dear mr foreign minister

I've never had much success contacting politicians, our EMS CEO (and most other CEO's) I have found to be far more accessible.

However, here's an email that I sent to Kevvy recently.

I post it here not because I think it will do anything but because it does sum up my current thinking around this stock at the moment.

I am prepared to wait.

bluebush



Dear Mr Rudd,

I read with great interest that your department has chosen to support the Asian Development Bank's Health Fund for PNG. As an expat aussie who has spent 4 years in PNG, and has seen the living conditions of it's people, the continued support of our nearest neighbour is, to my mind, a very honorable cause.

During my time in PNG I witnessed the devastating effects of malaria on both the workforce and the surrounding villages of Tabubil and indeed suffered a bout of vivax malaria from some work I performed in the lower Fly River. What concerns me the most however is the tragedy of this disease in children born in remote parts of the country that do not have access to medical personnel or provisions.

Eastland Medical Systems (EMS) is a very small ASX-listed biotech company that owns the distribution rights to a novel drug delivery platform for artemisin based compounds. You may be aware that there is an overwhelming body of evidence which supports the superiority of artesunate over quinine for the treatment of severe malaria in adults and children across the world.

'Making the Switch' a report by Medecins Sans Frontires calls on African countries to move from quinine to artesunate as quickly as possible. MSF estimates that switching to artesunate would save 195,000 lives every year.

The EMS drug-delivery method is via a sublingual technology called ArTiMist which is very effective in delivering the active-ingredient in those occasions when gastrointestinal complications make pills ineffective, for example, in children with typhoid. The product is also very stable (a couple of years) in hot humid environments and does not have to be delivered by medicos, which makes it eminently suitable for remote villages in PNG.

The product is currently going through Phase III trails in Africa. 3 lots of 50 patients are required to satisfy the experimental design. 50 patients in Rwanda have been completed, another 50 patients in Burkina Faso are currently being treated. The intent was to also to test patients in Tanzania and Uganda although, given the political turmoil in the latter, I understand that this is now off the agenda.

Unfortunately the trial has stalled because the patent owner and trial manager (a UK based biotech company) has some financial issues to sort out. EMS is funding these trials.

I'm unsure whether your department has any connections with organisations that run these sort of trials but if they do it would be a terrific opportunity to conduct the final set of patients for this important medical program in the asia-pacific region.

I do declare I have a very small interest as a shareholder in this company but rest-assured my intentions here are philanthropic and not financial.

Sincerely yours