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BitcoinX: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today. So, tell us who you are and what your position is at Xeophin?
Xeophin: My name is Travis Molloy and I’ the Executive Chairman of Xeophin; my background lies in over 15 years in the Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Corporate Leadership space, over half that time in Board and Executive level roles… and thank you for the interview.
BitcoinX: Tell us – what is Xeophin? What is the main idea behind the project and why did you decide to start it?
Xeophin: You can learn a lot about Xeophin through reading our current White Paper, our website, Facebook, twitter and so on. To put it in more simple terms for this interview, Xeophin is an Australian based Biotech Company working on an extremely promising Rheumatoid Arthritis therapeutic. We’d like to see this therapeutic partnered and on the market in under 5 years.
This therapeutic, we are currently calling XeRA-1, has very large projected royalty earning potential, in fact there is a good section at the back of the White Paper, Appendix one (1) I believe, that explains why we project this. We have come up with what we believe is a first, at least in our industry, where we are going to tokenize this royalty stream through an ICO.
We anticipate the tokens/coins will be limited to circa 750 million, so there will be scarcity, for want of a better word, associated with these tokens/coins. These tokens/coins will, as I explained before, entitle the holder to their share of XeRA-1’s royalty stream for a number of decades once on the market. The duration of royalties will be dependent on XeRA-1’s ongoing Intellectual Property (IP) status. With a patent or patents granted, you get at least 20 years, with patent extensions adding another 12 years to that in the US.
To put it simply, investors can buy tokens from a finite pool, that will be a crypto-coins in their own right, but also backed by a tangible asset and future revenue stream which will be highly visible to the market.
BitcoinX: So, you were saying that the ICO will happen early next year and that this is a Pre-ICO round?
Xeophin: Yes. We’re doing a US$20,000,000 Pre-ICO round now that will fund the entire process of the ICO, legals, technical matters, marketing and so on. It will also fund the restructure and relocation of Xeophin required to undertake a full compliant ICO offering with the SEC in the US.
The ICO itself will be circa US$350,000,000 which represents the funds required to take XeRA-1 all the way to the market over a 4 to 5 year period.
BitcoinX: Your ICO will be SEC compliant?
Yes. We have sought significant legal advice and consulted experts in the Crypto space, and yes it looks very much like it can be done, albeit at a financial cost. This being said, we believe that the added comfort of SEC Compliance will make the ICO much more attractive to investors and give them a far higher level of comfort.
I probably should add, what people are buy at this stage when they participate in the Pre-ICO, is a legal document, a convertible note that at the point of the ICO which gives them two options. Convert the note to tokens and get four (4) tokens, for every one (1) token that the ICO participants will recieve, paying US$1 at that time. Or the investor can cash out at the ICO and double their money relative to the USD. Both great outcomes.
BitcoinX: Blockchain technology is expected to alter the landscape and/or create efficiencies in almost every industry. In what ways does your technology address these?
Xeophin: I think our impact will be a little different than the average ICO/Blockchain undertaking, but it will be a big one none the less. By leveraging the concepts and technology developed by others in this space, we have managed to create a way to fund a Biotech undertaking end-to-end, in a way that both dramatically lowers, and spreads risk.
A fully funded Biotech can move several times faster, try several times more approaches, and more effectively promote themselves to the Large Pharmaceutical companies for collaborations and deals to take the pharmaceutical, in our case XeRA-1 to market.
You know that most Biotech companies spend as much time fund raising? If not more time fund raising than actually working on the research and commercialization of their drug.
Through this mechanism, I think we are going to change the way Biotechs seek funding, and bring a new type of coin/token to the market. Not just a coin/token that’s value is driven by scarcity, market forces and the whims of traders, but a token that represents access to real world value when it matures and generates the flow of royalties.
BitcoinX: When and why did you first decide to do an ICO?
Xeophin: A few months ago we were approached by an investor asking if he could invest in Bitcoin, we said “Possibly, we’ll have a look into it” and it all started there.
BitcoinX: Tell us about what preparation was required to get the project to this point?
Xeophin: There is a deceptively large amount of technical work that needs to go into a Biotech undertaking, to get it to the point where a White Paper and Offer can be put out like this one.
We’re managing the lead-up to an ICO, and at the same time running an entire Biotech operation at the same time. This is ok though, as we are surrounded and supported by some of the best advisors and consultants in both the Biotech/Pharma and Crypto/Blockchain fields.
BitcoinX: What makes this project especially exciting for ICO participants? What makes them want to join?
Xeophin: I’d have to come back to the fact that these tokens will have nothing short of huge royalty generating potential, once XeRA-1 hits the market. It would be like having a Bitcoin that you held, that also paid out several multiples of your initial buy price per year, and you kept the coin.
That being said, people will no doubt trade these tokens, probably from day one after the ICO. I could see these tokens increasing in value even in the first year. How? We’ll if Xeophin announces a successful Phase I Clinical trial for XeRA-1, the risk associated will accessing the royalty stream will immediately decrease so I imagine you’d see the value of the coin go up.
To explain that further, a coin one day after the ICO will hold a different value to that same coin 3 years later when XeRA-1 is reported to be succeeding in Phase III Clinical trials. So, I definitely think these coins/tokens will take on a life of their own post-ICO, just as a regular coin would but also driven by the success of the Xeophin clinical program
BitcoinX: Where are you in the actual development phase of the project?
Xeophin: Everything is lined up and ready to go. The minute the Pre-ICO closes out successfully, we are going to hit the go button on the ICO. Again, to maximise the ICOs success, capital must be expended on best-in-class legals, marketing, technical support, and of course the relocation of our company.
BitcoinX: After a successful ICO, what is the timeline for coming to market?
Xeophin: We’re saying 4 to 5 years but the coins/tokens will be highly tradable during that time.
BitcoinX: Are you focused in any specific geographic areas?
Xeophin: Not particularly, other than the fact that the SEC Compliance will be a US based undertaking in some form.
BitcoinX: For those who have read your whitepaper and other info, is there anything else you want to add to convince them to participate?
Xeophin: Yes, I do. You can read about this on our website, Facebook and twitter too…
Dr Goran Ando, currently the Chairman of Novo Nordisk and a highly, highly, respected individual in our industry, will be joining us as the Chairman of our Clinical Advisory Committee.
It’s hard to express in words just how many doors this will open for Xeophin and the quality of advice and support he will bring to the table.
I can’t disclose any specifics at this stage however he is also assembling something of a ‘Dream Team’ for this Clinical Advisory Committee, made of industry leaders and experts from all over the world. We are feeling truly privileged right now.
