# Widecells Group PLC Q&A: CellPlan e-Commerce Platform & INDUS Product Launch (LON:WDC)

- Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/widecells-group-plc-qa-cellplan-e-commerce-platform-indus-product-launch-lonwdc/412732751
- Published: 2017-07-27T12:32:10+01:00
- Author: Amilia Stone

**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.

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