During the last six months Rockeby has undergone tremendous change, reinventing itself and focusing its strength and expertise to build upon new and promising projects. At the same time, the Company has not abandoned existing projects which are geared towards enhancing the value of Rockeby’s own intellectual property resting in CanDia5® and SysCan3.
With the lead-time for the development of our own products longer than expected, the management has decided to augment our strategy in terms of product and marketing focus. Whereas six months ago the majority of the activities were geared towards CanDia5®, we are now spending more time and effort on new and highly promising activities and projects. These projects are immediately income-generative and impact directly on our profi tability. The geographic scope of the Company has also shifted parallel to this new orientation. Activities for marketing CanDia5® are now almost wholly-focused on Europe whereas we are leveraging on our traditional closeness to the Asian market for our additional product classes.
Below is a summary of the Company’s marketing activities, and the expansion of our product portfolio. A description of the marketing efforts for Rockeby Infl uenza A Virus Antigen tests is also provided. Finally, we give a short outlook on what the Company intends to focus on during the next six months.
CanDia5®
For more than a year, Rockeby’s management has realized that the potential for CanDia5® at this moment in time rests in Europe. Many of the European markets are more developed and patients and customers have a different mindset towards medicine and self-treatment.
Moreover, economic factors such as the erosion of the traditional market segment of pharmacies has increased pressure on these businesses to actively search for new ways to attract and retain customers.
Specifi cally in the UK in the last few years we have observed the entrance of aggressive supermarkets into the retail pharmaceutical sector. These supermarkets also started pushing their way into the traditional pharmacy business by opening in-store pharmacies geared to deliver to their customers a one-stop shop for all their needs. This development was a wake-up call for the traditional pharmacy sector that found itself suddenly faced with steadily dropping foot traffi c and vanishing sales. Therefore, the traditional pharmacies have tried to reinvent themselves by adding more services and benefi ts for its customers. One area which caught Rockeby’s attention was the expanding market for rapid tests in pharmacies. Tests for blood glucose, cholesterol levels etc. have been added to the service menu of the pharmacies. The pharmacist is trying to play a more active role in assisting the customer in his/her choices to pursue well-being and health. Naturally this change has opened the doors wide open for Rockeby’s CanDia5® test. Rockeby has started negotiation with three companies in the UK to evaluate the potential of offering the test in pharmacies supporting the pharmacist in selling the right medication for a vaginal problem. Previously, the only option the pharmacist had was to sell an antifungal agent. With the arrival of CanDia5® in the portfolio the pharmacist will be able to guide the customer in the right direction toward healing and eliminating the problem. This is one of the type of services pharmacists are longing to have in their hands as it gives them the edge over the supermarket chains who are more effi cient but naturally less service-orientated.
Rockeby believes that within this calendar year, we can sign up at least one of the potential partners in the UK to sell CanDia5®. Moreover, Rockeby’s CanDia5® will soon be receiving an OTC CE mark making it even more suitable for the active promotion by pharmacists.
Besides the UK, Rockeby is also active in Poland and expects a contract to be signed by the second half of this calendar year for the distribution of CanDia5®. The Polish market is very different from the UK market in the sense that CanDia5® will not be sold OTC by pharmacists but rather be used in the doctor’s office. The main thrust of the marketing strategy in Poland is based on the recent published study in the British Medical Journal of a multicentre, prospective, randomized controlled trial, conducted in non-hospital based antenatal clinics in Vienna Austria4 . In this study, it is highlighted that screening for Candidiasis can have a marked effect on the reduction of the number of pre-terms births. Poland already undertakes prenatal screening and therefore CanDia5® is seen as a welcome addition to the diagnostic tools of the physician. Rockeby, jointly with its partner Symphar in Poland, is currently running a localized acceptance/marketing test for CanDia5® with generalist doctors and gynecologists.
Although the majority of its marketing activities are in Europe, Rockeby is not neglecting its original base in Asia. During the last couple of months, Rockeby has reactivated the promotion of CanDia5® in Singapore where the Company is now working on developing a small core of steady users of CanDia5®, which can be used as a reference panel to the profession on how and when to use CanDia5®. Moreover, the Company has found that several local diagnostic laboratories are interested in using CanDia5® as a diagnostic tool, indicating the superiority of CanDia5® in terms of speed and accuracy of the test in comparison to microscopy and culture.
4 Kiss H, etal. BMJ 2004;329:371-374
