The StockRadio.com Interview Transcript:
Interview with Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc’s CEO: Kim K Thompson
Carl of StockRadio.com : Hello. Welcome to the stockradio.com. Today we have the pleasure of welcoming back one of America ‘s most exciting small cap companies, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories and we have with us the Company’s CEO, Kim Thompson. Kraig Biocraft Laboratories trades on the Over the Counter QB, under the symbol KBLB. And the Company’s website is www.kraiglabs.com and that’s K-R-A-I-G-L-A-B-S.com
Kim, it’s hard to believe it’s been 6 months, but welcome back.
Kim Thompson, CEO and founder, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc.: Thanks you Carl. It’s always a pleasure talking with you.
Carl: Kim, we’re glad you could join us again today and, now, we’ve had a lot of new subscribers come to the site, so, maybe, you could start off by just doing a highlight of the Company and maybe you could tell us a little bit more about what’s been going on over the last 6 months?
KT: Certainly. Well Carl, as you know, Kraig Labs is a biotechnology company focused on really revolutionary developments in material sciences and what we originally set out to do when we launched the company, in 2006, is to create and develop in the laboratory an industrial production platform for recombinant spider silk and the reason is that this particular spider silk that we’ve been aiming to produce is stronger and tougher than steel.
It’s really, in many ways, a miracle fiber and we’ve made a lot of progress, as you know, since launching the Company, including last year when we were able to announce that we successfully created a transgenic silkworm, which was spinning a recombinant fusion spider silk fiber; a fiber composed of both spider silk and silkworm proteins. It was a major breakthrough, which we announced jointly with the University of Notre Dame and, since that time, our pace of research and development, and movement towards commercialization, has accelerated very rapidly. So we are excited. It is among the first days of 2012 and I think that 2012 is going to be the greatest year yet for Kraig Labs and for the future of recombinant materials.
Carl: That’s great, Kim. So, let’s go back to June of last year. The Company got a credit agreement for $1.5 million. Now, that’s no easy feat in this economic climate. How important is that for the Company last year?
KT: Well, it was important to us last year and it’s of continuing importance for us here, in 2012. Essentially, that financing facility provides us with the financing that are necessary to keep our operations flowing and that’s really critical in this business.
In 2008 and 2009, we saw most of the smaller biotechnology companies around us collapse amid the financial crisis. These were companies which had fantastic concepts, which were moving rapidly towards executing their business plan and, unfortunately, as a result of the financial collapse, many of those products are never going to see the light of day.
We’ve been more fortunate than that, we’ve always had the backing of financiers who believed in what we’re doing. I think that’s the case here, with the agreement you’re referring to and it provides us with, frankly, a certain base comfort level, as we move into 2012, that we’ve got our, some of our financial needs met. That, frankly, is essential to move a biotechnology project forward.
Carl: In November you signed a commercial agreement with the University of Notre Dame. Maybe you can tell us what that means, as well, for the Company and the future of your products?
KT: Well, that was a critical agreement for us, and Carl as you know, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories does almost all of its scientific development work inside universities and most particularly within the laboratories on campus at the University of Notre Dame and the agreement you referenced is an exclusive commercial license given to us by the University of Notre Dame, which grants us the exclusive right to commercially exploit the technologies which we developed inside their laboratories.
Another critical aspect of that agreement was that it made the University of Notre Dame a shareholder in Kraig Labs for the first time.
We’ve been working cooperatively with the University for many years, but this agreement is the first time that they’ve really formally become a part of the Company, in the sense of becoming a minority shareholder, and this commercial agreement relates to another material which our shareholders refer to as “Monster Silk” our recombinant spider silk product, which we developed within the University of Notre Dame.
And, then, one other thing, Carl, I should add, while we’re on the same point, was the agreement we had signed earlier in the year with Sigma-Aldrich Corporation. Sigma is a biotechnology giant, by virtue of that agreement; they also became a minority shareholder in Kraig Laboratories. So we’re, frankly, thrilled to have that kind of institutional involvement in our company, University of Wyoming , University of Notre Dame, Sigma all on as, frankly, minor share holders in the company. More importantly that Sigma-Aldrich agreement gave us access to Sigma’s zinc finger nucleus technology, this is a very powerful genetic engineering technology, which has allowed us, since signing that agreement, to significantly ramp up and accelerate our research and development on the next generation of materials beyond “Monster Silk”, and in that regard we’ve already been able to announce earlier in 2011 our creation of seven new transgenic lines using zinc finger nucleus technology.
I’ve just recently received a report from the laboratory that a number of additional transgenic lines have also been created using the ZFN technology, and we believe we are in a very advanced stage of development of the next generation of spider silk polymers, which is essentially not a fusion polymer as we created with the “Monster Silk”, but something more along the lines of a purer spider silk polymer composed entirely or almost entirely of spider silk proteins. Not to get into too much detail here, we also believe that this has significantly accelerated our development of the generation three technology, which essentially is a customizable polymer. A fiber to which we can customize, depending upon the requirements and specifications of an end customer.
This has been a rather significant improvement and advancement of our company, both on the scientific front and in the terms of its commercial prospects.
Carl: That’s so exciting for the company. At the beginning of last month according to your own words, “A major milestone was reached by the company” can you tell us about that?
KT: Certainly, I think what you’re referring to, were the filing of our first international patent applications. That was certainly a significant jump for the company. The patent applications were filed by the University of Notre Dame, covering to technology described as our “Monster Silk” technology and various methodologies to produce both transgenic silkworms and along with the utility and end uses for the “Monster Silk” product. The patent applications were filed by the University of Notre Dame in Geneva , and of course that dove tails in with the exclusive commercial license agreement we received from the University, which covers the technology described in those patents.
So I must say that was a very exciting time for us, here at Kraig Labs, and the filing of the patent application involved the opening of a champagne bottle here. But, frankly, more exciting to us, than the filing of the applications, has been the progress that’s been made in the labs since then. Essentially, we have to give credit where credit is due here, and that is to Sigma’s zinc finger technology, that has really allowed us to significantly accelerate our research and development.
Looking back at “Monster Silk”, which is, I think a very exciting product and exciting scientific achievement. In fact, Carl, I can inform you as of this morning a scientific article has just been published by the National Academy of Sciences, describing our work in creating these transgenic silkworms producing recombinant spider silk. But looking back on the development of “Monster Silk”, we did that with out the zinc finger technology, we did that using a technology known as piggy back, which was developed largely by a member of our scientific advisory board Dr. Malcolm Frasier. With this new ZFN technology we can move much faster and much quicker towards our goal, and that’s being born out of the laboratory right now.
Carl: That’s fantastic. Now Kim here we sit on the first day of 2012, and as you said it’s going to be an exciting year for the company, if you’re able to, can you tell us if we’re going to be able to see spider silk going into production at all this year?
KT: I believe so. I believe that our first generation product, which we, as you know we refer to as “Monster Silk”, I believe that will go into production in 2012 and to be clear we are in production right now with “Monster Silk” in the laboratory. But we’re operating within the university laboratory system, and they’re not set up, of course, for commercial production; but I believe that we will see, and it is our goal to see actual commercial industrial skill production of “Monster Silk” in 2012; and our goal is also to achieve significant laboratory production of the next generation of fibers also in 2012.
Carl: Kim that will be exciting to see going into full production. So also on the note of 2012, what are some of the other goals that you’re hoping to have for the company?
KT: What comes to mind right off the bat for 2012 is, 1) moving “Monster Silk” into industrial production, 2) in the lab, completing our research and development and actually beginning laboratory production of our second generation of pure spider silk product, and 3) M & A, we believe moving forward that 2012 may provide an excellent opportunity for M & A as it would advance our execution of our business plan.
Carl: Great Kim, it’s always great speaking to you, it’s such an exciting company. Again we’ve been speaking to Kraig Biocraft Laboratories and its CEO Kim Thompson. The company trades on the OTCQB under the symbol KBLB and the company’s website is www.kraiglabs.com , and that’s K-R-A-I-G-L-A-B-S.com. Kim, once again thank you so much for your time today.
KT: Thank you Carl.
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About Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc.
Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. (www.KraigLabs.com) is a fully reporting biotechnology company that has achieved a series of scientific breakthroughs with implications for the global textile industry.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information
Statements in this interview about the Company’s future, expectations and business plans, other than historical facts are “forward-looking statements.” These statements are made on the basis of management’s current views and assumptions. As a result, there can be no assurance that management’s expectations will necessarily come to pass. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as “believes,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “foresees,” “estimated,” “hopes,” “develops,” “researching,” “research,” “potential,” “could” or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, statements in this release that describe the Company’s business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals should all be considered forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Management cautions that its ability to further its research, and create commercially-viable products may be affected by the competitive environment, the Company’s financial condition and its ability to raise sufficient capital to meet the financial obligations of its business plan and to fund its continuing operations.