Markets with multi-million dollar potential

Healthcare
Biotechnology & Drugs
NASD:  FMTI

Forbes Medi-Tech, Inc.

Tazdin Esmail
Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer

Interview conducted by:
Diane Reynolds, Co-Publisher

CEOCFOinterview.com
November 2001

 

Biography -Tazdin Esmail:

Mr. Esmail brings to the Company over 20 years experience in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Esmail was Vice President, Medical Operations of QLT Photo Therapeutics Inc., a Vancouver-based biotechnology company. Prior to QLT, he was with Cyanamid Canada Inc., a subsidiary of American Cyanamid Company, in its Lederie multinational pharmaceutical division where he held several progressive senior management positions in areas such as strategic planning, sales and marketing, new product development, marketing research and management training.

CEOCFOinterviews – Can you tell us about your company and the technology that is being used here?

Mr. Esmail – Forbes Medi-Tech is a diversified health sciences company dedicated to research, development and commercialization of innovative therapeutic agents to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease.  Forbes is developing a suite of products that run the spectrum of cardiovascular disease treatment and prevention ranging from functional foods, over-the-counter products to prescription pharmaceuticals. 

The scientific platform is based on sterol technology.  Sterols are basically lipid-like compounds found in plants, fruits and vegetables.  They are essentially plant fats.  The company has developed technology to extract sterols from plants, which are used to produce a number of useful products such as food ingredients, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals that are used to manufacture various medications.  The company is targeting three major markets each with multi-million dollar potential.

 The first one is functional foods.  These are foods or beverages with an added ingredient that provides a medicinal benefit or helps prevent disease.  The Nutrition Business Journal estimated that the functional foods market is projected to reach over 80 billion dollars by the year 2005.  In the functional foods area, there is a line of cholesterol-lowering food products from The Quaker Oats Company incorporating Forbes’ plant sterol-based food ingredient that are currently being test marketed in the upstate New York area.  Twin-Lab Corporation has also launched a cholesterol-lowering dietary supplement called Cholesterol Success™. enriched with a Forbes’ sterol ingredient under the brand name  Reducolä.   Cholesterol Success™ is available exclusively through health food stores in the U.S.

More recently, Pharmavite Corporation, one of North America’s leading nutritional supplement manufacturers and distributors, has launched Nature Made Cholest-Off™, a cholesterol-lowering dietary supplement containing Forbes’ proprietary  Plant sterol based ingredient Reducol™  Cholest-Off will be sold exclusively in food, drug, mass merchandise and club stores in the U.S. and will be available to consumers beginning November 2001. Additional product launches are anticipated in 2002.

Our second major focus is in the prescription pharmaceuticals area.  The American Heart Association estimates that more that 100 million Americans have high or moderately high cholesterol levels.  In the U.S. more that 2,600 people die each day as a result of cardiovascular disease.  An average of one death occurs every 33 seconds. Forbes has a unique sterol based cholesterol lowering pharmaceutical in development called FM-VP4, which has shown dramatic lipid lowering properties in animal studies.

Forbes recently announced the start of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of FM-VP4 to prove safety and effectiveness in humans.  Cholesterol lowering pharmaceuticals represent a potentially huge market for Forbes.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that more than 35% of U.S. adults are candidates for prevention attributes of a cholesterol-lowering agent.  The annual worldwide market for prescription pharmaceuticals directed at reducing cholesterol is estimated to be close to 16 billion dollars for the year 2000 and is growing quite rapidly. 

The third focus of our company is the fine steroidal chemical intermediates market. Forbes has produced a line of fine chemical intermediates called Androstenedioine and Androstadienedione commonly referred to as (AD) and (ADD), which are used to make steroid-based pharmaceuticals.  Essentially these chemicals are the raw materials used to make birth control pills, anti-inflammatories and hormone replacement medications.  The world market for these products is estimated to be over 500 million dollars annually.  Forbes anticipates generating revenues from AD sales in this calendar year. 

CEOCFOinterviews - Functional Foods is an over the counter drug and is grown organically, so would there be no side effects with this?

Mr. Esmail – The products that we have are made out of plant sterols and are generally very safe.  Sterols exist in plants and fruits in low quantities.  Most people consume 200 to 300 milligrams per day of plant sterols as part of a normal healthy diet.  Numerous research studies have shown that consumption of an additional one to two grams of plant sterols on a daily basis can safely and effectively block cholesterol absorption and lower blood cholesterol levels significantly. The safety aspect of these compounds is well established. 

CEOCFOinterviews – Where is the majority of your revenue coming from?

To receive a complete copy of this interview call: 570-839-0236