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Gold/Mining/Energy : TM Bioscience Corp. tmc.v -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Phil Cressman who wrote (112)	6/6/1999 3:02:00 AM
From: Rhys Roberts	Respond to of 137

An Analysis of the 1999 AGM of TM Bioscience Well. what a year! I've seen my stock in TM grow from where I started buying at $0.27 to a high of $1.22 and back to its current $0.30. By any analysis it hasn't been a great year for TM in fact I might say this would be a year to forget except for the many great things we learned about at the AGM. TM Bioscience is of all my current investments the most likely to make me rich! I don't think I can sum it up better than that statement. TMC is a shit stock but probably the most well run Biotech company in the world and currently only a few dozen people know about that simple fact. I'm not making this up its true and here's some stuff to talk about. The meeting was started by Richard Lockie, TMCs Chairman and a Senior VP at MDS Capital Corp. I unfortunately didn't take notes but as I remember it he said exactly what I was thinking. (please forgive me but this is not word for word but the general idea) ' The past year has been a year of transition for Tm bioscience and though our price on the market hasn't shown it. The company is in a great position to capitalize on its patented technologies' (although I didn't record it several friends present agree this is generally what he said) It was this statement that set the scene for what became me (and most others in the room) becoming incredibly confident in the management of TMC. Next came Don MacAdam someone who over the past year has had to deal with many a disappointed investor who called him every month to find out why our company was going seemingly no where. Don this year toned down the scientific rhetoric (THANK YOU!) and kept it quite simple. He presented a slide show (which he graciously sent me a copy of). I'm going to skip parts of it if anyone would like a copy, ask me I'll be happy to provide one. 1998 Highlights Strategic Focus Consolidation of operations Financing Reduction in cost structure Although I wouldn't have said so, last years TMC seemed like a very unfocused company compared to this years. You have to remember that Don MacAdam hadn't actually been in the job that long (in Biotech years that is). There was an attitude that TMC was as another poster said earlier 'the Microsoft of Biotech' I think that view was premature but certainly TMC will play a significant role in the area of diagnostics & biochips. Tm's consolidation of its operations in Canada has had as Don said a 'profound impact' on the current burn rate for the company. Hopefully with a revenue stream in the near future a positive cash flow may not be an impossibility. Don didn't say and I unfortunately forgot to ask what missing last Decembers milestone had on the finances of the company. Patents( Tm Advantage) Novel understanding of DNA technology Tm is a world leader in DNA Hybridization -hybridization technology is the key step in any DNA technology currently 4 patents issued and allowed 10 patents pending - patents for broad based protection of underlying technology This is a something of which I was very unaware of I knew of 3 or 4 patents but a possible 14?!?! That certainly surprised me. after all its Tm's patents that provide for a possible near term revenue stream. The more the better! But let us not forget what this company actually does Tm is currently a world leader in hybridization, This technology of Hybridization has a broad range of applications Don went through 3 of the possible applications. Applications Key step in all DNA Technologies Hybridization issues -Control -Sensitivity -Discrimination Control, Sensitivity & Discrimination. To me this meant absolutely nothing! But Don went through a possible scenario as to what this broad technology could be applied to and what problems Tm's technology could solve. All of these technologies are given a brief description on Tm's web site: tmbioscience.com Biochips Biochip market -$100 million in 1998 -$1 billion forecast in 2000 Problem: The value in biochips is cost per test. The more tests, per chip, the lower the cost. But the more tests per chip, the less accurate the results. Tm's Solution for this is something called normalization that improves the accuracy of results in a biochip by a huge factor, unfortunately I've forgotten the number but its unbelievably high! This will become more important as the number of Biochip manufacturers increase and start to ship products as yet only Affymetrix ships biochips although there are several that will start in the near future. Determining Genotype DNA diagnostics are medium growth market -$660 million (1998) -Growing at 20% annually Problem: New testes need increased discrimination to identify not just the presence but also the genotype of a pathogen such as HIV. Tm's technology called hairpin capture technology increases the capture efficiency by a factor of 13! It allows HIV tests to be done earlier and more accurately. You can see the graph at: tmbioscience.com Viral Load Tests Viral load market: -$400 million (1998) -Growing at 40% annually Problem: Required sensitivity at reasonable cost and ease of use is difficult to achieve. Tm is at the forefront of solving this technical hurdle. Tm's Signal amplifier technology increases the signal strength by a factor of 10! The technology is easy to implement and cost effective really here Tm can't be beat! Check out a graph at tmbioscience.com *As always I've saved the best for last!* Key Customers: Biochips Four Key customers -Affyetrix - collaboration -Expect to enter 1 additional collaboration and 2 proof of concept agreements in 1999. Diagnostics Four Key Customers -Expect to enter 1 collaboration and 1 proof of concept agreement in 1999. Genomics Four key customers -Expect to enter 1 collaboration and a working relationship during 1999. Total that up! That's four collaboration agreements expected this year between now and the millennium!! Not only that but three proof of concept agreements and a Working relationship all expected before year end! this is utterly spectacular I expected Tm to work with one or two possible the companies the figure is closer to eight or nine! WOW! The possible revenue streams are awesome! That was the end of Dons slides, it was also pretty much the end of the meeting. A few things I must mention though was the brilliant talk Richard Janeczko put on right after the meeting, about a half dozen of us probably learned more biology and chemistry in the 15 min talk than during all of high school! Also the very positive attitude displayed by all levels of employees at the company was surprising considering their options are right now worthless. Really I came away from this meeting much more impressed than I have ever been with this company. The stock is low (VERY LOW) And I have to admit it is frustrating but its an opportunity to buy at a low price. I must add that I probably brutalized the presentation Don MacAdam gave (sorry) also my understanding of the technology is weak at best so please if you have any questions about that stuff consult Tm's web site or call the company (Don expressed how much he loves phone calls!!). I'm not only confident in this companies technology I'm also very impressed with management and how they've handled many of their tough experiences. I think we'll see great things in the short and long term! Regards Rhys