brian Leedman, Dr Udantha Abeyratne (the inventor of the technology) and Dr Paul Porter (our clinical partner), we spun the ResApp technology out of the university and raised the first round of funding by listing the company on the ASX.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercialising?
ResApp is a digital health company that is focused on respiratory disease. Our core technology uses machine learning algorithms to analyse sounds (such as cough, breathing or snoring sounds) to screen for, diagnose and manage respiratory disease. By using sound, we are able to deploy our technology on an off-the-shelf smartphone, such as an Apple iPhone, without the need for any accessories or other hardware. Since starting the company, we have focused on generating the clinical data and achieving regulatory approvals for our technology. I’m pleased that we now have excellent clinical data from multiple clinical studies and have received CE Mark and TGA approval for two breakthrough products.

ResAppDx uses cough sounds to diagnose respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, asthma exacerbations and COPD exacerbations. It has been demonstrated in large clinical studies to identify these diseases at high sensitivity and specificity. ResAppDx is clinically valuable as a triage tool in traditional settings such as an emergency department, urgent care clinic or GP’s office where it can provide a rapid point-of-care result, but it is in telehealth where we have an extremely strong value proposition. We are able to provide telehealth clinicians with an accurate way to asses a patient’s lungs without a stethoscope or imaging which are obviously not available in the telehealth setting. We are working closely with telehealth providers, including our announced deals with Coviu and Phenix Health, to integrate our algorithms into their platforms to provide a seamless experience for both patients and clinicians.

SleepCheck is a direct-to-consumer screening tool for obstructive sleep apnoea. Sleep apnoea is a major health issue, with 3 in 10 men and 2 in 10 women suffering from sleep apnoea, and up to 80% of those with sleep apnoea being undiagnosed and therefore untreated. Untreated, sleep apnoea doesn’t only result in daytime tiredness, but increases your risk of heart disease significantly. To be diagnosed with sleep apnoea today takes multiple steps, including a referral and a sleep study which involves trying to sleep with multiple contact sensors (chest straps, EGC patches on your skull, etc.), typically in an unfamiliar environment. SleepCheck reduces the barriers to diagnosis, by placing your smartphone on your bedside table when you go to sleep, you wake up to a score which assesses your risk of sleep apnoea, advising you on the next steps you can take.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
COVID-19 has changed the way governments, providers and the general public think about healthcare. This pandemic has accelerated the growth of telehealth and remote monitoring of patients. Telehealth providers such as Ping An Good Doctor (China) and Teladoc (USA) have seen huge increases in the number of telehealth consultations so far this year. Our Australian telehealth partners, Coviu and Phenix Health, have seen exponential growth since the Australian government opened up Medicate rebates for telehealth here. With this growth comes the responsibility to deliver quality care and we fill a unique position in providing the only scalable solution for remote respiratory diagnosis. Without a way to know what is happening in a patient’s lungs it is difficult for a telehealth clinician to effectively diagnose a patient who has respiratory symptoms.

COVID-19 itself represents a challenge for the global medical community and there are a number of ways we can assist. We are exploring ways of identifying the virus itself through cough, but also see an immediate opportunity to assist in managing patients with COVID-19 remotely, by identifying mild patients (i.e. patients where the disease has not progressed to a lung infection) and keeping them at home, reducing the load on hospitals and other facilities.

Operationally, our business is working well under the current restrictions. Our team have used Slack for internal comms since we founded the company and continue to make great progress even with the team working from home. Travel restrictions certainly limit our in-person visits to customers and partners, however, like all businesses, we have moved most of our business development efforts online to platforms like Zoom. We recently employed a very experienced sales and marketing leader for Europe who is based in London which certainly increases our capability there.

Personally, I’m spending a lot of time on Zoom rather than in hotels, airports and airplanes. There have been a few Zoom interruptions from kids, but that seems to be something that everybody around the world is getting used to.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The things our team are able to achieve. Our team has grown quickly and has achieved major milestones such as regulatory approval and our first customer deals, while facing and overcoming some setbacks along the way. Very few companies globally have experience in the areas where we operate. Our small team has developed technology, clinical and regulatory strategies that put us in a very unique position of being one of the very few companies in the world who have achieved what we have achieved.

How do you measure success?
I’ll always measure success by the creating products we create that help patients. These products will help doctors better take care of their patients, or will empower patients themselves to make more informed decisions about their health. If we do this then we will deliver strong returns to our shareholders.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Time management and communication. It’s important to ensure that I listen to our shareholders and communicate effectively with them, but also balance that with running the business, which is all about listening and communicating with our team.

What is your favourite book?
I don’t think I really have a favourite book, but the most recent book I finished was The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma by Barry Werth. The story of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, it describes the ups and downs of healthcare, especially when developing brand new and novel products, and the persistence required to be successful.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
ResApp has achieved much over the last 5 years, resulting in regulatory approvals for two products, ResAppDx, targeting clinical diagnosis of respiratory disease, and SleepCheck, targeting at-home self-assessment of obstructive sleep apnoea. Both of these products are entering huge global markets in 2020. While the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed global business growth, it has shone a spotlight on respiratory disease and telehealth.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
ResApp Website: https://www.resapphealth.com.au/

The post ResApp Health Ltd (ASX:RAP) – Tony Keating appeared first on StockPal.

The post Aptorum Group (NASDAQ:APM) – Ian Huen appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. degree in Economics in June 2001, subsequently completed a postgraduate MA program in Comparative and Public History from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in June 2016. I also attained Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) designation during my time at formerly Janus Capital (currently renamed to Janus Henderson Group plc) as an equity research analyst covering the U.S. healthcare sector. Following which, I was a global asset manager for over 15 years for our proprietary family office funds and others. During that time, I was also the sell-side financial advisor in the sale of Seng Heng Bank Limited (Macau) to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2007. After that, I founded Aptorum Group, a biopharmaceutical company focused on unmet medical needs, in 2016 and became its Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director with initial seeding capital c. USD$25m.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Aptorum Group Limited (Nasdaq: APM) is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to tackle unmet medical needs. Our pipeline currently focuses on indications including orphan diseases, infectious diseases and metabolic diseases, a number of which are targeted to enter various phases of clinical trials in 2020. Our company also operates a woman’s health supplement business whose Chinese Yam Nutraceutical Tablets is currently being manufactured in Canada and targeted for commercialization this Q2/3 2020.

The first of our three major pillars of drug discovery and development is the Smart-ACTTM platform. Under the platform, we target to systematically identify and repurpose existing approved drugs for selected orphan disease, thus significantly cutting short development timeline and resources of bringing the molecule into late-stage clinical trials. In our case, we target to bring a new repurposed drug to phase 1b/2a trials on average between 12-18 months per program from initial screening. As a first proof-of-concept, the Smart-ACTTM platform has successfully screened over 1,615 approved drugs against 3 therapeutic target proteins related to poor prognosis of neuroblastoma (“NB”) and selected one candidate for further development with an aim to entering clinical trials. This lead program, SACT-1, for the treatment of neuroblastoma, is targeted for an IND submission via the US FDA 505(b)(2) pathway in second half of 2020 to enter proof of concept human trials in North America.
Our second major pillar is the Acticule platform, targeting infectious diseases which is a hot area right now. One of our leading programs is ALS-4 targeting infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus using an anti-virulence (non-bactericidal) approach. ALS-4 is a small molecule anti-virulence non-bactericidal drug for the treatment of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus including Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), one of the “superbugs” estimated to cause at least 150,000 infections in the US along with between 30-55% mortality rate. ALS-4 drug is a first-in-class oral drug which disarms the bacteria by inhibiting the production of Staphyloxanthin, the golden pigment covering the bacteria, which make it resistant to attack from reactive oxygen species (ROS) employed by our phagocytic cells and neutrophils as an immune defense. By inhibiting the pigment production, our data clearly indicated the remarkable efficacy of ALS-4 against Staphylococcus aureus including MRSA. ALS-4 is currently undergoing IND enabling studies and is targeted for IND submission in second half of 2020 to commence phase 1 trials in North America.

Our third major pillar is the Claves platform which targets metabolic diseases. The lead program under Claves platform, CLS-1, is a macromolecule that modulates the chemical signaling of gut microbiota for the treatment of obesity. CLS-1 is an orally administered non-absorbable macromolecule that binds a specific metabolite related to obesity excreted by gut microbiota with high affinity and specificity. In a preclinical study employing an animal model, we successfully demonstrated that CLS-1 significantly reduced body weight without any major side-effects such as liver toxicity. CLS-1 is currently in preclinical development, targeted for IND submission in 2021.

We also have a dietary supplement, NLS-2, targeted for the relief of women undergoing menopause or post-menopausal cycles and experiencing related symptoms such as flushes and even osteoporosis. The supplement is made from Chinese yam containing an active bioactive ingredient called “DOI”, which is Aptorum Group’s non-hormonal approach intended to meet certain growing $17 billion per year global women’s health consumer nutritional market. We have entered into a regional distribution agreement with Multipak Limited, a local company holding the famous tea brand “Luk Yu” and other health products. The supplement will initially be sold in Hong Kong and we are seeking regulatory clearance to market the product in other major jurisdictions. At this stage, the production of Aptorum Group’s NLS-2 DOI based bioactive nutraceutical tablets has commenced in Canada and will be marketed under the brand name NativusWellTM. The product is expected to be revenue generating in 2020.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The SARS-COV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is highly infectious and requires a multi-dimensional approach from the worldwide communities to bring this under control. Aptorum Group has made announcements at the end of March on our SACT-COV19 program, where we have identified, under our Smart-ACT platform, at least 3 FDA approved small molecule drugs that we will investigate further for repurposing against the COVID-19 virus. We are partnering with Toronto based pharma development company Covar Pharmaceuticals and also contracted University of Hong Kong’s Microbiology team to conduct further preclinical investigations. The merit about drug repurposing is that these are usually previously approved and marketed drugs that have already undergone rigorous clinical trials, therefore these candidates can potentially benefit from a shortened development timeline to reach proof-of-concept clinical trials (usually bypassing or conducting abbreviated preclinical and phase 1 studies subject to regulatory approvals). We hope to report back our progress in this Q2 prior to seeking regulatory approval to initiate clinical trials on our selected candidates.

Based on the current situation, we expect this disease may not be fully eradicated and may well continue for the medium term. Although the current SARS-COV-2 virus (current mortality rate 4.1%) has a lower mortality rate than that of the 2003 SARS-COV-1 virus strain (mortality rate 9.6%) or the 2012 MERS-COV virus strain (mortality rate 37%), the current SARS-COV-2 virus has a more resilient survival period and higher infection rate. Our strategy is to tackle this disease from a therapeutic standpoint and we will continue to investigate and develop our SACT-COV19 drug candidates under our Smart-ACTTM platform for the treatment of COVID-19, and hope to work with our collaborators to speedily deliver a workable therapeutic solution to the world.

On the personal front, I strongly recommend abiding by government guidelines in maintaining personal hygiene as well as the practice of social distancing until such time the government considers it safe to do otherwise.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing expansion, driven by the unmet medical needs in various diseases areas. For Aptorum Group, it is exciting to catalyze the development and improvement of a broad portfolio of projects under development from preclinical to clinical stages of novel therapeutics and diagnostics across a wide range of disease/therapeutic areas, specifically orphan disease area. I particularly enjoy the process of successfully transforming clinical outcomes to create value, sustainable business growth and the most important thing, saving patients.

How do you measure success?
The definition of success is different for everyone, and my definition of success is to achieve success for different stakeholders of the Aptorum Group. For investors, success can be the value creation of the enterprise. For employees, success can be the positive development of an individual’s career path or the award from the job. For Aptorum Group’s business, I like to see through the successful development of our drugs to tackle unmet medical needs and save more lives.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
First, the CEO needs to have the farsightedness so that he can foresee the strategic steps required for the company in the long term. Second, as the business market evolves rapidly due to external factors, so the company needs to be nimble and flexible enough in adapting to such changes in the market. Finally, perseverance is also crucial and critical in driving the success of pharmaceutical companies, drug research and development may not always be smooth, as CEO, must have confidence and embrace the changes.

What is your favourite book?
My favourite book is “Qi Wu Lun” written by Chuang Tzu. The text formulates that the universe is of one entity and humans are part of that structure. As with our ALS-4 program, a natural approach are used to disarm the bacteria by inhibition of the production of staphyloxanthin aureus including MRSA, the golden pigment covering bacteria, which allow our immune system to eliminate the bacteria on its own without using antibiotic.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
This year 2020 is proving to be an exciting year for Aptorum Group which will transform into a full-fledged clinical stage biopharmaceutical company driven by our three major platforms. Despite the challenges arising due to the COVID-19, our development progress and recent expansion of pipeline continue to operate on a business-as-usual basis. With the recent capital raise completed and supported by our US institutional fund shareholders, our fundamentals remain strong and we will continue to target to deliver those key catalysts and drive shareholder value as we have planned and communicated to our investors so far.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Aptorum Group Website: https://www.aptorumgroup.com/

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The post Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX:RCE) – James Graham appeared first on StockPal.

Pre-clinical testing in laboratories and animal models, in Australia and overseas has demonstrated positive results to date. Recce Pharmaceuticals has manufacturing facilities in Australia and clinical research partners in the USA. Recce Pharmaceuticals has validated an automated process to manufacture its lead compound ahead of first-in-human clinical trials.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO/Executive Director?
Academia and I have never mixed but I have always found alternative ways and late in that journey was my grandpa, Dr. Graham Melrose.

On my third failed management & finance subjects (of which I’d otherwise say I’m ok at!), my then retired grandpa would tutor me four days a week. As a former executive director & head of research for Johnson & Johnson (Australasia), I was learning from the best. Soon after tutoring started, my uncle and I also raised $3.5m seed-capital in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis for an innovative flat-pack consumer product and sold it a few years later.

I guess without ever saying it, my grandpa must have been impressed and invited me to check out his back-yard lab. It was here he held a vial to the light; swirling it around said, “I think this has antibiotic properties – let’s get it into a lab and see what we can do.” I was on the Western Australia Business Angels Investment committee but had never had much biotech exposure living in a mining state after all.

My goal really was to help, but all my grandpa really needed was a little capital. I invested, the rest of my family invested, friends, friends of friends, and so on over a few years and I developed the skills to be an executive director along the way. The riskier the capital (seed), the tighter the pool. What started as a passive investment, turned more active and with larger capital needs, so I found myself in a more formal role around 12 months prior to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listing.

I’ve now raised approximately $15M for the company, Recce Pharmaceuticals, invested around $500K of my own money, and feel very lucky to be part of what could be the first new class of antibiotics in over 30 years.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:RCE) is pioneering the development and commercialization of a new class of antibiotics with broad spectrum activity designed to address the urgent global health problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Recce’s antibiotics potency does not diminish even with repeated use. Our lead patented candidate, RECCE® 327, has been developed for the treatment of blood infections and sepsis derived from E. coli and S. aureus bacteria – including their superbug forms.

Recce Pharmaceuticals has never been in a better position financially. The company is funded to pursue drug development activities around RECCE® 327 with expanding clinical indications, accelerated regulatory pathways, extended market exclusivity and capability to scale up manufacturing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) awarded Recce Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designation under the Generating Antibiotic Initiatives Now (GAIN) Act which allows us to fast track RECCE® 327 through the regulatory review process and make it is available to treat patients with serious or life-threatening bacterial infections sooner. This designation also includes 10 years of market exclusivity post-approval which limits competition from generics.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
The ongoing COVID-19 crisis highlights the critical need and importance of new treatments to help reduce the spread and ultimately deaths of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2. As an infectious disease company in the midst of a global pandemic, we’re looking to help patients in need as the virus can dramatically weaken a patient’s immune system, which allows bacteria otherwise natural to our bodies to multiply beyond control. As noted with past viral pandemics, most deaths are caused by secondary bacterial infections, usually starting as pneumonia and progressing to sepsis.

As such, both interest and opportunity within the space has never been stronger – and, more importantly, the need, never greater. With cash at bank, an anti-infective technology indicating capability across a range of unmet medical needs, we’re moving as fast as possible to be a part of the story.

Personally, I’m lucky enough to be working from home and keeping myself busy with hobbies like fishing while social distancing.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
Instant gratification! I get to work with world-leading scientists who support me in understanding highly technical third-party test results. Simplifying and seeking to ready for the wider audience, I get to extend those internal high-fives to our thousands of shareholders and beyond.

How do you measure success?
Trade volume – sellers will always be there, but if there’s not got a solid foundation of buyers keeping that turn-over pressure you’ve got a shareholder trap, little future capital will support.
Quarter-half yearly (share) price gains – price fluctuations happen, but a steady sustained growth is just right.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO/Executive Director of a listed company?
Know what you don’t know and back yourself when it counts. I surround myself with brilliant people and know that whatever the topic, whenever the time, I’ve generally got just enough up my sleeve to get through and able to really knock it out the park on revert where needed.

What is your favourite book?
Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE by Phil Knight – a well-intended start-up and its endless struggles to keep going; a journey to now one of the world’s most successful companies.

Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business by John Mackey (co-CEO of Whole Foods Market) – the inherent good of both business and capitalism to create value for all stakeholders with captivating first-hand examples from leading companies.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Without effective antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, lifesaving medical procedures such as surgeries may become risky to perform because of the potential of difficult-to-treat surgical site infections.

H. pylori, an example, is on of the most common bacterial pathogens infecting about 60% of the world’s population with much higher rates in countries such as China. Further, in Hong Kong, one new superbug infection is reported every 18 minutes, where 1/3 of Hong Kong’s elderly care home residents carry MRSA superbugs – 3 times that rate in Shanghai. Anti-microbial resistance is 20 times higher in Hong Kong than in the UK or Sweden.

We anticipate our first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trial of RECCE® 327 in Australia to assess safety in healthy subjects in the second half of 2020 – new hope in the fight against antibiotic resistant superbugs is on your Australasian doorstop.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Recce Pharmaceuticals Website: https://www.recce.com.au/

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The post MyFiziq Limited (ASX:MYQ) – Vlado Bosanac appeared first on StockPal.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
I’ve been involved in the capital markets for some 27 years now. Most of those years were spent investing and assisting companies with their capital needs or helping them work their way through their growth and IPO’s. I work for 17 years with my partner Evan Cross getting involved in some amazing opportunities and certainly learning a hell of a lot along the way. In 2014 I had a vision that today has become a reality (MyFiziq Limited). We have developed a unique and required piece of software that allows you to measure yourself using your mobile phone. It started out as an idea with my life partner Dr. Katherine and has evolved into 20+ staff over the past 7 years.

Every day brings challenges as a founder and a CEO. It’s been a lot of fun building the company and the team. I was very fortunate in surrounding myself with a very committed, driven team of people. They love the company as much as I do. I couldn’t have developed this without them. This makes my role as the CEO much easier and allows me to focus on the things I need to do to build the business.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
MyFiziq has a proprietary image capturing system within a consumer’s smartphone, we empower a consumer with the ability to create accurate measurements of their structure in the form of a 3D avatar with circumference measurements, total body fat and risk assessment. We partner with companies that embed our Software Development Kit’s (SDK’s) into their new or existing applications and then customize the experience to look and feel like the partner company and its branding.

MyFiziq has developed this capability by leveraging the power of Computer Vision, Machine Learning and patented algorithms, to process these images on secure, enterprise-level infrastructure, delivering an end-to-end experience that is unrivaled in the industry.

Our mission is to globalize our technology and assist individuals, communities, and populations to live better healthier lives by working with governments, healthcare providers, health & fitness identities and solutions available worldwide with the data we can provide in the palm of your hand. Our software as a service solution (SAAS) offering allows flexibility and pricing with scale for our partners. MyFiziq partners with highly scaled or scalable new and existing applications and provides them with a deeper insight into the data they wish to retrieve from their users to empower them in their journeys. Some examples of our partners are Floyd Mayweather with his 41m social media followers, Fitocracy one of the US top 5 fitness apps or Wellness companies such as WellteQ in Singapore who support several top 500 companies with their wellness needs.

Our B2B Business Verticals
• Health & Fitness – $700 billion pa
• Insurance Life & Health – $9 Trillion pa
• Telemedicine /Digital Health $350 billion pa
• Online Apparel expected to grow to $765 billion pa by 2022
• Wellness – $85 billion pa

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
MyFiziq has not seen a decrease in business activity. On the contrary, we have seen an acceleration of existing implementations being brought forward as well as a large volume of new business inquiries. We are in a fortunate position that our business model and growth strategy span multiple industries and business verticals as outlined.
As we are a digital business, our product can be used in the comfort of an individual’s home on their mobile device. People are isolating at home currently, engaging with multiple fitness apps and telehealth platforms. MyFiziq has experienced a surge in new business inquiries for access to the product suite from organizations in health & fitness, home training, gym software, wellness, and the insurance space.

On a personal front, I enjoy what I do and I’m glad I am not sitting around watching our business fall apart with the current pandemic. It’s easy to stay positive when you are busy. Life is never without its challenges and I see this as just another one. I surround myself with great people (socially distant currently) and that way the mojo is always good. I try and stay away from the news as much as I can. I think my work-life balance is in sync at the moment, so I’ll take it!

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
I couldn’t really put it down to one thing. Is it that WOW moment you see on someone’s face when you demonstrate our tech? Or is it seeing my team pumped and excited about what they are involved in and creating, or is it the fact we have this market-ready and are now releasing it to the world? (Caveat: this is tech and we are constantly evolving to stay ahead of the curve)

How do you measure success?
I don’t think there is just one measure for success – it is a lot of things. Being happy to get out of bed every morning and get on with my day. That feeling of achievement and a happy hard-working team around you. Customers wanting our technology. Seeing we can solve real problems in so many different use cases around the world. For me, it is what MyFiziq is becoming the balance I have in my personal life, my two amazing daughters, it’s speaking to my shareholders whether they are happy or unhappy and satisfying their concerns if needed.

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Being confident in your business and projecting that to your staff and potential customers. Being a good mentor to your team. Having the ability to bounce back and pivot. As a CEO you take all the gut punches (which is okay from where I sit) – I’m the one that sold the vision so if someone thinks I’m not delivering, it’s me that needs to stand at the front of it. I get it when the share price isn’t going up all the time or things run late. Shareholders are limited to the news we can provide them, and the ASX is tight on not allowing you to use the platform as a marketing tool. We do so much that wouldn’t be considered material, so we let it build up before we release updates. But I am always happy to speak with my shareholders and welcome their inquiries good or bad.

What is your favorite movie or TV series?
Movies and TV are my escape and dream the dream time. My Favourite is “Wall Street”. This movie set my mind to be the best I could be with the life my mother gave me. I grew up in a broken home and my mother was on a supporting mother’s pension and we lived in government housing. When I was older, I recall looking back at memories and realized there were times she didn’t eat so my brother and I had food in our stomachs. I remember thinking I wanted so much more for my family. This movie set the bar for me that there is no ceiling or floor, the boundaries are in your head.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
There are a few and like most of the questions, I have added a lot more than was asked, as I want you to get a feel for me and who I am. I’m a dreamer because without dreams there is never creation. The world is, what it is, and we just need to do our best to deal with it sometimes, on a day by day basis. Take on what you can but let yourself be real. Life comes with pressure and expectation; these current times are quite an exception, but we have to deal with it. The great thing about us as humans, is we bounce back. Whilst I acknowledge the extreme situation, we all face currently, it is going to create some amazing opportunities for personal growth and financial growth. Use this time to reset and move forward.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
MyFiziq Website: https://www.myfiziq.com/

The post MyFiziq Limited (ASX:MYQ) – Vlado Bosanac appeared first on StockPal.

The post 90 Seconds With Spark – Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX:RCE) appeared first on StockPal.

Recce Pharmaceuticals is an Australian based globally-focussed, biotechnology company engaged in the development and commercialisation of a new class of antibiotics.

Visit their website for more info: https://www.recce.com.au/

The post 90 Seconds With Spark – Recce Pharmaceuticals (ASX:RCE) appeared first on StockPal.