Letter from Michele Garufi, Chairman and CEO
January 23, 2013
January 24th, 2013
Happy New Year and welcome to the new Nicox website!
As we move into 2013, I would like to thank you all for your continued interest in our Company. Since Nicox’s creation in 1996, the Company has constantly progressed and evolved in its research and development projects. 2012 has been a turning point for us as we decided to become an international ophthalmic company. Today, we are launching a new website which completes the roll-out of our new corporate identity as we turn this page in our history.
We believe the ophthalmic arena offers great opportunities for a company like Nicox. Big pharma and smaller, local players are increasingly sharing this growing market and we are confident that there is a clear opportunity for a new ophthalmic company with a direct presence in both Europe and the US. We are positioning Nicox as an international player which is uniquely placed to address this need, thereby offering new options to eyecare practitioners and patients around the world.
Our new visual identity reflects this strategic change. Our tagline “Visible Science” emphasizes our vision and our strong desire to shape the future by anticipating the needs of patients and by building an innovative pipeline of products that can enhance their sight.
Our first worldwide in-licensing agreement, signed with RPS® in June 2012, brought several innovative point-of-care diagnostic tests to our ophthalmic pipeline. In the United States, we have rapidly built a specialized operational team and launched the most advanced of these tests, AdenoPlus™, to eyecare practitioners in October 2012. I’d like to recognize the efforts of the whole Nicox team in achieving this launch.
We participated in the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Congress for the first time in October 2012, which allowed us to present AdenoPlus™ to U.S. eyecare professionals, to meet with KOLs and to explore international partnering opportunities. This experience further strengthened our belief in the opportunities for Nicox as an ophthalmic company.
In addition to our innovative diagnostics, our ophthalmic pipeline also includes BOL-303259-X, a promising nitric oxide-donating compound developed for the potential treatment of glaucoma and ocular hypertension by our partner Bausch + Lomb. We are looking forward to Bausch + Lomb’s planned initiation of phase 3 trials in the beginning of this year.
In 2013, we will continue our efforts to position Nicox as a dynamic actor of the ophthalmic market. We are actively seeking and evaluating commercial or late-stage products to enhance our ophthalmic pipeline, and looking at finalizing new in-licensing, acquisition and co-promotion agreements.
Again, I would like to thank all of you for your support. I look forward to continuing this exciting journey with you and wish you all the best for 2013.
Michele Garufi
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nicox