Thursday, July 29, 2010

Micro-Cap Announces Order on $4-Million India Contract

Glaucoma is a disease in which the optic nerve is damaged, leading to progressive, irreversible loss of vision. It is often, but not always, associated with increased pressure of the fluid in the eye. Among its more notable victims was literary titan James Joyce. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness, affecting over 70 million people worldwide.

Fountain Hills, Arizona-based Sunridge International (OTCBB:SNDZ), announced in late July its subsidiary, Ophthalmic International (OI), had received an order from Manhattan-based New Amsterdam Marketing Corporation's initial order of units and disposable rings to help treat the disease. This order is the start of a five-year contract recently signed with New Amsterdam for India, a deal valued at over $4 million.

OI has developed a patented two-minute, non-invasive, cost effective, alternative treatment for glaucoma and ocular hypertension, known as Pneumatic Trabeculoplasty (PNT).

PNT is a safe, non-invasive method clinically demonstrated to lower elevated Intraocular Pressure (IOP) in patients with Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG), Pigmentary Glaucoma or Ocular Hypertension. OI holds worldwide patents on the PNT equipment, its disposable sterile suction ring, as well as the medical procedure itself.

PNT allows folks living in rural areas a treatment regime that might not otherwise be available to them. Often in these rural locations, among very poor people, glaucoma is simply left untreated.

The India contract is potentially very lucrative: glaucoma afflicts approximately 10 million people in the world's largest democracy, which does not take in consideration the population with ocular hypertension, a market at least five times larger than that of the glaucoma market.

SNDZ management says even so much as a 5% market share in India could be valued at over $20,000,000 in annual sales.

This company is something of a world traveler, not forsaking China as a market rich in potential. In June, it was announced that SNDZ delivered 60 PNT Units and 10,000 disposable rings to its exclusive distributor in that country, its first rollout in China, PNT having gotten the green light from the State Food and Drug Administration of China.

Best of all for bargain sleuths, SNDZ is climbing out of a 52-week gulch in terms of its stock price, at 19.2 cents, a far cry from its $2.00 peak last January. The news about the Indian contract could be just the tonic for investors to take notice of this aggressive medical supply company, making conquests in Asia and elsewhere.