Direction and horizon
Fourth division
The fourth division will be Manufacturing. We have built enough confidence for the future to bring in our own pharmaceutical production plant to focus on new formulations such as sustained-release, systemic and topical. This decision is at a time when much news in global media points to interruptions of international supply chains and pharmaceutical manufacturing as hot topics. We have decided that the time is now right for CLINUVEL to bring this division under one roof. The Manufacturing Division will be producing for CLINUVEL under Good Manufacturing Practices but will also be set up as contract manufacturer for other pharmaceutical companies and research groups. I am a strong supporter to keep and build all professional skills within the CLINUVEL academy to service other biotechnology groups.
Growth
A question was received as to how I see the share price of CLINUVEL the next years. As Chairman, I am not looking at the share price each day, nor at the quarterly reports. I am much more interested in the final year end numbers, feedback from the users in hospitals, and the Company’s long-term goals. The Board looks at our managers to reach their objectives and the rest will follow in the course of business.
Of course, I am happy with the yearly growth. But this Board is more interested to see whether its long-term goals to establish an independent group of companies with more products and services can be built. If there is a positive path, the value will come, as we have seen the past months, we all need to be patient.
Some comments have been made to me whether CLINUVEL should buy back shares. We, and many of our financial and corporate advisors, do not believe that buying back shares and limiting the trading volume of shares is the long-term solution to a share price. Performance and belief in the future will solve share price issues. As we now see, the short sellers are exiting their position in CUV and the share price is increasing.
Our task as a Board is to follow a steady strategy, make sure our objectives are achieved and the people are kept within the Company. With COVID vaccines coming to many European countries and the United States, I look with optimism to CLINUVEL’s future.
I had to think about our business in the United States. I want to finish by telling you a story from my 2010 visit to Philadelphia. As an entrepreneur looking for other opportunities and looking to CLINUVEL, my CFO and I met the late doctor Agersborg and Mr. Wood for a long lunch. During coffee, they looked into the future and said that because CLINUVEL was operating more carefully than the other biotech business they had been involved in, they were sure that one day CLINUVEL would be worth 15 times more because the CLINUVEL managers would convince doctors and insurance companies for the need to treat patients worldwide. Then the Company would build other businesses where others had not
been before. When I asked them why the number 15, they laughed and agreed that 10 was too low and 15 the minimum. In many things the two directors were never wrong, and now I see that both gentlemen were also right about CLINUVEL’s growth.
I will speak to you in the near future.
Willem Blijdorp
Chair
