Healthcare
Biotechnology & Drugs
NASD: ICCC
ImmuCell Corporation
56 Evergreen Drive
Portland, M.E. 04103
Phone: 207-878-2770
Michael F. Brigham
President and
Chief Executive Officer
Interview conducted by:
Walter Banks
Co-Publisher
CEOCFOinterviews.com
January 2002
Bio
of CEO,
Michael
F. Brigham (Age: 40, Officer Since: October 1991, Director Since: March 1999) was
appointed to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer in February 2000 while
maintaining the titles of Treasurer and Secretary, and was appointed to serve as a
Director of the Company in March 1999. He previously had been elected Vice President
of the Company in December 1998 and served as Chief Financial Officer since October 1991.
Prior to that, he served as Director of Finance and Administration since
originally joining the Company in September 1989. He has served as Secretary
since December 1995 and as Treasurer since October 1991. Mr. Brigham serves on
the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Association of Maine and The Maine Center
for Innovation in Biotechnology. Prior to joining the Company, he was employed
as an audit manager for the public accounting firm of Ernst & Young. Mr.
Brigham earned his masters in Business Administration from New York University in 1989.
About
ImmuCell Corporation,
ImmuCell Corporation (NASDAQ/ICCC), headquartered in Portland, Maine, is dedicated
to developing and marketing products that improve animal health and productivity in the
dairy and beef industries. Their product focus encompasses prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of bovine diseases.
ImmuCell continues to be on the forefront of calf scours (diarrhea) prevention
technology, manufacturing and marketing First Defense®, the most popular and convenient
scours prevention administered to neonatal calves. The first 24 hours of a calf’s
life are critical for antibody absorption. Calf scours (diarrhea) is one of the most
common and costly diseases in calves, resulting from lack of sufficient disease protection
from mother’s colostrum. First Defense is the only U.S.D.A. approved scours
preventative administered to calves with indications for E. coli and Coronavirus.
ImmuCell is currently leveraging strengths in enteric disease and reproductive efficiency
products to develop other products for herd health. A major concentration is in the area
of mastitis management. ImmuCell’s new Intelligent Mastitis Management™ program
incorporates innovative products, along with some widely accepted testing tools, to help
minimize the effects of mastitis.
Wipe
Out®
Wipe Out Dairy Wipes, containing the natural antimicrobial Nisin, were evaluated in
testing procedures consistent with the protocols recommended by the National Mastitis
Council. These data demonstrated that Wipe Out is proven to be effective in killing
bacteria on teats, reducing new intramammary infections and maintaining teat condition.
The use of an antimicrobial to clean and sanitize the teat area before and after milking
is an accepted practice proven to reduce the incidence of mastitis in cows. Mastitis can
be effectively controlled by killing two of the main pathogens that cause it — Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae) — by
using a pre- and post-dip that destroys these organisms.
Mast Out™
Mast Out, which is currently under development, will be an intramammary infusion product
for lactating and dry cow therapy that will have the active ingredient Nisin, a natural
antimicrobial protein. Mast Out has the potential to revolutionize mastitis treatment by
dramatically shortening milk withdrawal time and decreasing risk from antibiotic residues.
Mast Out will be a cornerstone of our Intelligent Mastitis Management™ product line.
This is a long-term project.
The CMT (California Mastitis Test) is a rapid cow-side test for early detection of
mastitis, and for years has been a trusted tool of dairy producers. The new ImmuCell Brand CMT offers the same ease-of-use
and accuracy as other brands, with 50% more tests per kit at the same price.
CEOCFOinterviews: Mr. Brigham, please give us a brief
history of ImmuCell?
Mr. Brigham: Immucell went public back in 1987, but I
think more relevant to investors today is what we have been doing since 1999. That was the year that we changed our focus,
strategy and mission to really concentrate on the dairy and beef industries. For the last two and a half years, we have had a
tight focus on developing and acquiring products for the dairy and beef industries. Along with that came the ability to go from a
company that used to lose money to a profitable company.
We turned away from developing human applications of our core technologies that
were subject to long and expensive FDA trials to relatively quicker product licensure
efforts with the USDA on animal health products. If we can find products through internal
development or through acquisitions that could diagnose, treat or prevent disease that are
important to dairy and beef industries, we would do that and market them directly
ourselves. We have been profitable since the
change in strategy and we have grown our revenues 19% for the third quarter of 2001 and
15% year to date. We will set out to maximize
that profitability, however there is still work to be done in research and development at
the present, but we are confident that we can grow our profits in years to come.
CEOCFOinterviews: What would you say is your most recent and
exciting news?
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