Sign Up NowThis Month's Tiny Gems - January 2013

Charles & Colvard Ltd. (CTHR)
Kips Bay Medical, Inc. (KIPS)
PURE Bioscience, Inc. (PURE)

 

 

 

Charles & Colvard Ltd. (CTHR)

 

Charles & Colvard Ltd. (CHTR) is the sole global producer of moissanite, an exceptionally pure gemstone comprised of the world’s second hardest substance, silicon carbide. Moissanite was originally discovered in Arizona’s Meteor Crater and is highly-prized for its scintillating brilliance (or the amount of light reflected from the “crown” to the eye, here being massive due to a refractive index in the 2.65 to 2.69 range), adamantine luster (diamond-like quantity/quality of reflected light from the surface), and fire (the tendency of the gem to split light into its spectrum of colors), all of which surpass that of the finest diamond.

 

The company actively produces Charles & Colvard Created Moissanite® The Most Brilliant Jewel in the World® for rapidly expanding end markets across the jewelry landscape via a patent-protected process (which was even recently upheld by the USPTO after an ex parte re-examination) of growing raw silicon carbide crystals into the kinds and shapes of gem-quality stones most desired for jewelry. Growing functional gem-stone sized moissanite, which naturally occurs only in very small crystals, is a feat that took decades of research to perfect. Every gemstone that leaves the facility passes through the hands of the company’s master cutters who polish and facet the stones to precisely calculated specifications (taking science into the realm of art), ensuring that every single jewel passes muster with CTHR’s exacting standards for clarity, color, and cut (with a 5mm laser inscription on the girdle of each gem to verify these quality control measures).

 

The strategic advantage of being the sole global source for moissanite puts CTHR in the enviable position of being able to pursue an efficient brand identity vector, emphasizing superior gem quality/affordability on the one hand (especially compared to the diamond industry) and its trend-setting designs, as well as retail venues/brands on the other. The company recently overhauled the website for the first of their two retail jewelry divisions, Moissanite.com, an e-commerce portal designed to enhance market traction while educating consumers about the beauty/value of the Charles & Colvard Created Moissanite gems (as well as the stunning jewelry into which they are incorporated).

 

The second, highly visible retail venue for CTHR is Lulu Avenue™, which focuses on branded direct sales/e-commerce of elegant jewelry designs, leaning heavily on the company’s continued work with top jewelry designers throughout the industry to bring the hottest, in-trend offerings to consumers. Lulu Avenue is also the only direct sales-based jewelry trunk show operator around, bringing special sales of merchandise directly to select venues and retail locations, adding a key channel for CTHR that really shows in the bottom line.

 

 

 

Kips Bay Medical, Inc. (KIPS)

 

Kips Bay Medical, Inc. (KIPS) was founded back in 2007 by a living legend of the medical industry with nearly four decades in medical device work under his belt, Manny Villafaña, guided by a clear vision to create breakthrough technologies for cardiac surgery. That vision is emerging today as this Minneapolis-headquartered company’s first major product nears commercialization, an ingenious nitinol (nickel/titanium composite) mesh sleeve designed to vastly improve the overall outcome and functionality of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures using typical autologous saphenous vein grafts (SVGs).

 

With some 415k CABG procedures done in 2009 alone (the figure is a good midpoint average for the last several years), the company’s eSVS Mesh® technology presents a compelling solution to common problems associated with artery grafts, like thickening of the inner wall of the artery or failure of the corrective surgery, by providing structural support around the diameter of the vein at the tissue level. This technology offers cardiac surgeons a way to ensure the long-term viability of the procedure (shoring up the cost-benefit characteristics of CABG in the process somewhat) in the form of an external support to the grafted vein wall, which improves both overall flow characteristics and lumen (the vein’s interior) integrity. The eSVS is currently CE marked for sale in six countries and has seen over 400 implants since the start of international clinical trialing. A mountain of preclinical work has demonstrated the performance viability of the design, seeing peer-reviewed publication in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (February 2008), as well as the Journal of Vascular Surgery (June 2009).

 

This technology vastly augments CABG, the most common form of open heart surgery in the U.S. today and the only real surgical alternative to largely patch-work angioplasty stents and the like. CABG is all about improving blood flow to the heart and by the time coronary heart disease (CHD) gets bad enough to need bypass surgery, there isn’t really any alternative. CHD is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the U.S. today, and it is also the most common form of heart disease, representing just under a staggering 25% of all deaths in America in 2008, more than half of which were men (CDC data). Needless to say, with projected costs for CHD in 2010 totaling roughly $108 billion, there is a huge opportunity for the company’s technology.

 

Cardiac surgeons will be eager to get their hands on this kind of technology and the potential end points for procedure success, patient quality of life, and the amount of value added to CABG procedures will be strong commercial drivers for KIPS. The U.S. market could put sales into supernova and the company has a firm footing in Minnesota’s large medical community, with Villafaña himself having cut his teeth in the industry as the first ever international sales admin for Medtronic. Strong industry ties like that will go a long ways towards cementing clinical feasibility here in the U.S. and investors should stay alert for prevailing developments.

 

 

 

PURE Bioscience, Inc. (PURE)

 

PURE Bioscience, Inc.(PURE) is at the forefront of technology-based life sciences/bioscience product development for a variety of end markets, with safe, non-toxic, and yet extremely effective proprietary technologies engineered and marketed to address a whole range of global health problems, including resistant pathogens like MRSA, in addition to other bacterial, fungal, and viral agents (including Avian Influenza, H1N1, HIV, Norovirus, and Influenza A).

 

PURE’s globally patented silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC) molecule (electrolytically generated stabilized ionic silver) is a perfect example of the cutting-edge bioscience work being done by the company, as this novel molecule achieves a two-pronged assault on microbial organisms through its dual modes of action while remaining very safe. First, by being recognized as food (citric acid) and entering the organism like a Trojan Horse via membrane transport proteins where it binds to DNA, as well as intra-cellular proteins, causing irreversible damage that results in death to the organism as its metabolic and reproductive capabilities disintegrate. Secondly, by attaching to and slicing open the outer membrane of the organism itself, resulting lysis (destruction and decomposition) of the membrane effectively tears the organism open causing death.

 

The recent announcement that the company has started directly testing SDC-based formulas in food applications, so as to determine efficacy in fighting off the typical food borne pathogens like E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella, extends the already obtained generally recognized as safe (GRAS) designation for SDC in food contact surface usage. The company is already well known among janitorial service providers, consumers, and chemical distributors for their surface disinfectants, like the EPA-registered PURE Hard Surface™ product (the Multi‐Purpose Cleaner Concentrate and Floor Cleaner Concentrate products round out the disinfectant lineup). SDC is colorless, odorless, non-caustic, and tasteless, in addition to being perfect for mixing as an additive or component in other, novel products, because its aqueous base formulates exceptionally well with other compounds. Such SDC-based products already represent a handsome revenue stream for PURE, and with demonstrated capabilities like being able to kill germs within 30 seconds of contact with a low toxicity profile, the established consumer base should grow fast as new avenues open up.

 

PURE is very excited about the market potential for SDC-based formulations in direct food application roles and the promising results from initial tests performed at Deibel Laboratories has led to additional testing currently being carried out at the University of Georgia on lettuces. The plan is to test, validate, and optimize specific formulas that will collectively constitute a real gauntlet of a food processing program, which harmful agents will be forced to run and perish by. A full-spectrum farm-to-fork solution looks to be within striking distance for the company and the ideal characteristics/properties of SDC lend themselves naturally to such an application.