The starting point for the SpartWISE project was a deeper identification of our target customers, by characterising the different potential customers and elaborating a preferred customer profile.
Initial work was performed on screening different organisations that could potentially use Sparteine on their processes. However, given the secretive nature of the ongoing research programs and synthetic methodology employed in most of our target customers’ organisations, an accurate identification is hard to achieve.
As such we changed our strategy in order to perform a stratification of potential customers and a complete profiling of each category. We performed a portfolio analysis that allowed us to identify the preferred markets to address, taking into consideration the idiosyncrasies of each one.
Based on this analysis we elaborated a commercialisation strategy to deploy our products to the market. To successfully implement this strategic plan, we had to incorporate a technical analysis of our production up-scaling. After a thorough examination of the production process, we concluded that even medium scale production is not viable in a laboratory setting and the initial step of the production process needs to be industrialised. Before going to multi-kilogram production, the process needs to be validated in a pilot unit to achieve at least 500 g of (-)- Sparteine in a single batch. Concomitantly, we have been establishing contacts to study the best strategy to produce these batches.
Most importantly, our patent only grants us protection in the second step of the production and in few countries. While the initial step is kept as a trade secret, for the second step there is a limited number of countries where the up-scaling process can be performed under protection.
During the feasibility study, we also evaluated the possibility of licencing the patent. However, different factors suggested that this wasn’t the best option. First, the fragility of the patent in number of countries covered, which limited Spartax Chemicals to find the best available partner to these countries. Second, the origin of raw materials is kept as trade secret. And finally, since the patent only protects the second step of the process, the company is not willing to share confidential information about the initial steps that could be easily modified and performed in other countries, thus eliminating Spartax’s leverage.
In summary, we are now establishing a partnership to use a pilot production unit, in order to produce a multi-gram batch of (-)- Sparteine. Upon completion, we will be able to approach and offer the potential customers high amounts of product for their assessment. Given the methodology adopted by these companies, with well-established protocols, it is critical to fulfil their criteria for new suppliers – high quality, fast response and affordable prices. As such, we are also launching a new website and presence in the social media – Linkedin and Twitter – to increase outreach and create brand awareness.
