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Getting to a BLISful state a long and winding road

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Wellington

 

Dunedin-based BLIS ’s oral cavityprobiotic products have “spent a long time on the runway”, as it chief executive Dr BarryRichardson described the other day.

(Briefly wearing a journalist hat, I interviewed Richardson for BusinessDesk). There’s a certain irony in the eleven yearold stockmarket listed company’s current position – with its share price less than a cent.

The quirk of fate is that with 50 worldwide patents on its ‘good’ bacteria, Streptococcussalivarius, which crowds out baddies that can cause bad breath and tooth decay, BLIS is potentiallyon the cusp of a huge ramp up in demand from other manufacturers of products.

Part of BLIS’s strategy is to allow other manufacturers of lozenges and ice cream (amongnumerous products) to use their probiotics and validated health claims in their own products.

Undoubtedly shareholders have long tired of hearing that nirvana is just around the corner, butwith recent United States FDA approval of safety and efficacy beyond its (to date) dietarysupplement certification, BLIS’s runway looks truly set for takeoff.

Added to that is the fact that around the world other independent science teams have been furtherproving BLIS’s claims of its probiotics marketed as K12 and M18 do work.

All that would be fantastic for Dunedin – as the freeze-dried probiotic ingredients are allmanufactured in New Zealand, and any addition to its commercial base can only be good for the cityand its university.

However, this is a roundabout way of showing and saying that:

  • There’s a heck of a challenge in converting a good idea to a blazing commercial success– it takes time (and then some) and money

  • A stockmarket listing as acapital-raising exercise for a fledgling biotech company will often be an exercise in frustrationand ongoing requirement to disclose, disclose, disclose

  • And lastly, and hopefullysomething that doesn’t come to fruition – BLIS could be ripe for takeover by a savvy investoraware of the potential it has now created


Particularly with regard to thelatter possibility, a stripping out of the IP and production from BLIS would be another sad state ofaffairs for NZ Inc biotech.

Our country’s greatest potential increase in national wealth is adding wealth to our biologicalresources and raw materials – that is, doing clever things to and with biological bits (+ bytes ifwe can combine it with the digital side of things).

But to achieve this, we need to maintain and grow the supporting infrastructure, including theexpertise and processing that BLIS has onboard.

Then, not only can BLIS people grow its own portfolio of products (and there’s more in thepipeline apparently), but some of these clever people might head off to set up other ventures.Equally, outsiders can tap into the BLIS skills in the kiwi ‘can you give me a hand’ manner.

So….hang in there BLIS. After more than a decade of trying to get your probiotic plane off theground you might at last be ready for takeoff.

When that happens, it’ll be good for all of us.

Getting to a BLISful state a long and winding road

Getting to a BLISful state a long and winding road
 
 
 
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