Regencell CEO Shares His Vision, Insights And Aims To Change The Way Patients Are Treated

Market sentiment has been relatively bearish over the last couple of months, as the ongoing health crisis and political tension has pushed market and economic performance to the brink of a looming recession. On top of this, rampant inflation, which has hit another 40-year high, and the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates have become, according to some experts, a recipe for an economic downturn.

Despite all these financial challenges, some industries have been looking to attract investors through progressive tactics as companies grow their influence and dominance in their respective markets.

Many investors, who are willing to risk some of their portfolio shares to help stabilize their position in the event of a recession, have placed major bets on the biotechnology and bioscience industry in recent months. According to a 2022 Mckinsey research report, biotech companies were able to raise more than $34 billion globally in 2021, doubling the $16 billion raised in 2020.

The same report found that between 2019 and 2021, even as the pandemic took hold of the global economy throughout the greater part of 2020, venture capital companies still invested more than $52 billion in therapeutic-based biotech companies.

Since Regencell was listed on NASDAQ in mid-July 2021, Regencell Bioscience founder and CEO, Yat-Gai Au has made purchases of ordinary company shares from the open market to alleviate the short and distort investing schemes used on the company's stocks which in the long term can negatively hurt overall stock performance. With millions of his personal finances already spent to purchase company shares, Yat-Gai Au shared why he's fully committed to this strategy and the future of the company.

About Regencell Bioscience

As an early-stage bioscience company, Regencell Bioscience (NASDAQ: RGC) is a Hong Kong-based company focused on the research, development, and commercialization of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for the treatment of neurocognitive disorders and degenerations.

Regencell has become a leader that's spearheading forward as a global influence that looks to alleviate the unmet medical needs of millions of people around the world. Through their efforts, the company researches and develops treatments for ADHD and ASD patients and infectious diseases that affect the human immune systems.

On July 16, 2021, the company went public through an Initial Public Offering on the stock market with 2.3 million ordinary shares at a public offering price of $9.50. Over the last 12 months of trading, share prices have climbed by approximately 247.31% even though market conditions have been slowing since the start of the year.

Amid a flurry of investors now locking up high-yielding stocks as a way to secure their portfolios, RGC has solidified itself in the market, while spearheading the development and commercialization of TCM.

Humble beginnings lead to human ingenuity

Yat-Gai Au founded Regencell Bioscience so that more people can benefit from natural and holistic treatments with a goal to provide everyone equal access to such treatment for many years to come.

Throughout the last few years, several people have largely contributed to the overall success of RGC. James Chung (Chief Operating Officer) and Dr. Chao (Chief Medical Officer), who joined Regencell in 2015 and 2019, respectively, were inspired by their personal experience with TCM and the major improvements they saw on ADHD and ASD patients.

"For our company to remain true to what we believe in, and continue to head in the right direction, it's critical to have the right set of people with a shared value of interests. Our team develops programs and leads scientific trials to ensure our services and products are effective, safe and useful," shares Yat-Gai.

The company has grown to be more than just a research and development facility for the treatment of neurocognitive disorders and degenerations. "It's paving the way for extraordinary improvements in TCM to be mainstream. Why should only a small group of people or communities have access to these groundbreaking treatments?"

In a recent clinical study - EARTH Trial - results showed that RGC-COV19^TM is an effective formula for the alleviation and elimination of COVID-19 symptoms within 6 days. This in return helps to reduce the risks of hospitalizations and death. The rigorous trials have shown the effectiveness of TCM and alternative medicine in a hyper-modern and tech-driven world.

Keeping it close and personal

Although the clinical studies completed by RGC will still need to be peer-reviewed in the coming months, there's been growing interest from the market as the company has built quite a reputation for its research and development (R&D) in the field of alternative medicine.

"We are a company that looks to make a difference where it's possible, and while our R&D may be limited to a few fields of interest, over time we'll be able to broaden our perspectives to more complex treatments," Yat-Gai briefly mentions.

Through its IPO, Regencell had net proceeds of $22.7. million, investments that helped grow the company's access to the tools and resources needed to fast-track clinical studies.

Since the company went public, Yat-Gai has noticed that short and distort organizations or individuals are starting to affect their stock price and sentiment. "Companies like ours are not given the opportunity to prove themselves since the culprits are driving down the value of smaller companies, causing the market and general public to lose its confidence. This causes damage to our company, particularly the patients, some who are desperate for a solution," he said.

To help mitigate the negative effects of such short-term schemes, Yat-Gai managed to purchase more than $5.9 million worth of ordinary company shares. To date, Yat-Gai Au is the majority shareholder, with an 81% stake in the company. This leaves around 19% of shares owned by other shareholders.

"To date, I have spent millions of my personal finances on purchasing RGC shares. My most recent purchase was worth $886,000 of RGC shares at an average price of US$39.48, increasing my shareholdings by 0.2%. I believe in the company and its future and intend to continue to put my money where my mouth is and increase my shareholdings."

Seeing as majority ownership is held within the company, oftentimes referred to as 'Insider Ownership,' it allows them to have better control over critical decision-making issues that can help fast-track the company's overall development goals.

"The decision to repeatedly purchase RGC shares over the last several months is to support and ensure the potential of the company can be met for years to come. We've vested a lot of time, energy, and resources in Regencell, and we're well aware of the potential difference it can make in the field of alternative medicine. I believe that as I lead the way our company will be able to meet the goals we've set out to achieve within the coming years."

The long-term transactions not only give the company better control over critical decision-making but enables them to boost investor sentiment.

Ongoing growth potential

As countries across the world have in recent months lifted all, or remaining pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, and as the COVID crisis looks to cool down, many health experts are not completely convinced that the pandemic has yet subsided.

At the start of July, the chief of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that a number of countries were still reporting a continuing rise in daily active cases, which in the long run can put severe pressure on public health systems and frontline workers.

While it's not yet clear when we will mark the end of the pandemic, Regencell Bioscience has made encouraging advances throughout the pandemic to establish new formulas and treatments for infectious diseases.

Separately, the company has been working on philanthropic projects that could help thousands of children who are in severe financial distress or have been impacted by COVID.

According to Yat-Gai, "In April, I started looking to provide grants and financial support to more than 10,000 children that have been financially impacted by COVID, and others affected with ADHD and ASD. Until now, I have managed to help over 150 children. This is a project I'm personally handling through the Regencell Foundation."

Investment in the future, whether through monetary means or philanthropic efforts, is slowly helping to reshape the human understanding of bioscience and biotechnology, and the impact it has to make a difference in the broader society it serves.

Final Thoughts

There's a lot of clout that surrounds what bioscience can do for the advancement of humanity and civil society. Looking forward, we can face several different challenges that will need proper guidance to resolve as we enter the post-pandemic era.

For young, innovative companies in this space, it's important to have a development strategy that will help establish them among their market of competitors. Whether these efforts are philanthropic, or perhaps intuitive like we've now seen with Regencell Bioscience there's a clear indication of where the industry is going and what we can expect in the coming years.