-----Original Message-----
From: David Mortimer
Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2023 7:41 AM
To: Lars Bjorndahl ; Jim Cummins ; Gerhard van der Horst ; Eduardo Roldan ;
Dr Maki Morisawa ; Professor Hideo Mohri ; John Aitken
Cc: Sharon Mortimer ; Gerhard van der Horst
Subject: Re: ISS14 in Vancouver
Dear Friends,
It is with the deepest regret, and an enormous sense of frustration,
that we must write to you today advising that we cannot after all
meet our commitment to put on the ISS meeting in Vancouver in 2024.
As of today, slightly over a year out from the planned meeting dates,
we have received or been promised just CAD $32K (about US $24K) in
sponsorship, which is insufficient for us to meet even the advance
deposits for the accommodation block and book the meeting venue. We
have already discussed the matter with our sole Platinum Sponsor,
Hamilton Thorne Inc, whose payment was to be made in early April, and
will also return the funds received from a Canadian sponsor (CA $750)
and advise the only other agreed sponsor (US $2500) that the 2024
meeting is financially non-viable. Sadly we will lose the CA $8236
initial 5% accommodation deposit that we have already paid
personally, but this is better than losing double that (the second 5%
deposit is due very soon), and being on the hook for a substantial
loss later on.
Besides the extremely disappointing response from industry (more of
which below), costs have risen dramatically since the pandemic, as
well as from the downstream inflationary effects of the
Russia-Ukraine conflict. With so little sponsorship available we are
looking at a basic registration fee of almost CA $1200 (+5% GST),
with no opportunity for earlybird or discounted trainee rates. And
the conference dinner would have been an extra CA $200-$250, with no
sponsorship funds available to support a discounted price for trainees.
Moreover, substantially higher airfares would also have threatened
our anticipated number of registrants, and that would have further
compounded the risk of a substantial financial loss with so few
sponsorship dollars.
Based on these figures we were left with the inescapable conclusion
that the ISS meeting planned for Vancouver in 2024 is no longer
financially feasible. Moreover, following the financial stresses of
the pandemic, our company, Oozoa Biomedical, is no longer is a
position to underwrite even a small loss, which had been our fallback
position when we presented our proposal back in 2017.
As advice to possible future ISS convenors, the industry situation
has changed hugely in recent years due to extensive corporate
takeovers and mergers across the assisted conception field (this
includes the acquisition of Microptic by Hamilton Thorne), with these
large corporations (especially those owned by private equity groups)
only being willing to consider sponsoring meetings that are likely to
lead to substantial market opportunities and sales. IVF meetings
continue to be very well supported because companies get to sell huge
amounts of products and services to IVF clinics. Animal production
companies and suppliers of bull sperm, for example, do not see
spermatology as important to their commercial success either.
Basically, sperm science is not considered to generate significant
sales for anyone except perhaps CASA companies, but this is very
small compared to the IVF market, and even they have proven unwilling
to sponsor an ISS meeting - at least at this time - with the sole
exception of Hamilton Thorne.
Indeed, Hamilton Thorne Inc have expressed their intention to be a
major sponsor for the next ISS meeting, whenever and wherever it
might be held. The contact there is Mr Brett Fulton, Senior Vice
President and General Manager.
Additionally, the current changeover in regulatory schemes for all
medical devices in the EU and UK has led to massive expenditure by
industry to re-register products that were already fully approved and
commercialized. As an example, one small company we know, which has
just eight products, is having to spend about $500K simply to prepare
all the required documentation to re-register the same, safe,
products! Some companies are even out of the market until they can
complete these re-registrations, but hopefully this will all have
settled within a couple of years. This has created a further reason
for companies to decline sponsorship at this time.
Sharon and I greatly appreciate the trust that you placed in us to
organize an ISS meeting, and we have spent a great deal of time
exploring all possibilities to make it happen. But this post-pandemic
world is very a different place, with a very different, brutally
pragmatic and fiscally restricted, corporate biomedical industry than
we had even 5 years ago.
Finally, to our dear friend Jim, we are sorry that we are unable to
create the student travel awards for 2024 using your bequest. We must
leave it to the Steering Committee to consider how your legacy might
be honoured. Please do not have the funds transferred to the account
we provided information for as it will be closed soon. Perhaps
someone else on the Steering Committee might be able to hold the
funds in trust for you / your estate until the next meeting organizer
is known.
We thank you all again for having given us the opportunity to convene
an ISS meeting, and it is with huge regret, sadness and
disappointment that we have had to let you all down. We will, of
course, provide as much help as we can to whoever takes on the
convenorship of the next ISS meeting.
Very best wishes to you all,
David & Sharon
