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TWST: Can we set the context with an update on MediWatch (London: MDW.L) since we last spoke?

Mr: Stimpson: We’ve finalized the development of two products and successfully gained some significant orders out of an American corporation, albeit the UK division, which we start to full time manufacture later this year. One product is a bladder scanner and the other one is a portable uroflow system, and we’re hoping for a large order on that the third quarter of next year. On the PSA, which is the point of care system which we’ve been developing, we’re now a year into development and we are getting very close to hopefully having the product ready by the fourth quarter of next year. So there has been a lot of progress and a lot of the money put into research development which is now coming to fruition.

TWST: What’s your assessment of market opportunities for your products?

Stimpson: The market size as you know is quite considerable for prostate assessment, which is where we are focusing initially with our [designer] products. We still have of course the one-stop prostate assessment system, which culminates the use of software, ultrasound and electronics, and the biochemistry. We combine these four technologies to give us “One Stop” system which generates an A4 page report to speed up the diagnosis and help reduce healthcare costs. So should you go into a GP’s clinic, you can have a complete assessment within fifteen to twenty minutes. Part of that assessment is the development of a PSA test, which is a finger-prick of blood complete quantitative point of care system. The results will automatically be transferred via a radio signal down into the software giving us considerable advantage. Nobody has done that at the moment quantitatively. So we’re ahead of the marketplace with regards to that development in particular. Nobody else has come up with a one-stop system either. We’re ahead on that and we’re repackaging that for the European market and the American market in particular. We hope to have that ready circa end of second quarter of next year with FDA approval we should be getting with that. As part of that development, we have developed the portable bladder scanner and the portable uroflow system particularly aimed at the primary care and GP market.

TWST: Are you looking at any other geographic markets?

Stimpson: We’re going into China. We’ve already been there visiting and evaluating that market. We’re in discussions with two or three Japanese companies with which we feel we’re going to get a joint venture with one in particular with marketing and another one with regard to a development program with the point of care system.

TWST: Is that the preferred way forward into new markets?

Stimpson: We feel that it’s the quickest way into difficult markets like the Japanese and certainly the Chinese markets, yes.

TWST: Can you summarize the overall goals and objectives you’d reasonably expect to accomplish in the next twelve to twenty-four months?

Stimpson: We would like overseas distribution to be in a minimum of one hundred different countries and that would include the big countries like all of Europe, the American and Canadian market. We should then be moving into Japan and also Asia. We’re talking to a major American company that wants to represent us out there. That would take us into China at the same time

TWST: What are the advantages that you bring to the table?

Stimpson: Our strengths are in our innovation and technology, I think. We are a small company that can act very fast. We have some first class scientists and engineers on board that have enabled us to develop systems in a shorter space of time. For instance, from cradle to actually getting the bladder scanner launched was only about fourteen months. And the point of care system, although we’ve been doing a fair bit of preliminary work over the last two years with the PSA, we’ve really finished off the diagnostic platform in twelve months and are now working on integrating it into a reader system that will be ready in the 4th quarter of 2003. The whole development has taken 24 months which is much faster than other companies which take upwards of three to four years to do similar development.