Ken-Shwo Dai, president and CEO of Visgeneer, explains his biotech’s expertise in medtech, skincare, gene therapy and diagnostics, as well as his plans to take the company public.

Can you introduce yourself and Visgeneer to our readers? What have been the main milestones for the company so far?

Visgeneer is a biotech company specializing in several fields: skin care, medical devices and gene diagnostics. Our product development is mostly focused on medical devices – we develop glucose meters – and skin care products. However, entering gene therapy and diagnostics is our long-term goal. We discovered a specific strain of bacteria that can generate natural zeaxanthin (European Patent; EP2441433 B1)- a natural pigment found in macular region of retina of eyes. Its application proved to be functional for suppression of cancer cell proliferation, but it is also used as a skin care product and nutraceutical.

You mentioned the development of biomedical products in the fields of Medical Device, Cosmetics/Skin Care, Bacterial Fermentation, and Cancer Gene identification. Can you give us an introduction into your product portfolio?

The medical device category consists of blood glucose, blood ketone, blood cholesterol and blood uric acid diagnostic developments. In addition to that, we are also introducing tele-health as it is a globally spread trend. We pride ourselves in developing an accurate glucose meter that fits the needs of our customers. Tele-health encompasses technology that is not only related to promoting automation of services, but also creating a network that will connect doctors and patients and store their data. Moreover, in terms of sales performance, medical device category is the most profitable followed by our skin care products. Skin care category is our focus due to high demand market, especially in the anti-aging field. Zeaxanthin is a human retinal macular pigment used for filtering out high energy light. The biochemical and cell culture experiments conducted in our laboratory showed that zeaxanthin is a strong antioxidant, a strong free radical scavenger suggesting that zeaxanthin is a human body caretaker. Our laboratory findings were also supported by the experiment results of many scientific publications. For application, the ferment filtrate containing natural zeaxanthin was used as the major ingredient for our skin care product to act as natural defense for protecting our skin. Our current focal point is to apply zeaxanthin to food/nutraceutical products for eye and cardiovascular disease prevention.

You have been on the market since 2005 and count over 40 major clients in all five major continents. What are the key performing markets?

Indeed, our products are present on the global market and sold through distributors. We have an extensive distribution network in Europe, particularly in Turkey which is our best performing market in addition to China.

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Are there any upcoming launches in the near future?

I am proud to announce that next year we will introduce the new dietary food/ nutraceutical products. Afterwards, our efforts will be directed into entering the cancer gene diagnostics area.

What is the core of your technology? What sets it apart?

As we focus on developing four different product lines, we have to use different technologies. Firstly, we developed portable biosensor for monitoring blood glucose level and are developing biosensor for additionally monitoring more analytes (e.g.,  blood ketone, uric acid, cholesterol) and then further developing tele-health multi-functional monitoring system. Furthermore, we are utilizing nano tech ultra pure water in combination with several natural extracts to offer high quality skin care products. In addition to that, Visgeneer has discovered a secret formula, Ollantein (ferment filtrate containing natural zeaxanthin), for keeping skin healthy and looking young. Nevertheless, zeaxanthin will be developed as a functional ingredient of nutraceuticals. Finally, we utilize biomolecular technology to develop cancer gene diagnostic biochip/kit based on our patents in Europe and USA (EP1903109B1; EP1892291B1; US7,452,985B2; US7,902,347B2; US7,977,470B2).

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Visgeneer has global ambitions relying on partnership establishment with research institutes, hospitals, pharmaceutical factories and distributors. What kind of partners are you looking to attract?

Currently, we are focused on funding and gaining resources to enter the gene diagnostic area and gene therapy area (our long-term goal). We will be looking for a partner for co-developing gene therapy, as we are not able to finance it on our own. However, we expect this stage to happen in five years. At the moment, our focus is on gaining resources from our other product categories.

What differentiates you from your competitors?

We are focused on satisfying the needs of our target market. As an example, a lot of glucose meters focus on providing many features using 2 or more buttons to operate which is in opposed to our glucose meter that features one button. Visgeneer has its own believe that simple and easy to operate is the need of patients with diabetes. Visgeneer identified this market need and in line with that developed a suitable product for the patients.

Visgeneer has attained a reputation for excellence from local and international customers. What is your growth driver for the future?

Being the president and CEO of the company, I see my position to be crucial in driving the future growth of the company in terms of both financial resources and satisfied employees, customers and stakeholders. I am aiming to build a big and successful company offering the best service and products to customers, lucrative return on investment to shareholders and satisfaction and joy to our employees.

What are your strategic objectives for the next five years? What do you wish to accomplish?

Firstly, we want to get listed and go public. After gaining resources, we will soon focus on specializing and developing the gene diagnostic area. We expect to see a positive outcome and fruitful results in 3 years.

What do you want our international readers to think when they hear the name Visgeneer?

We are a well-established company persuading the vision to be an accomplished company in the area of gene therapy and diagnostics. Visgeneer started from scratch with a step-by-step blueprint for building a product diversification and long-lasting company. The final goal of Visgeneer will be a knowledgeable and distinguished expert in the field of cancer genetic healthcare. We already possess a patent in Europe and USA and our future efforts will be directed towards in-house development and licensing-out. Although it is a high-risk business, we want to achieve positive outcomes- with our technology and human resources, I am positive we will do so.