Revolymer gets stuck into Canadian market

REVOLYMER, the newly-listed polymer company, has agreed deals to launch its first commercial product, a nicotine chewing gum, in Canada.

The Deeside-based company, which listed on AIM earlier this month, is  developing products for a number of high value fast moving consumer goods markets.

It has closed distribution deals with Associated Retail Pharmacies (ARP) and Family Health Care Pharmacies which are both subsidiaries of the McKesson Group.

ARP is western Canada’s largest pharmacy association and FHCP is a Canadian independent pharmacy with locations in Ontario and the western province.

 The chains will be offering Revolymer’s nicotine gum (Rev7 Generation 2) for sale under the ‘Preferred’ brand. The products are being distributed by SDS Pharma on Revolymer’s behalf with Canada being the first country ever to benefit from this unique gum.

The nicotine chewing gum market is worth over US$1.2bn worldwide (Source: Datamonitor). Revolymer has applied its proprietary polymer technology which not only controls the release of nicotine but also helps to mask its bitter taste through molecular encapsulation.

The product has been scaled up by a manufacturing partner with 2.5 million pieces of gum made in both 2 and 4 mg doses with flavours of spearmint, peppermint and fresh fruit.

The company said third party evaluations have confirmed that its product is superior in taste and texture to current generic nicotine gums, and, as it lacks the bitter taste of many commercial nicotine gums, it should further help smokers in their quest to quit smoking.

Chief executive Roger Pettman, said: “In July we successfully listed Revolymer on the AIM market and raised £25m to support our strategy of launching new polymer-based products.

“We expect this strategy to generate significant and growing high quality revenue streams as we license our unique technologies to manufacturers and marketers within the global high value FMCG , allowing us to leverage our relatively low and static cost base.

“Today’s deal with two important Canadian subsidiaries of the McKesson Group endorses this strategy, gives us an opportunity to exploit the $40m Canadian nicotine gum market,  and is an important step in realising significant value from our unique polymer technology platforms.

 “Achieving regulatory approval and then distribution across Canada so quickly is another key milestone for Revolymer and I am also delighted to be working closely with Greg and the team at SDS Pharma.”