Good morning, welcome to the Futura Medical PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted anytime by the Q&A tab situated in the right corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses when it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to James Barder, the CEO. Good morning to you, sir.
Good morning, and thank you for that, and welcome, everybody. First of all, just the usual disclaimer. Now, you know, Myself, I'm James Barder. I'm the Chief Executive, and I'm joined by Ken James, Executive Director and Head of R&D, and also Angela Hildreth, who's the Finance Director and COO. First of all, I'm just gonna give you, well, Ken and I are gonna give a brief summary. If you haven't beforehand, can I suggest that you look on Thursday, we did an investor seminar, which is now up on our website, and I strongly recommend you review that. Further ado, let's move on to a short presentation. A little bit about Futura. We are an AIM-listed company.
We describe ourselves as a virtual organization. We employ 15 staff, including directors, and so we therefore have a pretty low overhead base. We have a significant outsourced infrastructure. We use external contract manufacturers, and we have them on our books, around about 30 consultants. We can plug in and out a bit like light bulbs as and when we need them, but it's the most efficient way of optimizing that value. Our real core asset is DermaSys, which we describe as basically, it's applying skin science to deliver novel, therapeutic, clinically proven treatments. I should also add that we always look to find intellectual property around this, and patents are very important.
For example, on MED3000 patents, we've applied for those, and those are progressing through the usual process that you do, which typically takes 1 year, maybe up to 3 years to get granted. Again, we look for clinically proven innovation using these gel formulations, and we have an experienced management team, and our main focus at this stage on sexual health. Our core product, which I'm sure most investors will be aware of, is MED3000. This is a topical gel for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. It is now both EU- and FDA-approved, available without a doctor's prescription in the U.S.
It is also approved in around about 5 Middle Eastern countries. We do expect over the next year, two years, for the approval to roll out through many other countries throughout the world. Key differentiator with this treatment is the fast onset of action, and the claim that we can make is it helps you get an erection within 10 minutes. Just a sort of brief summary of some key development and commercialization milestones that we've done over the last two years. Ken has run two clinical studies, FM57 and FM71, which helped us initially get EU approval, and more recently, the U.S. FDA approval. Key regulatory approvals, excuse me. Commercial distribution agreements are in place now with four different companies. In Southeast Asia, we have Menarini.
We do also have a deal that was done with Co-High, but we are currently examining exactly what we would do with that, as it's not progressing at the speed that we would like. In the Middle East, we have a deal with Labatec Pharma, and we've already indicated that we will be shortly launching in the Middle East, or they will be, rather. In Europe, and including the U.K., we use a company called Cooper Consumer Health, and then finally, in Latin America, we have a deal with a company called M8 or moksha8 Pharmaceuticals. We've already had initial launches in U.K. and Belgium, both retail and online, and there are further launches around the way, now in France, Italy and Spain. Initially online, and that we followed up in due course with bricks and mortar launches.
There are a number of other further launches that we expect, not only in 2003, but also beyond. Key strategic outlook for us, very much now that we've got U.S. approval, is to find a U.S. commercial partner. We've got a number of discussions that are progressing, and when we can say more to shareholders, we'll obviously do that. You know, key thing here is that this is the first over-the-counter topical treatment in the U.S., which is a huge milestone. In addition to obviously the U.S. commercial partner, and concluding arrangements there, we're also looking to complete our distributor network and develop a robust supply chain, to basically make Med a long-term, sustainable and profitable product, and that is progressing well.
There will be further launches under the brand name Eroxon over the next 12 months and beyond. In particular, we'll be focusing on our pipeline, not only on what we've already described beforehand, but also where we can maybe bring more innovation from there. We're already getting from our commercial partners, how can we extend that? How can we develop basically a new category? Ken.
Good morning, everyone. These are the key attributes of Eroxon. It's clinically proven, as James has mentioned, we've run two clinical studies, FM 57 and FM 71. In both of those studies, the data was fairly consistent between them, and we showed that the product is effective in mild, moderate, and severe ED.
We put a mix of etiologies into each of those studies, psychological origin, organic origin, and the majority of subjects in those clinicals have a mix of both of those. Across an age range of 18- 70. Key, we feel to the success of the product is the differentiated consumer claim, helps you get an erection within 10 minutes, which is now approved in not just the EU and the U.K., but the United States, importantly. The importance of that is that it allows spontaneous intercourse to occur, whereas the oral medications, which by the way, are on prescription for the foreseeable future in the United States, but they typically take 30- 60 minutes to work, so this is a key differentiating claim. We find in the clinicals that couples do use the product as part of foreplay.
Because we have a medical device and it's drug-free, the product is extremely safe. We experience very low side effects in males and their partners. There are no adverse drug interactions, which is again, a point of differentiation from the oral medications, where there are a number of drug-drug interactions, and we don't have that issue. We have availability in OTC, in all the markets where we have approvals now. Importantly, the U.S., where we are the first meaningful erectile dysfunction product to be over the counter. Then a final, and again, I repeat what I said earlier, this is just one of the slides that we showed last week at the investor seminar with institutions.
It's just a snapshot of research that was conducted last year in the U.S., but there are a few more slides, which Isabelle went through last week. Again, I'd urge you to look at that. This is basically a five-year launch plan and peak sales for the U.S. at $5 a tube, and we're looking at around that $400 million. Again, that was an Ipsos research that was done back in 2022. We've done a similar one back in 2017, the numbers remain consistent in both those different searches. That concludes the slides that we're gonna go through. We've deliberately kept it pretty short and sweet to enable investors an opportunity to ask various questions.
Perfect. Thank you very much for the presentation. I'll just bring your cameras back up now. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the Q&A tab, which is situated on the top right-hand corner of your screen. As you can see, we've received a number of questions, pre-submitted and throughout today's presentation. Angela, if I could just ask you to read out those questions, and what I'll do is I'll pick up from you at the end.
No problem. Thank you. The first question is for you, Ken, I think.
Easy. It's the easy one, actually, yes.
Yeah. When will the FDA approval process be completed?
I think most of the audience know that we did get approval on the ninth of June, late at night, in the U.K., at the end of day, in the U.S. Actually, to be more precise, for De Novo medical devices, what FDA talk about is granting marketing authorization, but that effectively means approval. That has been achieved.
Next question: Ignoring the potential bogus reviews on Amazon and Boots, what percentage of sales have been returned for a refund? Have you got this data, or does the disclaimer of trying 3x to 4x to get the effect diminish potential returns?
Yeah, I mean, we've had some complaints, and maybe that's the best way of describing it. We haven't issued any refunds at all. I would stress it. It's not our responsibility, it's Cooper's, but we work very closely with them, and to my knowledge, we've not refunded anybody. As far as level is concerned, I mean, you're dealing with 0.009%, that sort of. I mean, we're talking of a very, very few complaints based on the volumes we sold today.
Next question: Given that presentation alluded to GBP 1.9 million sales, I think that the person who's asking the question is referring to the presentation that Isabelle gave on Thursday. Or John, I think maybe said that.
Yeah, John.
Yeah. Was this just U.K. or U.K., Belgium combined? How do sales compare between the Belgian smaller pharmacy outlet model and the route taken in the U.K. of a sole distributor on the high street?
Okay. I mean, I can't recall the exact numbers that John gave. Certainly John was there, he's the marketing director of SUTA, and SUTA were appointed by Cooper, who have European and U.K. and Swiss rights. He was specifically talking about U.K. As far as Belgium is concerned, it's going pretty well there. Not quite as well as the U.K. Cooper approached the marketing there in a different way. As we said, initially, that these are sort of big, full test launches to gain key learnings from that, of how different people act. Basically, they're happy with both Belgium and the U.K.
Okay.
Is that whole question?
Yeah. Yeah, I think, just to add to that, yeah-
Belgium, let me say this, is in addition to?
Yeah, Belgium is.
So we- [crosstalk]
-to the one point nine. [crosstalk]
I think-
We've got very little data coming out.
We got little data coming out yet. It's not something that unlikely we're gonna start breaking it down into one country from the next. I mean, I would make the point that we expect in some markets, Eroxon will sell better than others, and that's just culturally, cultural differences from one market to the next. It's unlikely we're gonna actually get individual breakdown from one country to the next. It'll be more per region.
Okay. In the presentation, I think this is the one where Isabelle gave the presentation. "A figure of 86x per year usage is mentioned when referenced in the U.S.A. If this is the expected average in the U.K., too, then there should be ample data of developing a repeat prescriptions," I think we need to clarify that, "as this would be equating to repeat sales approximately every 17 days or at least every three weeks.
I'm not quite sure what the question is.
When will we allow repeats? When will we expect to see repeat purchases, I think it is?
Well, we already know that what we need to see repeats. You know, the frequency, and I think certainly the numbers that we've worked on, 86, was the Ipsos research. It varies from, different forecasts, different models down to
Yeah. The $409 million opportunity was actually calculated off the back at 55-
Yeah
times. You know, a lot of the Ipsos research is assumptions that have been made under different scenarios.
Yeah. I mean, certainly again, there have been a number of different analysis done, not only by us, by commercial partners and those that we're also in discussions with. I think 50 or 44, I think the number that springs to mind, is probably a more realistic number of frequency of intercourse or where people use the treatment. Going back to the gentleman or lady's question, in other words, one pack would last four weeks, so surely we should start to be seeing some data in that. Again, it's a question of tracking the data. It's not always easy to do that. We're working with Boots and certainly Cooper are, but the easiest way to track it is usually where somebody has a Boots Advantage Card.
Yeah
As it's called. Not surprising, as that women tend to have the cards, men don't. We are getting some data. It, it's still early days, but certainly, I think Cooper and we are pretty pleased with the way the launch is going so far.
We've said we're probably gonna understand that a bit more.
In September, yeah.
Okay, moving on to something completely different, altogether away from sales. "It appears that Eroxon trademark was registered by Versailles B.V., a Netherlands-based outfit back in 2022. Interestingly, another product, Eroxon, was registered around the same time. Is this a future Futura product that is being evaluated?
Well, the first part of that question, Versailles B.V., is a Hogedem subsidiary of Cooper. That's why the mark has gone into Cooper's name. At the moment, the way that it's just the way we operate with Cooper. Euro Response, I've never heard of, so not anything. It may, I mean.
It may have been a name that Cooper were testing at the time.
Yeah.
Before their market research, showed that Eroxon was a better-tested name.
Yeah. That could be well it. Certainly, I mean, yes, there are a number of things that we're working on, Euro Response would not be probably a name.
No.
Doesn't trip off the tongue that well, does it? Next question.
Ken, another one for you.
Australia.
You have to ask the question, then we can't see it.
Yes.
Do you expect to have to run more trials and studies to get authorization/approval in Australia?
The short answer is no. The regulatory process in Australia, we understand, to be pretty straightforward, actually. The reason for that is that the Australians do recognize the European CE mark, which is good. We have to have a local sponsor. We've identified a group of individuals who can act on our behalf in Australia. Beyond that, when we file, it's a relatively straightforward and quick process. We think within two months, that could lead to approval in Australia.
I think I mentioned it last week, but we're planning to file in Australia in the next few weeks.
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. What is the realistic timeframe to launch Eroxon in the U.S. market, James?
Well, first of all, we need to have a commercial partner. Those discussions are progressing. Realistically, it's a difficult question to answer because it does depend on the time of year, it does depend on the commercial partner, because whereas certainly the discussions we're having with a number of commercial parties, they want to launch as soon as possible. You do have to dovetail that into, especially with the retail and bricks and mortar launch. All the major retailers have different windows of when they will restock and refresh their lines. It's difficult to be too specific on it. I think what I would say is, if you look at the deal that we did with Cooper, we signed a deal in May, and it was on the market the following year.
That's probably realistically the sort of timeline that we're looking at. If we can do it more quickly, or a commercial partner can do it more quickly, then obviously that will be looked at, but we need to first of all, close on a deal with a, with a U.S. partner.
Okay. I think actually there's another question come through in relation to giving some color on manufacturing ramp-up plans.
Okay, we've already got, two partners?
Your computer's gone to sleep. You just need to unlock your computer.
Hi. Sorry. Can you hear us?
Yes, we can hear you.
Just one moment. Yeah, there you go.
We're good. Sorry about that. I did.
It just went to sleep.
Is it it? Okay. The question was, Oh, yes, about that manufacturing. We already have one manufacturer that is producing product. We are currently looking at several other sites. We're in advanced discussions on that, both in Europe and also on the other side of the pond in America.
That will somewhat depend on the commercial partner that we choose.
Correct.
As well, because some commercial partners have manufacturing-
Have their own in-house manufacturing.
Capability of their own. Some of them would need to outsource that.
You know, certainly, we have sufficient capacity based on projections for the next two years, excluding the U.S., but certainly for Europe and elsewhere. We wanna, as you know, I think I said earlier, one of our key objectives is to make sure we have a robust supply chain, where we have a number of different options in the case of, you know, an unforeseen situation like a fire or whatever. That is progressing well, and we'll update the market more, as and when that happens.
Can you please tell us how fast you intend to roll out the launch of Eroxon in other –
Okay.
Countries?
Well, obviously, it's not us to start with. I think it's important to emphasize that in all instances, we remain as the legal manufacturer, but actual marketing, the marketing costs, which are not inconsiderable, the plans, where they launch are the responsibilities of the different distributors. Again, with all of them, I would stress, even though we have given them exclusive rights, there are certain key indicators, key performance indicators that the different commercial partners must do around, especially launch, commitment around spend for launch and so on and so on. You know, we've had a huge amount of interest, before we can successfully got FDA approval, but, you know, since then as well.
For us, the key thing is finding commercial partners who know how to build a credible, over-the-counter brand, that, if you like, hasn't had, a legacy beforehand as a prescription product. Even though we've had, I'm not exaggerating, hundreds of approaches, it is making sure you're dealing with professional companies who understand the sector, know how to build a brand, which always takes a bit of time. I lost what were the question.
Roll out in Europe.
Oh, roll out in Europe.
Yeah.
At the moment, as I said earlier, Cooper are very much taking on all the learnings, and there are three further launches going on, and there will be a number of other launches that are going to take place over the next year. Again, as I've kind of said before, we have to be slightly careful here. There are certainly commercial sensitivities, and our commercial partners don't necessarily like us flagging ahead of launch exactly what's going on. We very much have to be circumspect in this, and we'll obviously, and we appreciate investors wanna know. We will let investors know as soon as we can do, but that will usually be after the event rather than before the event.
I think it's fair to add, James, that the launch in the U.K. has gone very well so far, and there's certainly no lack of enthusiasm r olling out in other countries. In fact, it's gone the other way, if anything.
Yes.
Yeah. Okay, I think this is one for me, actually. Futura receives an undisclosed transfer price on delivery of orders to Cooper rather than on in-market sales, as noted in the Trinity Delta Lighthouse today. Can you explain on whether this means that Eroxon revenues are based on volume, or is there also a share of retail price as well, please? This is fairly simple to answer. As the legal manufacturer, we contract with the third-party contract manufacturer who manufacture Eroxon. We then mark that up, and we sell it directly to Cooper, so they buy it from us. Clearly, you know, it is dependent on volume because the more that or less that they order, the more or less that we receive from them.
In terms of, how they then distribute that, and price that in the market, we've already taken our margin upfront.
That is, to date, mainly the way we operate, in other markets. There are certain milestone payments that can be triggered on volumes, and there are some royalties which tend to be more triggered, not on the retail price, but on the wholesale price, in other words, the price that the distributor is getting, before the retailer adds their margin to it. It does vary from one market to the next, and in part, it does vary on what is more appropriate for us, looking at the credit risk and also transparency.
What I mean by that is, at times, it's not always easy to check exactly what the wholesale price has been achieved in some markets, and therefore, at times, it's easy just to take it on the transfer price. I'd say, also say that there is one other advantage of this, is that as a transfer price as volumes grow, it gives us greater leverage with the manufacturers. As I said earlier, if we've got two or three manufacturers, then there's an opportunity that as manufacturer grows, there are economies of scale, and there can be efficiencies in manufacturing. Again, in all the agreements we have in place, there are provisions around there where we will in part benefit from that.
A couple of finance questions that have just come in, and I'll probably answer one at a time. What operating EBIT or EBITDA margin are you targeting in the medium term? First of all, that is not something that I can answer.
They're not your problem.
Yeah. It's not something that I can answer specifically. We're unable to give you any forward-looking statements. We will be guiding analysts such as Trinity Delta, and our broker analyst, Liberum. We will be guiding them in a bit more detail, towards the end of this year as we, you know, have more information in terms of launch plans, volumes, pricing, et cetera. But I'm afraid at the moment today, there's not an awful lot of color I can give you on that. The second financial question is: What's the planned R&D spend over the next 12 months, and do you have sufficient funding in place to meet your growth targets? Again, I can't give you a specific number for planned R&D spend.
That will be something that we will, we'll guide the analysts when we are ready to. You heard earlier, James talked about innovation in Eroxon, and we're currently evaluating those plans in conjunction with our commercial partners and where they think will add consumer value. But in terms of funding in place to meet our growth targets, following the exercise of the warrants by one of our longest and most supportive shareholders, a couple of weeks ago, which resulted in just under GBP 4.5 million of funding being received.
In addition to the cash balances that we already have, in addition to the estimated GBP 1 million R&D tax credit, which we're expecting imminently, and in addition to quite conservative revenues that we are expecting coming through, we have said that we have cash visibility into 2025. When you think about the kind of the value-inflecting events that are coming up between now and then, that is long enough for us to secure a commercial partner. That is, you know, long enough for us to get clarity around U.S. launch and U.S. launch timelines. That's enough for us to understand how the rest of Europe is gonna be rolled out and when the other commercial partners, you know, are starting to roll out their launches.
Also, you know, bringing other commercial partners on board for territories and geographies that we don't currently have. You know, looking at Australia, Canada, for example, that's definitely, you know, all work in process. I think from a funding perspective, sorry, it's a long, long-winded answer, it all comes back to being fairly comfortable on our cash position at the moment.
Next question. Once launched in the U.S.A, will the company consider a dual listing?
Yeah, that's an interesting question. We're still a tiny company as far as what the U.K., let alone the U.S. market is concerned. Nevertheless, as the U.S. launch proceeds, we do definitely become more relevant and more U.S.-centric because it's by far the biggest market. I think what I would say at this stage is, you know, the company being very, very focused on getting the launch, sorry, getting the obviously product approved in Europe, the U.S., and then commercializing that. As that progresses, absolutely, we're gonna be looking at a number of different options of, you know, what is the best way to deliver maximum value for shareholders. A U.S. listing, I mean, certainly it's one of many things that we can consider.
Depending on whether you consider the glass half full, glass half empty, you can interpret that how you like. It's certainly not been ruled out, but it's certainly not something that we've considered or are doing.
Okay. Got a couple of questions around the slides not being shown on the recording from last Thursday. Can other investors have access to all of the information at the same time?
I thought they were.
Yeah. Leave it.
Yeah, leave it.
Leave it with us.
It certainly was the intent.
Yeah.
If they were not, we will see what we can do.
Next question.
All right.
We've talked about timeframes, U.S. launch. Someone asked if we're safe to assume this is likely to be 2024 rather than 2023.
As we haven't signed a commercial partner yet, I think that's.
It's more likely.
Yes, more likely, yes.
Has the company considered an acquisition of female health companies or partnerships with the likes of Evoca Bio, who are also AIM-listed, which would be a brilliant fit for some?
Again, I go back to my sort of question around the, around the U.S. We've been very focused on what we're trying to deliver on. We've got a very good team here. I think, you know, there are a number of things that we could look at. Actually, I've never heard of them. Have you heard of Evoca?
Evoca, they're Russian.
Oh, I know them.
I think they're listed on AIM.
Thank you.
Yeah, no. They are currently running a Phase 2 clinical trial in female. They have struggled a little bit with recruitment of that.
Okay.
I'm not sure whether they're running it in Russia or elsewhere.
Oh.
I don't have all of the details. It's prescription.
Okay.
It's pharmaceutical. They're not devices, they're pharmaceutical. I think that they're focused on the central nervous system, anti-depression. I think actually we, you know, probably not the right. We have looked at female sexual health, but-
[crosstalk] Can.
Yeah. For a lot of reasons, it's a lot more complicated, isn't it, Ken?
Yeah. I think.
You can say that.
Without putting too fine a point on it, I think that the female market for sexual health is very poorly served at the moment.
Yeah
In relation to male products. With male products, obviously, the PDE5 inhibitors, the oral medications have been around for a while. They did for a long time offer very effective therapy. Of course, now we have the Eroxon coming along, which we're very optimistic about. In the female market, the products tend to be very ineffective and have high side effects as a generality. If we look at, you know, partnerships, we always have to bear in mind those factors. Also they're on prescription. That's not to say that we're neglecting this area, but you know, at this point in time, partnering with a company that's offering a product that's not very effective with high side effects is not really on our wish list.
I think I'd also add that, you know, as a company that has relied, on the support, and we've had very good support from both institutional and retail investors. As we start to generate income, and therefore hopefully profit, I think certainly the board will be fairly reticent to plunge us back into a debt or loss-making situation, by taking on early-stage, unproven products from other people. Next question.
We have noticed that Cialis launched Cialis Together at Boots around the start of June. Noting that the marketing was geared towards the couple, do you think this is a coincidence, or do you feel it's in response to the Eroxon marketing launch?
Actually, if you look at the way that Cialis was marketed in the U.S., it's always been a product that is geared towards the couple, so to speak. When you look at its therapeutic profile, it's very similar to Viagra. It takes typically 30-60 minutes before it starts working. You know, the fact that you can't use it for spontaneous intercourse is a limitation, which also applies to Viagra. The products are behind the counter in the U.K., and if you wish to buy the product, you have to go through a pretty significant questionnaire, which can be up to 40 questions that have to be answered before the pharmacist will give you the product. That's not a limitation that exists for Eroxon.
It's slow to act. It takes, you know, becoming a mental barrier to go through the trauma of having to answer all these difficult questions before you're allowed to buy the product in the U.K.
I think I'd also add that certainly, on all the advisory meetings we've had with key opinion leaders, they consistently say, "If you can treat the couple, the efficacy of all products is better." It's no great surprise that Cialis are focusing on treating the couple as opposed to the individual.
Yeah.
Okay. Another one for you, James.
All right.
What are your aspirations for the development of your shareholder base and share price over the next couple of years?
Well, every CEO will say, "Share price is not high enough.
Yeah.
You know, I suppose we're a little disappointed where the share price is at the moment, but our market is not in a great place. I think, you know, I think we've done pretty well in the last 18 months, two years, and I think I'm pretty confident that that will progress with a number of other things that we're working on. Shareholder base, yes, we want to diverse that, expand it. I think as a company, we move from loss-making, and certainly, if you like, essentially pre-revenue, it does open up the opportunities for getting greater institutional support. It's certainly something we're conscious of and certainly something that we'll be looking to expand. Did you miss one?
No.
Okay. Yeah.
One second. Are there any plans to launch in high population countries such as India and China?
I mean, yes. We've had a significant number of approaches in both markets. As I said earlier, we do have a deal with Co-High in China, which we are currently exploring. It's not progressing as fast as we'd like. We certainly know that as far as China is concerned, we will need additional clinical work. India, I'm not sure at this stage. The focus has been very much on, at this stage, securing a U.S. partner, and other markets, kind of slightly secondary to that. The U.S. is by far the biggest market in the world, both in healthcare terms, but also in erectile dysfunction. That has really been our primary focus, as I kind of touched on earlier on.
Absolutely, we wanna have a global distribution and we've got a number of discussions going on. We'll update shareholders as and when we can do that.
If Futura's listing was moved from AIM to Main Market, would the company attract more institutional support?
Well, I suppose an answer to that is no different to the other question about dual listing. It's, you know, I think the board is gonna take a pretty open-minded approach on what we'll do next. What we're clearly going to do is drive liquidity, drive value, which is in everybody's benefit. No decision has been reached on that at this stage. The move from AIM to the Main Market, there are certain pros and certain cons. Certainly you lose all the IHT benefits, and there is tighter regulation. It's certainly at the moment, it has not been our focus. Our focus has been on driving the company to revenue, to obviously break even and then to profit.
Obviously, especially on the commercial side, closing out deals and launching in the main markets we can do. Absolutely, these are valid points and something that the board will increasingly consider.
Okay. This is a follow-up question, and I think it's for me. It's in relation to the question that we got asked around the transfer price. It has been noted that potentially discourages your marketing partner to go for margin. Sorry, encourages your marketing partner to go for margin/high retail price rather than volume. If you see retail prices above your expectations, can you dynamically change the wholesale price during the contract? Our partners are incentivized to. There are KPIs that they have to contractually meet in the form of advertising and promotional spend. They've also done an awful lot of pricing analysis to determine where the peak prices before volumes start to reduce.
We work very closely with our commercial partners to ensure that is the strategy. That doesn't really answer the question, but I think we are comfortable that is not a strategy that our commercial partners will undertake, given the contract that we have in place with them.
I think also add is that, you know, when we are negotiating with different commercial partners, we have a pretty good idea of what we know that, what we felt the market could support from a retail price. We kind of factor that into whatever the transfer price was. On our upside, we know what the price is, it's fixed, and if we can drive down the cost of goods of manufacturer, then that will increase our margin. The quid pro pro is if they can get a few quid more elsewhere, then well, kind of good luck to them.
As you get more of a global market, you know, if somebody tries to be too clever in one market and charge a hell of a lot more, you're gonna start, you know, they will struggle from getting parallel imports coming in.
It's suggested that Eroxon discourages oral sex due to taste. Is this correct? If so, can it be counted?
I don't think the product tastes bad, we understand that people are using it for oral sex. I also think it's fair to say that, you know, given the way the product came about its development, it wasn't optimized in terms of flavor for oral sex. That might be, you know, an area that we look at in the future, to be honest. You know, I think most people who taste it find it, you know, fairly neutral, you know, there's no reason why they couldn't use it that way.
We've got two questions in relation to the pain relief portfolio, and, are the plans for development continuing, or is this dependent on Eroxon revenue hitting a threshold?
Yeah. I mean, at the moment, we see more value in really driving Eroxon. You know, this is a new product category. The U.K. is unusual in that pretty much the only major market in the world where two of the PDE5, Cialis and Viagra, switched over the counter. Everywhere else, throughout the rest of Europe, you know, other than Denmark, the U.S., these products are all prescriptions. We are creating a new over-the-counter category. Pain relief, you're going into a crowded market already, and I'm not ruling out us doing something in the future, but there's no question the biggest opportunity, the biggest value, is around really exploiting Eroxon, and that's where the company's main focus lies at the moment.
The next question. What reasons do your broker give for the share price performance to date? Is the share price being held back by fickle retail investors and by perceived past product failures by Futura? I think the first thing that we can say is that, certainly the feedback that we've had from our broker and feedback that we've had from some institutional investors, is that given the sector, they're very pleased with how Futura is performing alongside its peers. The market hasn't been great for some time now, but in terms of share price performance, the feedback that we've had is that they're quite pleased by that. Not sure we can comment on fickle retail investors or what the perception is for past product failures.
It's a bit of a, we have a quite a high shareholding by retail investors, and you know, it comes with its pros and cons. You know, the benefit of a high retail investor base is it provides a lot of liquidity. The other side of that is that it's quite unpredictable, and you know, we put good news out, and we don't see it move, and then a few days later, we see share price moving off the back of no news. It's not really something that we can comment on in terms of intentions by retail investors. Do you have anything to add to that?
Yeah, I mean, we're against the backdrop where interest rates are rising. You know, I think today, sort of, you know, gilts, you can get over 5%. You know, people will have different reactions. We are against a backdrop of a difficult market. AIM is flatlined, FTSE is flatlined, or, you know. You know, for us at the moment, the focus remains very clear. It's turning Futura from a loss-making company to a revenue, which we've already done, but then moving it into profit as soon as we can do. You know, I think, you know, the vagaries of the market, it will, you know, it'll correct itself in due course.
Yes, we'll be working with brokers to do everything we can do to attract more institutional backing. You just have to accept we are in a market.
Also I think, you know, we have a clear strategy.
Yeah.
You know, I think it's been apparent that, you know, we set out on a strategy. We believe that we have delivered to date on that strategy, and I think our focus is on continuing to deliver that strategy. You know, we can't control some of the external things that are going on in the market, but we can control, you know, us performing.
And doing all the things that we've said we're going to do. We know your comment re institutions being happy, have current II given any reason for reducing holdings, which has pulled the stock into a downward trend? I'm not aware of any significant reduction from institutional investors, reducing their holdings, so I can't, I can't really comment on that. The answer is, was no, we've not had, we've not had any feedback. With Lombard having such a large holding within the company, do you see this as an issue to attract new institutional investments?
Not we're having.
No.
They've been very, very supportive.
Yeah. I think it's actually the opposite. I think, off the back of Lombard exercising their warrants, a couple of weeks ago, especially with the market being the way that it is, to be able to, you know, come out and advise the market that we are very well funded. The biggest holdback for any of our peers at the moment is uncertainty around funding. We don't have that, so I don't think that's an issue, and I think that certainly is a plus point to be able to confirm that, you know, we are funded.
Okay. If there are no further questions, I think we'll draw this to a close. First of all, can I on behalf of the whole board, thank retail investors for supporting the company. Appreciate we've had some stormy times, but the company's very well positioned now, and I think we're all pretty excited the way it's going. We look forward to interacting with shareholders in due course, and hopefully some exciting updates for the remainder of the year and into 2024. Thank you very much.
James, Ken, Angela, thank you all for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session, as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete, but shall be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Futura Medical PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, good morning to you all.