FREDERICK, Md., April 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Andrew Whelan, President, CEO and Chairman of BioElectronics, Corp. (Pink Sheets: BIEL), developer of ActiPatch, an FDA-cleared, drug-free anti-inflammatory patch with an embedded battery operated microchip that delivers pulsed electromagnetic therapy to relieve pain and speed healing, today issued the following letter to shareholders.
To the shareholders of BioElectronics Corp.:
BioElectronics Corp. has recently completed a series of significant changes we believe strongly position the organization for meaningful revenue growth during 2008 and beyond. Over the past few quarters we have substantially changed the management team, introduced a significant number of new products, meaningfully altered our manufacturing methodology and almost completely overhauled our distribution strategy.
We believe 2008 will be year of exciting growth for the organization as we move into new markets with an enhanced product offering and meaningfully enhanced distribution. We look forward to continuing and expanding our relationship with our shareholders as this management team and all of the employees of BioElectronics work to increase shareholder value during the rest of 2008 and beyond.
Below, I have outlined just a few of the many positive changes that have occurred at the company over the last few quarters. We do not expect change at the company to stop here, however, as it is our intention to continue to modify our plan in order to achieve success moving forward.
Management Team Changes -- We have recently enhanced our management team with the addition of two top flight sales and market executives. We recently successfully recruited John Hartong to manage distribution for North America. John has many years of sales and marketing experience and is already making a positive impact on the organization. Additionally, we recently hired Farid Tamimi to manage our international sales efforts and we are excited to have him as part of the BioElectronics team. Farid has been very successful over the past few months in expanding our international distribution, which has been reflected in some of our recent press releases.
New Retail Oriented Product Introductions for 2008 -- We have been very busy designing new products to meet the needs of the marketplace. The most significant of these achievements is the development of the retail product line. The new retail product line targets four common conditions that affect hundreds of millions of people throughout the world: 1) Back pain, 2) Foot and ankle pain, including ankle sprains and plantar fasciitis, 3) Knee pain, 4) Arm and wrist pain, including carpal tunnel and tennis elbow. We have planned an aggressive retail introduction of these products for locations outside of the United States where we have received regulatory clearance. We are expecting the products to see distribution in retail stores in Canada, Italy, Netherlands, Mexico, United Kingdom, and other countries over the next few months. We are also working hard on several products, which we plan to introduce at the beginning of 2009, the most exciting of which is a new drug-free, topical pain patch specifically designed to provide relief for the millions of arthritis sufferers.
Improvements to the Plastic and General Surgery Product Line -- Over the past few quarters we have also made some significant improvements to our products targeted at the plastic and general surgery market. Last month we announced a 24 hour recovery breast augmentation program and thus far we have been very happy with the enthusiasm we are seeing among plastic surgeons specializing in this area. Last summer we completed the introduction of a significant improvement to our eye surgery recovery kit. Additional major enhancements were made to our rhinoplasty and facial surgery kits and to our bariatric patch products. In many cases, these product redesigns were completed in conjunction with the many plastic surgeons that are beginning to heavily rely on our products.
Manufacturing -- During 2007, we transferred all of our manufacturing offshore, which resulted in a significant cost savings for the company. We are estimating this change will result in a 75% reduction in cost of goods sold, allowing us to reduce manufacturing costs to only approximately 20% of the end retail price. We expect this move to significantly impact the financials of the company during 2008 and beyond.
Distribution -- Early in 2007 the management team at BioElectronics performed a thorough analysis of our distribution strategy and worked diligently throughout the year to change what was not working while preserving the areas where we were showing positive results. We are happy to say these efforts have yielded significant successes. During 2007, we signed more than 20 new international distributors in important countries such as Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Turkey, Singapore, Canada, Malaysia, Panama, and Kuwait, among others. We have also had considerable success in signing and training domestic sales agents with more than 70 signing on to carry our products during 2007 and early 2008.
Clinical Trials -- One of our major goals during 2008 is to complete clinical trials in order to expand the use of our product within the United States. While it is still too early to comment publicly on our exact plan relative to this area, we are currently in negotiations with several entities of import. Our overall long-term goal is to receive full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to allow our products to be sold over the counter within the United States. We urge shareholders to stay tuned over the coming quarters as we announce developments in these areas.
In summary, 2007 was a year of significant change at BioElectronics Corp. We now have a robust set of products to target markets that we believe are easily valued in the billions of dollars. Additionally, we believe we have developed a distribution strategy to move these products to market. Clearly, we still have work to do at the Company, but we are very excited about the progress that has been made over the past few quarters and expect 2008 to be a year of strong revenue growth at the company. We look forward to your continued support and welcome your comments and suggestions.
SOURCE BioElectronics, Corp.
