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TWST: Let’s start with an historical sketch and quick introduction to Biolitec (Frankfurt: 521340.F)?

Dr. Neuberger: We listed on the German stock exchange in October, 2000, but Biolitec was established about 15 years ago in the field of fiber-optic accessories for medical lasers. It then moved into medical lasers itself and is now one of the leading companies in diode laser technology. Less than a year ago, we also purchased the assets of a company in Scotland which has given us an approved photodynamic drug on the market. So essentially we are now the only company in the world which has all three components necessary for photodynamic therapy -- the drugs, the lasers, and the fiber-optics -- in our hand. Currently, the company is mainly active in photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment and in medical minimally invasive and cosmetic procedures such as leg vein treatment with our ELVeS™ procedure, snoring treatments, and other forms of cosmetic surgery.

TWST: Can I ask you to just elaborate specifically on the products and the underlying technology that you bring into these markets?

Dr. Neuberger: Yes, let’s first explain photodynamic therapy: here you’re looking at a new technology which involves photo activity drugs. To give you an example of a photo activity drug, we can look at Foscan®, which the approved drug I mentioned. Foscan® is injected into the bloodstream and will subsequently accumulate in the tumor tissue selectively. Then after a waiting time of a couple of days the tumor site is irradiated with a suitable wavelength laser radiation, either from the outside of the body transdermally or from inside of the tumor with a fiber-optic device. This drug serves as a catalyst to produce singlet oxygen which in turn is destroying the tumor itself. So the major difference with the classical tumor treatments such as chemotherapy is that you are virtually side-effect free because you only introduce the tumor destruction in those zones where on the one hand the drug has accumulated and secondly where you are bringing the radiation to and therefore you have none of the classical side effects associated with chemotherapy.

TWST: The vein treatment procedure is the ELVeS™ product you mentioned at the beginning?

Dr. Neuberger: Yes, ELVeS™ is a vein treatment and I think another very exciting product which we brought to the U.S. market between half a year to a year ago. And this product has great potential – something like a fifth of the U.S. population has problems with leg veins. And the procedures such as stripping that exist today are deter many people from seeking treatment. In our case, all we do is introduce thin fiber-optics into the vein and basically shrink it from the inside. While you’re pulling back this fiber inside the vein, you are applying laser energy in the tube for the vein, basically shutting it down to nothing and it never opens up again. This procedure, this pullback, takes you about 120 seconds, so it’s a fast procedure, it’s an office procedure, you can walk and go home one hour later and I think it will be a really encouraging hope for many patients.

TWST: Can you give a quick summary of the objectives that you’d like to see accomplished at Biolitec during the next couple of years?

Dr. Neuberger: Our first objective is clearly to get the approved drug into the market, which for me would mean somewhere around fifty centers in Europe purchasing it, plus a number of distributors picking it up for some of those territories. I would like to see a sales level of about a million a month, which would really make it a legitimate drug turnover and would really make people take noticed. The second objective is to get ELVeS™ vein treatment procedure well introduced in the U.S. and Europe and actually selected Asian countries. On top of this, we are working on a number of other developments such as a new improved drug formulation and a couple of other research targets, but I think, commercially speaking, the key objectives are those first two targets we are aiming for.