Tag: WDC

Widecells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the recent Board changes, their new scientific advisory board, WG Partners and what to look forward to in 2018

Q1: Firstly, I see there’s been a number of additions to the Board, can you tell us a bit more about these new members and what they’ll be bringing to the company?

A1: At Widecells Group, we are now at what we call an inflection point. We started to generate revenues over the past 3 months and that’s from different product lines and that’s following all the hard work in conducting our product development, getting our facility up and running In Manchester and getting our insurance product to market.

Now, looking into 2018, we knew that it was important to strengthen our Board and that’s something that we have just been very fortunate to complete. We’ll also be looking to strengthen the rest of our key managers for 2018 and now we are just looking to increase our revenues and to continue with our geographical expansion. With that in mind we have appointed a new Chairman.

Graham, who is our previous Chairman, has helped us to conduct the IPO, to get the company to get where it is now, his mainly focus is on early-stage companies and getting them to the stage Widecells Group is now. Looking into the future, we wanted someone who had more experience with public listed companies, with larger companies and particularly in insurance as well so we have Peter Presland, he’s been involved in several Chairman and non-executive director roles in public listed companies and blue-chip companies as well. Prior to that he’s been CEO of one of the major insurance brokers at the time in the UK which was C E Health and before that, he was their CFO, so he was there for more than 10 years so he’s very experienced and it’s going to help, certainly, in the next stage of development.

We have Malcolm Glaister which is the CEO of the Eight Great Technologies Investment Fund and Farm Street in London, both which he started. Malcolm will be helping us to also heighten our investment profile.

Also, we have Zakaria Aziz who is a very successful entrepreneur that built Ray International Group, it’s a big company all across Asia Pacific and the Middle East. He will be helping us, again, to heighten the profile and to prepare everything to enter into that region of the world through his contacts and his relationships and so on.
So, it’s really strengthening the Board and preparing everything for the next stage of development.

Q2: I see that you’ve created a new Scientific Board, what’s the reason for this?

A2: Mainly because we want to remain at the forefront of stem cell technology and being part of driving the next generation of stem cell technology as well. We have a wide range of services from education and training courses to expert medical opinion service, to insurance products to cover the costs associated with stem cell treatment but also having a stem cell storage and a research facility. We think it’s critical looking into the future and to ensure we make the right decisions that we have top level scientists and doctors involved in the stem cell industry that can provide their best advice so that we can drive the company in the right direction.

Q3: I also see that WG Partners have joined your advisory team, they’re obviously fairly big players in the life science sector which is a good reflection on you guys. What was your intention behind this?

A3: Well, again, because we are a growth company and being a growth company, we have to look into the best partners that can work with us to attract the right investors for the future. WG Partners is a specialist life science boutique, they provide their clients with corporate advisory, M&A and also capital raising services.

However, in our case we have mainly focussed on starting to tap into a new investor base that is looking to the life sciences sector because we are the only quoted company within our space on the London Stock Exchange, we think there’s many opportunities to engage with new investors and strengthen our shareholder register and for the time being, that’s really the objective.

In the long run, identifying opportunities for growth as I’m sure we will at some point, having WG Partners working with us is certainly the right decision for some that might be looking into other opportunities for that growth.

Q4: Finally, 2017 has obviously been a good year for Widecells Group, looking ahead to 2018, what can we look forward to?

A4: In 2017, the whole work was around building our laboratory facility in the University of Manchester, preparing our CellPlan products launch and starting to generate the first sales, conduct the first trial in the UK and launch in the largest market in Europe which is Spain, which is likely to happen at the end of this year. Also getting the plans for WideAcademy, the education and training division completed and the first version of the platform that we could test internally. We also had plans to start conducting stem cell research via contract research that we get paid for and that has happened as well so 2017 was building infrastructure that will enable us to generate strong revenues for the future and that has happened.

So, looking now into 2018 is again looking to generate revenue but also entering into new geographical locations, over the past few months we entered some agreements, particularly in the Middle East and in Asia and we already have agreements in Brazil. What we’re going to see throughout 2018 is our product and services being deployed in these markets as well and carrying on our regional plans of expansion in the best markets in Europe.

Widecells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss CellPlan’s launch in Spain

Q1: Yet more exciting news for Widecells Group, congratulations. When we last spoke, we heard about your new partnership with White Apex but today you’ve today announced that CellPlan will be launched in Spain later this year. How are you going to achieve this?

A1: Well, this is a development from our strategy in the UK so in the UK markets we launched a couple of months ago, starting with one cord blood bank which is BioVault so we launched to Biovault’s clients first, new clients and existing clients that had already stored their stem cells.

Now, what we have done is we launched our e-commerce platform, just today, in the UK and what this means is that families in the UK that store with all the cord blood banks now have the ability to go into our e-commerce platform and purchase the insurance policy directly. So, it means that we have two distribution routes at the moment, one is working with cord blood banks and the other one is direct to families where we use the e-commerce platform.

Now, because this programme has been fully developed, it’s much easier for us to mirror the platform and this model and deploy it in other countries and this is exactly what’s happening in Spain. We have an agreement with a cord blood bank which is called Stem Cell Banco Celulas Madre, they have more than 2,000 clients already and growing quickly and at the same time, we’ll be launching the products to all the other families in Spain that have already stored their stem cells which is a much larger market than the UK and also to all new families that are now looking to store their baby’s umbilical cord. So, this is what we can expect from the Spanish market.

Q2: In terms of revenue, can you give us an idea of the impact of this expansion?

A2: What’s happened is, for example, in the UK we have large cord blood banks but mainly they receive stem cell samples from all over the regions, throughout Europe and the Middle East which means that the UK market doesn’t have a big adoption rate although it’s increasing quite a lot. Widecells will be, I think, one of the main drivers for that to happen but there are regions in Europe where the adoption rates are very high, even in Spain it’s more than 10% of families are storing their baby’s umbilical cord blood.

Now, that’s why we’re entering this region, there are tens of thousands of families in Spain that have already stored their baby’s umbilical cord blood which means much more than in the UK and by having the full programme and the model developed, we launched in Spain, we have one cord blood bank, we can sell directly to families, this can have a big impact in our revenues, that’s certainly what we expect.

Q3: Now, your rollout in Spain is being issued by both an agreement with a leading cord blood storage facility and through your e-commerce platform. Looking at the e-commerce platform, you’ve mentioned is fully live now in the UK, what exactly does the platform offer?

A3: Well, the platform, first and foremost, it helps to educate clients on the offering that we’re providing. Up until today, what will happen is families will be storing their baby’s umbilical cord blood stem cells and mostly not being aware of the treatment costs in case they needed to use the stem cells but also what diseases can be treated, where are the medical centres, who are the medical teams, what are the success rates for treatments using umbilical cord blood stem cells and this is all information that can be found in a digestible format in our e-commerce platform. It also allows the client to generate a quote instantly, conduct a health questionnaire and if they decide to purchase a policy, they can pay directly on the platform and we issue the insurance policy digitally, all of this is in a seamless process.

So, it’s a great technology and a great way for us to market the product directly to our target audience in a more cost-effective way. Thankfully, as an example, people like to post on Facebook that they had a baby and so on, it’s very easy to target families that have just recently had babies and that have most likely stored their baby’s umbilical cord blood.

Q4: As the platform is web-based I assume the roll-out of this is fairly low-cost and accordingly it’ll be critical in facilitating a wider global expansion?

A4: Yes, that’s a very good point. Again, if the model and the platform is ready for the UK, when we get nearer to Spain, considering that we have global reinsurance capacity through our partners and we also have the ability to provide expert medical opinion services and medical concierge services through our partnership with Best Doctors, our exclusive partnership with them, and knowing they have offices throughout the world.

We have reinsurance capacity, we have the capacity to manage claims and provide all services in any country, we have a fully developed e-commerce platform to deploy the product and the ability to enter into agreements with the insurance companies to act as a fronting insurer so we can enter any market fully licensed to operate.

So, this platform and this plan allows us to scale the business really quickly and that’s why, for example, the agreement with White Apex, you can see we are starting to talk to cord blood banks in the Middle East, in Asia, and also the insurance companies. It doesn’t require a big focus on the adaptation from market to market, that can be done more likely than if we do it a primitive way.

Q5: With this in mind then, are there any other geographies that Widecells Group currently have their eye on?

A5: Yes, in Europe, where we are focussed, but again with this agreement with White Apex, we have started to look in a couple of countries in the Middle East and a few countries in Asia where there are very large cord blood banks established for more than 10-15 years. So, these cord blood banks are not offering a stem cell insurance plan with medical concierge and so on so it’s a completely new product that we can bring to this region. We already have the agreement in Brazil with Hemocord and now with the platform fully developed, we can expect similar strategy to be implemented in Brazil at the beginning of next year.

Widecells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss their new exclusive agreement with White Apex to expand into MENA and Asia-Pacific

Q1: Some exciting news today in the form of an exclusive agreement with White Apex. João, congratulations on the agreement, it seems to be a huge milestone for the company, can you give us a bit more information on what this agreement entails and what it means for the Widecells Group?

A1: Most important aspect of this deal is that we have identified a strategic partner to work with us in 2 regions that are of interest which is the Middle East and Asia and also some countries in North Africa. For more than a year I have been saying the key to our success is to scale up the business quickly and in order for us to do that, we need to find the right strategic partners in different regions of the world and this is what this agreement represents.

Now, the interesting thing about the agreement is that in our deal with White Apex they are going to be promoting all of our product offering from WideAcademy, which is education and training, from CellPlan, our insurance plan for stem cells and also with Widecells, for the stem cell storage services, they will be promoting all the products in this region.

So, it’s a very exciting time for us that we are now preparing to enter this market.

Q2: Crucially, revenues are imminent from this so when can we expect first revenues to commence and what is the revenue structure going to look like going forward?

A2: Ok, so that’s an interesting question. What we’re doing at the moment is we are completing the formal agreements until the end of this month, until 31st October, and following the formal agreements, White Apex will be sponsoring 2,000 doctors in the UAE and a couple of other locations first. Basically, what this means is they are paying £120 per doctor for us to develop content and courseware which is specific to them.

Now, the idea behind this is to educate the medical professionals on the benefits of stem cell technology, on storing stem cells, which will ultimately lead to us also selling insurance policies and that’s the strategy that they have in mind. So, that’s £240,000 following the signature of the agreement and then the wider platform for WideAcademy for the education and training because they see, as we see, that this is very important to educate the market first, they are looking to localise the platform we’ve built in English first and localise it to the Middle Eastern markets and for that, we’re expecting to generate a further £250,000 in revenue before the end of the year.

They are also becoming agents for Widecells which means they’ll be procuring clients in the Middle East, starting in the UAE, sending the baby’s umbilical cord blood samples, that are collected locally, and sending to them to our facilities in Manchester. So, that means they pay £15,000 upfront to become our agents in each country they enter within the territories which is Middle East and Asia, excluding China, and then we generate revenues from the stem cells that are sent to our facility in Manchester.

With CellPlan, the final one, what they’re doing is introducing us to insurance companies locally and also to cord blood banks and then helping to manage that relationship so that we can, with insurance companies, have CellPlan included or as an add-on to existing private health insurance. Policies. With the corporate banks, it’s for cord blood banks to offer the first-year policy to all their new clients that are now storing stem cells with them but also introducing us to their existing database of clients that do not have an insurance for stem cell treatment.

So, this is an agreement that covers all our product offering and for the three divisions.

Q3: So, who exactly are White Apex? I see some of the team will be heading up a regional office for you, can you explain what makes them the right partner and team for you?

A3: Dr Ahmed Alawi, he will be the Managing Director of MENA and the Asia-Pacific region, he is a very experienced stem cell scientist, he led a team at Genzyme, which was the third largest biotech company in the world, they were acquired by Sanofi in 2011. He’s also founder of The Middle East Thrombosis Institute, he’s worked for several Fortune500 and FTSE companies and he combines science with business so he’s a very successful entrepreneur. He understands the relevance of what we’re doing for the stem cell industry because he’s been involved in it for many years, he understands the challenges and he sees the solutions here at Widecells.

We also have Ahmad Jemain who is the Chief Operating Officer for the region and he’s worked in insurance for a number of years, he knows the region quite well, he’s been introducing us to insurance companies so the discussions are well underway.

We then have Zakaria Aziz who is a very successful entrepreneur that started the RAY International Group more than a decade ago which is now a very large corporation that’s working from Oman, with offices throughout the Middle East and Asia. They are mainly focussed on the maintenance, uses, oil mining, gas, energy, healthcare and education, so a very large company. So, a successful entrepreneur helping us to develop the business through the Asian market in this case.

So, we have a very strong team over there, experienced entrepreneurs who understand the insurance and the stem cell market and how to do business within this region.

Q4: This agreement obviously rapidly fast-tracks the Group’s expansion in terms of both geography and sales and revenues. Can we expect a similar strategy applied to other regions?

A4: Well, we had done something already in Brazil so that’s where our geographical expansion started outside the UK and Europe, we now have the Middle East and the Asia region but because it’s a very large region to cover, we have now the strategic partner with us. What we can expect is for example, with WideCells we are starting with UAE and we can see that White Apex is paying us £15,000 to set up the agents for them and then they’ll start sending samples from Dubai but every new market that they enter will have a similar structure.

With insurance companies and cord blood banks within this region, there’s a lot of ground to cover so we have focussed on this agreement first, we have UK and Europe and in Brazil what can happen is we might expect us to look into the whole Latin American market, more towards the end of next year.

At the moment, we are focussing on Europe, UK, Asia, the Middle East and Brazil, these are the regions we are focussing on which is a lot of ground to cover.

Widecells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade and Vice President of WideAcademy Alan Greenberg caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss WideAcademy, what it is trying to achieve & why, its path to commercialisation and what to expect in the next 6-18 months

Q1: João, can you give us a brief overview of both Widecells and WideAcademy and their relationship with each other?

A1: So, Widecells Group, we are a worldwide provider of stem cells services and, as covered in previous interviews, we have established three business divisions:

One of them is CellPlan where we have developed the world’s first stem cell insurance plan to cover the cost associated with stem cell treatment and this is for families that have banked their baby’s umbilical cord blood to protect them against future illness.

We also have Widecells division where we have a stem cell processing and storage facility where we can store stem cells for families. We have also a research arm where we are involved in cutting-edge research but mainly via contract researching the development projects.

In terms of WideAcademy, this is a project we have brought ahead of schedule, initially we were planning to launch WideAcademy in 2018. WideAcademy is very relevant to Widecells but also to the whole stem cell industry because there is an assumption that there’s a lack of information on stem cell technology by medical professionals, by clients and even people involved in the life sciences community. WideAcademy needs to become the leader in stem cell technology and provide accurate scientific and medical information to primarily medical professionals but then to potential client. This is so we can empower them with the right information so that they can make then the informed decision and have more medical options.

Q2: Why do you think there’s a need for WideAcademy in the market?

A2: It’s exactly for that because we see the market today when talking to medical professionals, there’s still, we believe, a lack of information on the treatments that are available globally. Where these treatments are performed, who are the medical teams, how much these treatments can cost, how patients can benefit from these new technologies but also who is driving the next generation of stem cell technology and what we can expect to happen in the following years.

For that reason, we have this very big challenge of bringing this information together and have it ready to access so if a medical professional wants to know more about stem cells or a particular type of disease or an obstetrician that has expecting parents asking him the question, whether they should or should not store their baby’s umbilical cord blood. So, WideAcademy aims to answer these questions but also open up for other possibilities within the industry for the future.

It’s very interesting, in a world where you’ve got issues with Uber currently and other technology companies and disruption, I think the words ‘trust’ and ‘authenticity’ becomes increasingly more relevant and more important to consumers and to everybody. The principals that we built WideAcademy is built on literally those principals of trust and authenticity, providing the medical world with trusted, relevant content that helps them disseminate and helps them find the information they need quickly and efficiently. Equally, the public, the public need to have a place to go which is different from maybe going to Wikipedia or from some of the other medical portals that can become the trusted and relevant place for this information, that they can come to access easily and intuitively and make it available to them.

Q3: Now, Alan, you joined the company in February this year, can you explain a little about WideAcademy’s mantra, what it is trying to achieve and why?

A3: I think it’s very important to understand the inspiration of our Chief Executive, I met João, I was inspired by him, we had a number of conversations and it became apparent very quickly that this was a friendship and a collaboration. He presented me with a challenge which my experience has some relevance to having grown podcasting at Apple and other initiatives I did at Apple and other companies. It became a challenge which I really wanted to take on and then the ability to go and build something supported by the Board, supported by the company generally which we’ll bring to life over the coming weeks and months and we’ll launch officially in Q1 2018.

It was really that ability to inform the market, to bring to the market those opportunities and let me give you one anecdote which I think is quite interesting to your audience, when this project started we had a vision, about 6 or 8 weeks WebMD got sold in the US for some $2.8 billion. We believe we have something which in many ways is smarter than WebMD, it’s narrower but it’s smarter and the market has proven the fact that bringing medical information to the parties that need it has enormous value, both in terms of consumption and in terms of the market itself.

Q4: About a month ago Alan, you set up the strategic plans of WideAcademy will do, today’s announcement explains how you’re going to achieve it. We know you’ve got great experience in leading projects like this from your time with Apple but can you embellish WideAcademy’s path to commercialisation?

A4: I can, I’m hesitating only because there are things that I’d like to deliver before I talk about them but we have a number of different strategic ways of delivering content. First of all, content will be provided free of charge on the platform, although we’re looking at having a premium content opportunity specifically for the medical world and we already have some interest in organisations, wealth management organisations and other foundations who are keen to sponsor this. So, this is an opportunity for corporate social responsibility to sponsor a premium product which would include AI tools, peer-to-peer communications and wealth management seem to like that opportunity to sponsor it. We’re looking and we’re exploring those avenues currently.

Q5: Are you confident that you’ll meet your targets? Can you tell us a little bit more about what’s to come and where we see WideAcademy in the next 6-12 months and the next 12-18 months?

A5: So, the next 6-12 months, we have a plan which is ahead of schedule, my technology team have built out a platform and we’re moving in to what is called an ‘alpha phase’. The alpha phase is the first time we’ll actually have the platform to test and work on and we’re looking for the alpha to move to a beta stage before the year end.

The objective is to launch the platform commercially from Q1 2018, I don’t want to be specific with that date at the moment. Within the platform we will have, as I’ve mentioned, free-to-access content which is disseminated from significant amounts of research and made available to 3 cohorts, obviously the medical world itself to enterprise organisations and to the public.

We will also have components of courseware so we’re working with some leading universities, who have very deep long course courseware, we will be developing that long course courseware into what are called modules. Those modules will be available to the medical world, free-to-access, to have an opportunity to consider and learn from.

We also have the ability to provide accreditation so we have a micro-credentials capability so if somebody wants to be recognised for their learning, they have the ability for a paid for accreditation.
We have also the sponsorship programme which I’ve just alluded to and some very keen partners who are looking to support that and I expect the sponsorship programme to become live, probably again Q1 2018.

What I will add to that is when looking to the whole Widecells Group, we again have brought WideAcademy ahead of schedule because our strategic partners have mentioned, over and over, the relevance of the work that we wanted to do with WideAcademy and how this can support them and empower the whole industry. So, when we have started looking with Alan and the WideAcademy team on how we could develop the project to the point where we can see now with the announcement we made today.

What we really have to see is that WideAcademy is one of the crucial elements for Widecells Group but also for the stem cell industry as a whole. It’s an understatement to say that WideAcademy is just going to support Widecells Group, it’s really going to empower the industry and by doing that it might enable more funding to be dropped into the stem cell industry, it might allow more people to be looking into what’s happening now and just drive more opportunity. So, WideAcademy is really one of the key elements of what we’re doing.

WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the successful placing of £750,000, what it will be used for, the company’s bright future and Widecells being a successful investment opportunity

Q1: First off, congratulations on a successful placing. You’ve raised £750,000, how do you plan on using this money?

A1: Well, first of all, there’s two reasons why we decided to fundraise now, one of them is to rapidly accelerate the development of our 3 stem cell services divisions which are CellPlan with our insurance plan and WideCells we’ve started research and WideAcademy with education and training. Because we are on a standard list we had, at the beginning of this year, raised 10% of our share capital which was the maximum allowed by the market rules which have changed last month, companies on a standard list can now raise 20% because we have a great amount of opportunity that we can accelerate by having the funding, we decided to fundraise this month. We have seen amazing support from our investors, directors have invested as well so it’s mainly to drive the marketing efforts to generate more leads to convert them into sales across the 3 divisions.

Q2: You’ve had a number of milestone developments in recent months including the commercial launch of your proprietary insurance product CellPlan, the launch of a new synthetic bone graft treatment, INDUS and the commencement of a paid-for-research work following the granting of a research licence from the UK’s Human Tissue Authority just to name a few! With a bolstered bank balance supporting these growth initiatives, the future must look bright for revenues?

A2: Yes, I think that we are ideally positioned to build our position as a key service provider and the leading international innovator in the stem cell arena, that’s the first thing. Now, because all of our products are able to generate revenues, generally revenues globally, we are now really well positioned to drive more and to generate more revenues for the company. We started to do that last month with CellPlan and also via contract research so we’ve seen our first revenues coming up in July, starting to increase now in August and we expect to announce our quarterly results at the beginning of October. Our focus now is really on generating revenues across the divisions and having this extra funding will enable us to do that even faster.

Q3: The funds were raised with both new and existing shareholders as well as the Board of Directors, I believe all the Board members have chosen to participate in this placing which is obviously a good sign. Can you, from your perspective, expand on why you believe WideCells is an attractive investment opportunity?

A3: Widecells is a very innovative company, we are delivering the world’s first end-to-end services solution to make stem cell treatment accessible and affordable, globally. We are award-winning, we’ve been nominated 21st most disruptive company globally by Disrupt 100 and also been nominated for IPO Life Sciences of the Year 2016.

We have developed a number of products that are very unique we have a first mover advantage and all of them have the ability to generate revenue globally. There is a proven demand, we know there’s more than 3 million people globally that have already frozen their baby’s umbilical cord blood stem cells to protect their family against future illness but they do not have an insurance to cover the cost of treatment. We have developed a product, we launched it in the UK and are now looking to launch it across European countries, Latin America and Asia in the next 12 months.
We have a clearly defined development plan across the 3 divisions, the market is growing a lot, the industry is worth $100 billion today and is expected to double in the next 4 years and we have a very experienced team across education, insurance, stem cell technology to execute the business plan.

So, I think that, as a summary, we have this unique positioning that might allow us to become market leaders in the stem cell industry globally in the upcoming years.

WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade and Chief Scientific Officer Dr Peter Hollands caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the launch of their CellPlan e-commerce platform and their INDUS product launch

Q1: Now, it’s been a busy few days of news flow for Widecells with not one but two launches, firstly, your CellPlan e-commerce platform, it’s now live meaning people in the UK can purchase your stem cell insurance product directly. How does the platform work João?

A1: So, first of all, it’s been a very exciting couple of weeks now our products are being launched in the UK. Firstly, the CellPlan e-commerce platform, basically what we have done is, over the past few months, we have developed an e-commerce platform where we are able to receive the applicant details, we are able to conduct a health questionnaire, we can collect payment and then issue the insurance policy digitally, all of it on a similar process.

The importance of this platform is that it allows us to reach a higher audience, first of all, because we can offer the CellPlan to families that meet our quality criteria, this means that they have stored their baby’s umbilical cord blood in high quality facilities, that’s one of the most important points because we can reach them directly.

When we launched it last week, we launched it first to clients that are storing stem cells at Biovault which is the cord blood bank that we have entered our first referral agreement. This means they are not only offering CellPlan to all of their new clients, the first-year policy, but also making it available to all their existing database and they can complete the purchase on our e-commerce platform. Now, moving forward, all their families in the UK in the next few weeks, also in the platform, will be able to purchase CellPlan directly.

So, this is a huge milestone for the company because this e-commerce platform, we can, with very small adjustments, launch it into other markets which means we can look into countries such as Spain, Italy and so on in Europe and very quickly go to market with CellPlan.

Q2: This, obviously, is a huge achievement, what impact do you expect the platform to have on sales and revenue?

A2: Well, I think it’s going to have a huge impact because the platform itself, we’ve built it in such a way that it’s easy for the clients to understand the benefits of the CellPlan policy, also the benefits of storing stem cells for expecting parents who have not done so already. At the same time, the platform using current digital marketing tools is much easier for us to reach a wider audience and to reach more expecting parents, also, effectively target families that have already banked their children’s stem cells.

Rather than going through the conventional model using insurance brokers and so on, we are able to contact families directly and in that 2-minute process, from logging into the website to having the insurance policy issued digitally, they can complete the whole process.

So, I think that’ll have a huge impact and also because we have built the platform in such a way that we can replicate it in other markets very quickly, we can scale up the business more rapidly as well. So, I strongly believe this is going to have a positive impact on our revenues moving forward.

Q3: Regarding the rollout, the purchase of CellPlan visa the platform is currently only available in the UK to customers that have stored their stem cells with Biovault. Now, you’re clearly targeting a much wider market than this so what’s the plan for the further rollout?

A3: So, looking at the UK first, we have this agreement with Biovault, the product is now live, families who are now banking their children’s stem cells will be offered the first-year policy by Biovault as they include in their stem cells storage package, also existing clients that have already stored stem cells with Biovault will be able to purchase CellPlan on the platform. Looking into the future, and focusing here in the UK first, in the next few weeks we will make the product available to families in the UK that have stored stem cells in high quality stem cell banks that meet our quality criteria which we call the CellPlan Excel.

Perhaps, in the next 2-3 months, what we can expect to see is the product and the e-commerce platform being rolled out in European locations and next year, in other continents. There is one exception which is Brazil which we are looking to fast-track CellPlan into the market with views of having it available in the next few months.

Q4: Peter, you’re the Chief Scientific Officer, can you give us a bit on your background and why you chose to work with Widecells Group?

A4: Yes, of course. I’m a clinical scientist and I trained at Cambridge University with the guys that invented test-tube babies and they received a noble prize for that work. I went on to do a PhD in stem cell technology and I’ve worked in teaching research and clinical practice in stem cell technology for 3 years now.

Why Widecells Group? Well, Widecells gives me the opportunity, as a clinical scientist, to really bring what I believe in to the clinic because this is what we want to do, we want to increase the acceptability and availability of stem cell treatments. So, from my point of view, to be working with a company like Widecells is amazing because it gives me that platform to do what I really want to do and that’s to use stem cells in clinical therapy.

Q5: I wanted to talk to you about your second launch, launch number two. You’re due to start selling a new product called INDUS which I believe has been approved for sales across Europe, can you tell us what this is and how it’s going to be used?

A5: INDUS, I’m really delighted to add this as a new product to our range, it’s the most advanced product of its type in the artificial bones sector.

Now, this is particularly important to people like dentists who often have to have processes and procedures to replace bone in various situations. At the moment, dentists are actually using donor human bone or in most cases, they’re actually using donor animal bone so clearly this is difficult to get hold of, it has all sorts of problems and so by having a gold-standard synthetic bone we are in a unique position now.

The advantages of INDUS are that, of course, it’s there and available as and when you need it, there’s no risk of disease transmission because if we’re taking bone from human donors or even animal donors, there’s always that risk there or risk of rejection indeed. Possibly, one of the most practical points of view, when the dental surgeon uses this product, they actually have a reduced surgical time because the product is easier to handle at the point of surgery. This is really important, I saw a procedure the other day using this, it was absolutely amazing because when the INDUS touches the patient and gets in touch with the patient’s body fluids during surgery, it immediately attaches to where you’ve put it and it stays in place. Now, this is in contrast to the current application using donor human and animal bone where it actually quite commonly falls out of place so the dentist is constantly wanting to reposition so that’s better for the patient and of course better for the dentist because they can do more work in any given time.

One of the things I would add is that whilst this is a brilliant product on its own and it has massive potential, at the Widecells Institute of Stem Cell Technology we are going to develop an INDUS stem cell product. The concept here is that we actually use INDUS at the same time as stem cells so mix stem cells with the INDUS, put that into the patient and the advantage here will be that the bone will regenerate even more quickly and even better with the presence of cells. So, a great product with a massive potential.

Q6: This seems to be a bit of change to stem cells, can you explain how the two products work together and what Widecells Group’s rollout plans are for the product?

A6: Well, I mentioned the concept of using stem cells and INDUS together, we would source the stem cells from either dental pulp, dental pulp is the stem cells found inside teeth, or we can also source stem cells for this procedure from liposuction procedures so from adipose tissue or fat.

We will develop this technology in our Institute of Stem Cell Technology in Manchester to create a new protocol for the use of INDUS stem cells which can then be applied by dentists in the clinic. I should also add that, of course, there are orthopaedic applications, it’s not just dentists, which could be very important for INDUS as well.

In terms of rollout, we have the CE marking in place and we’re ready to go.

WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) Chief Executive Officer João Andrade and Chief Financial Officer David Bridgland caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the agreement with Hemocord, the significance of the region, David becoming full time CFO, future agreements and their investor event

Q1: Now, João, you’ve secured a second definitive agreement for CellPlan which will see your ‘first of its kind’ stem cell healthcare insurance and medical concierge service offered to both new and existing clients of Hemocord Clinica Medica. Can you give us a bit more information on Hemocord and what this agreement means for Widecells?

A1: Hemocord is a cord blood bank that exists for more than 10 years, established in Southern Brazil, Brazil is one of the fastest growing markets in the cord blood banking industry and this is a high-quality facility. Over the past few months, we have been conducting the quality assessment to confirm that Hemocord meets our stringent criteria for CellPlan XL cord blood banks so that we are able to insure the families that our storing their baby’s umbilical cord blood with them. Once that has been completed, we’ve negotiated our partnerships, and it’s now very interesting to see that we are launching the product not only in the UK, as it happened last month from where we started to generate revenues for CellPlan already, but we are now moving fast into international markets including new continents as well. So, this represents the need for CellPlan in the global market and this agreement with Hemocord is really important to us to tap into the Brazilian market and bring this solution to Brazilian families.

Q2: This agreement not only creates a new revenue stream but also represents a new geography for WideCells Group, do you see this region being of particular significance?

A2: Yes, it is, because we are looking into emerging markets and emerging markets have a direct correlation to the markets that are growing more within the stem cell industry, particularly the cord blood banking industry. In Brazil, the market has been growing a lot especially in Rio de Janeiro and San Paulo, the biggest cities which combined have more than 30 million people and it’s an important geography for us, we had already entered an agreement with an existing cord blood bank based in San Paulo before where we have out licenced some of our stem cell processing and storage technology and that is already in sales since October last year. This is really an interesting geography for us, I’m Brazilian myself so I understand the market quite well so it has accelerated perhaps some of these agreements understanding how the market works so it’s really of high relevance for us to tap into not only Brazil but any of these emerging markets.

Q3: David, now that you are full time for WideCells Group, this must be a good indicator that things are going well?

A3: Absolutely, since I’ve been involved with the Group, all the way through the fundraising through to the IPO, since about a year ago when we completed the IPO, we’ve been setting up the facility up in Manchester, we’ve been developing the CellPlan product and we’ve got R&D projects started and underway. Just now, we’ve have a licence from the Human Tissue Authority about to be granted which will allow us to start the R&D research work, it will also enable us to get into further R&D programmes that we’re talking to partners about. It will also allow us to start storing stem cells up in Manchester in our stem cell processing storage facility so revenues are going to start to grow significantly for the WideCells part of the business. For CellPlan, our insurance products for stem cell treatment plan, that is going to start growing significantly as well, that was launched last month, sales are going to grow and with all areas of the business, these 3 areas of the business growing rapidly, it’s important that I’m able to focus on control of the business and maximising the profits that we’re going to be generating.

Q4: 3 million cord blood samples are held in storage in 500 cord blood storage facilities across the world, you now have agreements with 2 of these facilities, can we expect more agreements of this kind?

A4: Absolutely, we’ve been having a number of conversations with cord blood banks and we’re conducting quality assessments with a number of them and in the coming months, we’ll be announcing more cord blood banks joining up with our business.

Q5: João, finally, WideCells Group PLC have an investor event due to take place next week, is this open for anyone to attend?

A5: Yes, we have even included details on the RNS announcement this morning, it is an open event. The only thing for any investor that wants to attend just needs to send an email to the email address indicated in the RNS and they need to be identification to the building to participate in the investor event which we are very excited about.