May 12 2017
Brigadier Gold Limited is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent to acquire Keraderm SAS, a Colombian private company in the health care industry.
Specifically, Keraderm has developed a procedure intended for treatment of skin injuries caused by burns, accidents or chronic wounds. Through a process that was developed by three plastic surgeons with a combined 30 years of medical experience, Keraderm uses the patient's own cells (collected by a small blood sample and a very small skin sample from behind the ear) to produce within 5 days up to three 4 by 4 inch skin cell coated membranes. The company owns and operates its own state-of-the-art medical clinic, fully certified by the Colombian Health Authority where the membranes are prepared. The procedure has been awarded patent protection in each of the United States, Colombia, Mexico and China (with applications pending in three additional countries and the European Union) with Keraderm owning 100% of the intellectual property involved.
Mr. Jorge Soto, Chief Financial Officer of Keraderm stated, "The Keraderm procedure has been approved for use by the Colombia Health Authority and has been assigned the required billing code by the country's public health system allowing revenue to begin accruing to the company. To date, Keraderm has used more than 300 of its membranes in the treatment of over 200 patients in Colombia. Wound care, as part of the larger health care picture, is growing in size and urgency on a daily basis. We are proud to partner with Brigadier and are hopeful of offering a solution to the people suffering from this terrible health issue."
In the United States, 6.5 million people suffer from non-healing wounds, including 1.5 million with venous ulcers and 800,000 with diabetic ulcers, which result in 55,000 amputations per year. In Colombia 3.3 million people suffer from diabetes (with the worldwide number of individuals diagnosed with diabetes estimated at 415 million which is expected to rise to 624 million by 2040). It is estimated that 10% of people with diabetes will have a diabetic foot ulcer at some point. The Keraderm procedure has been successfully used in Colombia to treat these diabetic ulcers. Keraderm´s facilities and experience allows it to produce and develop new products for "personalized medicine" such as eye drops with a patient's own cellular input to promote faster recovery from eye surgery plus ointments and lotions to promote better and faster recovery from wound care and tissue rejuvenation.
Mr. Grant Hall, President of Brigadier commented: "We are excited about the potential of the proposed transaction with Keraderm. We see tremendous growth potential for the Keraderm treatment in Latin America, South America, Mexico and around the world."
Brigadier would initially acquire 90% of the shares of Keraderm by issuing CAD$5,500,000 in common shares of Brigadier to the current shareholders of Keraderm. After having acquired the 90% interest, Brigadier would have the option to acquire the remaining 10% interest by making a cash payment of US$7,500,000 at any time up until June 30, 2027 to the current shareholders of Keraderm.
The completion of the acquisition is subject to the successful completion of due diligence, the negotiation and execution of definitive documentation and the receipt of all required regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.