Hi. Welcome. My name is Dan Brennan. I'm the new life science tools and diagnostics analyst from UBS. Hope you've had a good day here and a good conference thus far, day two.
Pleased to be joined with the management team of OraSure. To my left is Steve Tang. He's the new president and CEO. As well in the audience, we have other members of the management team. Now we're going do a breakout after this.
The management is going do a full presentation. The breakout will be in the Juilliard Room after this a half hour later. So we look forward to taking your questions there. And without further ado, Steve.
Thank you, Dan, and thank you for UBS for this opportunity to speak with you today. Some of you know, this is my first investor presentation since becoming a CEO in April. I'm delighted to be presenting with you today on behalf of Oresore Technologies. Please remember that our view of the future is subject to risks and uncertainties. A more detailed description of these risks and uncertainties are contained in our latest 10 ks filings and other SEC reports.
And I urge you to look at those filings as you consider the forward looking statements for today. I'd like to start by sharing our investment rationale. We're an industry leader in rapid point of care diagnostics for infectious disease and in specimen collection, stabilization and preparation products for genomics and microbiome applications. Our business is focused on drivers of significant growth, many of which are in the very earliest stages of market development. In our molecular business, we have a strong leadership position within human genomic arenas and our saliva collection and stabilization devices are our market leading products.
We're making great strides within the human genomics by expanding our global customer base and by securing long term supply agreements with our larger academic and commercial customers. We're also leveraging this leadership position in our understanding of how to sell and market within the molecular arena to quickly grow our microbiome products. We see many parallels between our progress in our human genomics and microbiome, which we'll discuss shortly. For our infectious disease products, we're seeing strong demand for our OraQuick HIV Self Test in international markets. We're a proven leader in rapid testing, which addresses significant and emerging market needs.
We remain committed to enabling the eradication of hepatitis C or HCV through better and easier diagnosis and are in discussions with potential large scale eradication programs. We're also leveraging our platforms to address diagnostic market needs for other diseases such as Ebola, Zika and tuberculosis. And we're investing in manufacturing capacity to support all of our primary product lines. And as a result of strong operating and financial performance for the past several years, we have a strong balance sheet with no debt and almost $180,000,000 in cash, which we intend to use in our business development activities. In January, we announced leadership transitions, which are now complete.
I became CEO in April, having previously served for seven years on NorthShore's Board of Directors, including the past year and a half as the Chairman of the Board. Concurrent with my Board service, I led the University of City Science Center in Philadelphia, which is one of the leading life science innovation hubs in the world. And while leading the Science Center, I initiated and led funding programs for promising medical device and diagnostic inventions while helping to catalyze the growth of the precision medicine industry and community. Roberto Cucca, who joins us with deep and broad experience in finance and accounting in Life Science sector, based on several successful stints as a Senior Financial Executive at some notable pharmaceutical companies. His experience in finance and business development will serve us well as we embark on the priorities that we are sharing with you today.
Roberto will become CFO upon the retirement of Ron Speer on June 8. And I'm pleased that both Ron and Roberto are here with me today. We're also demonstrating our commitment to putting our assets to work for us by bringing David Rappaport on board to drive execution and business development opportunities. David is a veteran in life science coming from many years in investment banking. I'm excited about the opportunities that lie ahead of us and about the team that we now have in place to capitalize on the future.
I'll now share with you overviews of our two strategic pillars. Our molecular business, including includes both our human genetics and our microbiome products and services. Our infectious disease business consists of primarily our rapid point of care diagnostic products. And as you can see here, we have many strong and growing brands and product platforms to address a diverse set of markets. Now let's do a bit of a deeper dive into each opportunity.
Let's begin with molecular solutions. As you can see here, we have a rich history of developing and launching innovative products. These products have enabled current double digit and triple digit sales growth to many of our human genomics microbiome customers. Over the past fourteen years, we've launched many products based on sound science, which are protected with a broad and deep intellectual property pipeline and portfolio. With the combination of product design and chemistry, we're able to quickly develop products that are optimized to meet customer needs across a broad set of applications.
Our market focus is based on demonstrated premise that the academic, translational research and clinical application markets require reliable, easy to use, self collection devices for high quality samples. With our products, our customers benefit from platforms that are fully compatible with downstream sample processing technologies. Our products enable our customers to grow and scale their businesses. Our proof of value and validity are found in the 2,000 or so peer reviewed publications that cite the use of our products and our 6,000 plus customers in over 100 countries. Core to our suite of sample collection products is easy use by anyone, anywhere.
Pictured here is our flagship Aurigene product. Aurigene is the market leader for saliva self collection in the industry. It stabilizes large amounts of high quality human DNA for long periods of time at ambient temperature. In fact, many people are surprised to learn that the quality of DNA stabilized in our OraGene collector is essentially the same as derived from blood. But it's more convenient for the donor to provide, easier for labs to process, and ultimately enables sample collection and scalability for our customers.
Unlike blood, that is a primary substrate competition for OraGene, use of our product does not require phlebotomist, centralized collection, or an inconvenient or painful blood draw for the donor. Aurigene as a self collection device is made for anyone, anywhere to easily provide two milliliters or less than a half a teaspoon of their own saliva. The Origen platform contains a proprietary design device and chemical stabilization solution. After providing saliva up to the marked fill line, the stabilization fluid is added, which you see here in the second picture, by simply closing the cap. The DNA is then stable for more than five years at ambient temperature.
In the third picture, you see the sample tube being easily capped by the user. The full stabilized sample is then sent to the lab in a standardized tube that can seamlessly be processed further in the laboratory. It's the only FDA five ten ks clear device for saliva collection, which is an important feature for many customers and a clear advantage over the competition. We've seen a phenomenal revenue growth for our molecular business since we acquired DNA Genotec in 2011. Back then, it was a $12,000,000 revenue business.
In 2017, it grew to 75,000,000 That's not bad for a $50,000,000 investment in 2011. One highlight of our growth is the November 2017 contract with one of the world's leading consumer genomics companies for $143,000,000 over several years. That contract contains minimal annual purchases. Revenue growth in this long term contract speaks favorably for the future of our line of Origin saliva collection device products. We believe that this business will continue to grow rapidly in the foreseeable future.
This graph shows the explosion of growth in human genome testing by year, represented by the thousands of test types conducted. The number and types of tests available continue to rise as researchers and clinicians investigate biomarkers for pharmacogenetic carrier screening, ancestry, wellness, and health information. Human genome testing started with the laboratory researchers in the 1990s. These researchers then branched out into large scale population studies with thousands of subjects for patients across state and country borders. We believe our Aurigene saliva collection products and their ease of use have played an important role in advancing our knowledge of the human genome.
Orsher acquired DNA and Genotec in 2011 as this market growth was accelerating rapidly. We're now experiencing explosive growth in the overall human genomics market. As academic discoveries of genomic basis for disease emerge and are translated into tests, we participate in the expansion of clinical testing and the explosion of direct to consumer businesses. Our Origin product line has been the key enabler for many consumer genomics companies, like those shown here, to scale their businesses. These are company names that are familiar to many of us and recognized as industry leaders such as Helix, the spin off of Illumina, and 23andMe.
Direct to consumer marketing of human genomic kits is also expanding globally, so our customers outside The U. S. Are key to our continued revenue growth. Companies such as WuXi Nexcode and Weijing, both from China and Genesis Healthcare Company from Japan, are examples of our current OraSure customers. These international customers value our proven technology, our regulatory rigor and the high quality of our products that we deliver.
The markets in China, Japan and South Korea and across Asia are just in their infancy, which provides OraSure with even further opportunity to expand our global sales. Many of you know our product if you've done a 23andMe test. And inside, the only thing you'll find inside is the OraGene product, which you mail back to labs. ARKIT's the only FDA cleared device of this type and it's key to enabling innovative solutions that are now being demanded from individuals on a global scale who want to access their own genomic profile. Truly exciting times within this space.
Even as saliva based testing for human genomics expands rapidly, we're equally excited about the emerging microbiome market. Microbiome refers to all the bacteria that live in or on our body. And when we're healthy, we live in harmony with those bacteria. Researchers are just beginning to explore the link between human health and the type and quantity of bacteria in or on us. Unlike our human genome, which is generally stable throughout our life, our microbiome changes over time.
Researchers are now being funded significantly to explore those changes and the implications to disease and therapeutic interventions and how our microbial makeup impacts our health, our lifestyle, and our longevity. In particular, the gut microbiome is being studied to help treat diseases such as Crohn's, Colitis, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Every major research university and medical center in North America is exploring this domain. Right now, OraSure's role is to provide an easy to use sample collection and stabilization technology built on our strengths and saliva collection devices for the human genome. We're focused on establishing our products as the modality to collect and optimize the standardized sample to fuel discovery and knowledge in this emerging high growth industry.
We've already launched the Omnigene gut product and are quickly developing collection devices for the microbiome on the skin, mouth, and uro general track. We are observing that many of our genomic customers are now integrating microbiome components to their research as funding for this research increases. This enables us to market this new microbiome application to our existing customers, as well as new customers. Here you see our emerging suite of products to sample the microbiome for the gastrointestinal, oral, and uro general areas of the body. These products differ from our saliva based genome collection devices because they stabilize microbial DNA, not human DNA.
There are millions of bacteria of many species in each sample, unlike the single species, that is you or me, collected from human DNA. So you can imagine how novel and valuable our technology is for those studying the microbiome. Studying the microbiome is more complex than the human genome because researchers need not only to assess which microbes are present, but also evaluate the abundance of each type of microbe. Given that our microbial makeup changes with frequency, many studies require sampling from the same individual many times, which means we'll sell many more products. This increases the market opportunity for our products.
Unlike genomics, where there's basically one sample per person, in the microbiome arena, multiple samples must be collected from an individual for each potential study. Our lead product in this market is the OmniGene gut device, designed to collect and stabilize fecal samples to characterize the gut microbiome. It's received a CE IVD mark for use in the European Union. The kit is easy to use for donors and ensures that our customers have a standardized liquid sample for processing and analysis in their lab. We have over three fifty customers for the OraGene or OmniGene gut today.
This business has grown from $600,000 to $1,500,000 from 2015 to 2016, and to $3,000,000 in 2017. In 2018, we expect this high growth to continue. A human longevity study in Nature, a premier science publication, is called OmniGene Gut the gold standard for gut microbiome sample collection. This is not only high praise, it also validates a business strategy which we've already deployed successfully for our saliva based collection devices for the human genome. Becoming the standardized product for this space will reinforce our leadership position in this emerging market.
Competition within this space includes collecting and freezing bulk stool samples. As you can imagine, the logistics associated with shipping bulk stool samples are fraught with difficulties and high cost, as well as the requirement for additional processing in the lab. That's why Omnigene Gut has become the gold standard. As we work with our customers at the onset of the discovery process, we're quickly learning that what adjacent needs they have, and are also introducing a full suite of services to maximize the value we deliver from the sample right through the test result. Just in the early days of saliva based human genome research, we see a similar trajectory for microbiome research.
Here you see the similar high growth trajectories of research intensity for the human genome in the blue on the top left curve, and the microbiome on the bottom in purple on the left, over eleven years. As interest in the microbiome moves from research to commercial applications that's happened for saliva based human genomics and led to the rise of 23andMe, Helix, and others, We expect that the addressable microbiome market to be as large as that of the human genomics market for OraSure and our products. As shared in the previous slide, we've invested in products beyond the gut microbiome. You can see in the graph on the right, the market demands of standardized solutions for multiple sample types. We are well positioned to capture market share across this diverse array of sample types.
Moving from molecular to infectious disease businesses, here's our rich history of innovation for infectious disease testing over the past fifteen years. Our rapid testing offerings are so important to eradicating diseases like HIV and HCV. Core to this offering is that unlike lab based testing, our platforms are used at the point of care and result in the ability to immediately link a patient to care and therapies they need. There have been so many advances in therapeutic treatments such as the previously such that previously fatal diseases such as HIVAIDS can now be managed, and for HCV, even cured with affordable generic drug regimens. People can live long and healthy lives provided they are diagnosed and treated early.
Our point of care tech devices can deliver on this promise by quickly linking patients to care and by enabling outreach in testing scenarios that find and diagnose people who may not come to the clinic for testing. So this is the first FDA approved rapid test for HIV, which we've now adopted into a self test. We've sold over 50,000,000 of these tests to professional healthcare providers, direct to consumer, and as the only over the counter device available. It's available at every Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Walmart, and online, and now also available as a self test for the developing world in places like Africa. Self test is and will be a significant growth driver for Warashore.
Nearly four decades since the AIDS crisis began, there are still over thirty six million people living with HIV. Around a third of them are unaware of their HIV positive condition, and many of them are in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia. Despite the 100,000,000 HIV rapid tests that have already been deployed in Africa, over ten million people still don't know that they are infected. This is a dire global public health situation. Why?
Primarily the reason people don't know about their HIV positive status is shame and stigma. Many men will not go to a health care provider or clinic to be tested for fear of being ostracized from their community. Orquake HIV ST is the only rapid test that can be used with saliva or finger stick blood, and provide accurate results in twenty minutes with only one minute of patient hands on time. It's the only World Health Organization pre qualified self test in Africa. We recently are also the first product to receive HWOPQ for pharmacy based offering.
In 2017, OraSure signed an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to subsidize the cost of our self tests in 50 countries in Africa and in Asia. With this subsidy, OraSure preserves a reasonable operating margin for our product sales and at a low enough price where countries can afford to buy them in the millions. Scaling global eradication of HIV requires capable global partners. OraSure is fortunate to have such partners with impeccable credentials. We're working with UniDate, who originated the Self Test Africa, or STAR program, Population Services International, a world renowned non government organization with operations in 30 countries with 6,000 employees.
STAR Phase one deployed 750,000 units in three African countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. In 2017, the expanded STAR project launched with a commitment to deploy 4,000,000 units to three additional countries, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa. There are 44 additional countries that are still eligible for the GATE subsidy. Overall, the GATE subsidy provides OraSure with up to $20,000,000 over four years with a maximum of $6,000,000 per year. As we reported in our first quarter twenty eighteen earnings call, our OraQuick HIV Self Test sales were up sharply from the previous quarter and first quarter twenty seventeen.
Is truly a global leader in HIV testing. Our platforms have been used across the globe with respect to our professional use and self test options. This map depicts all the countries in which we've shipped our HIV products. Our ongoing growth potential is substantial, with new opportunities emerging and many pilot programs underway. On the same lateral flow diagnostic platform as HIV, we have a rapid test for hepatitis C virus, or HCV.
According to the World Health Association, an estimated seventy one million people globally have chronic HCV infection. That's nearly double the number of people who are HIV positive. Worse yet, fifty percent of those infected aren't aware of it. So this is a significant global screening opportunity for OraSure. Unlike HIV, where there's only long term therapeutic care, HCV has a cure.
Better yet for global public health, biopharmaceutical companies such as Gilead have licensed their technology to generic drug manufacturers to permit affordable access to these cures to patients in the developing world. These affordable cures have been on the market for the past eighteen months or so. That means that OraQuick HCV is now well positioned for countrywide HCV elimination programs as they are developed and funded. Countrywide HCV elimination efforts to screen, diagnose, treat and cure HCV are now becoming possible. That helps governments avoid the costly and significant morbidity and mortality costs associated with chronic hepatitis C and end of life care.
We remain committed to enabling the eradication of hepatitis C through better and easier diagnosis and are in discussions with potential large scale eradication programs. As we shared on previous earnings calls, we have a dedicated team to assess and compete for these opportunities. However, we have not projected any immediate sales yet for these opportunities. OraSure is also using its proven platform to develop solutions to better address other critical needs that have a global health impact. Our rapid diagnostic tests for Zika and Ebola are being funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.
Our Ebola test has been approved for research use. We're currently working on clinical studies that will lead to FDA five ten approval. The same platform technology is now being leveraged to develop a solution for Zika testing. Or shall we be ready should The U. S.
Or foreign governments or NGOs choose to stockpile rapid tests for Zika, Ebola, or both. The third emerging infectious disease opportunity is tuberculosis. Founded on our molecular chemistry platforms, we are developing specimen stabilization and transportation reagents for other applications. Our OmniGene sputum product is a specimen stabilization reagent for high burden infectious disease. It's preferentially stabilized by the TB preferentially stabilizes the TB bacteria by destabilizing non TB bacteria.
It also permits the sample to be shipped without cold storage, which is crucial for the many parts of the world where reliable cold chain shipping from collection to the lab is not possible. Without stabilization, samples collected in the field may be contaminated or putrefied when they arrive at the lab, making them unstable. Worldwide, over 200,000,000 samples are collected each year, but many cannot be used because of faulty or unreasonable sample handling or contamination. The World Health Organization has approved our product for research use and we are now seeking approval for routine use. We believe this could be a significant future growth opportunity.
We have close to 100,000,000 $180,000,000 of cash ready to be deployed for our growth objectives. On this slide, you see that our criteria for business development investment remains the same as it was when we acquired DNA Genotec in 2011. With David Rapaport joining our team with a strong and dedicated market focus and our strategy refresh work underway, we are poised to make smart investments to grow this business. So I'm extremely excited about the future and highly encouraged by the current performance and opportunities that exist for our business. I've learned a lot about our markets, our products, and our prospects through our very capable people and team.
To sum it up, we have approved products to address substantial opportunities on the molecular and infectious disease businesses. We are in the early stages of several revenue growth drivers in domains such as human genomics, microbiome, infectious disease self tests, and other critical diseases such as Ebola, Zika, and TB. We have a growing and diverse product portfolio to support that growth. We've been ramping up our manufacturing capacity for growth in our leading products. And we have an active business development program with disciplined criteria.
And we have a strong capital structure and sustained profitability to support that growth. I trust this overview has provided you with a little more insight and clarity surrounding our opportunities. I'm excited about our current position and growth focus areas, and we'll continue to provide you updates as we stay committed to our strategic priorities. Thank you very much for your time and attention.