ABOUT US

Located in Providence, RI, Beech Tree Labs, Inc. (BTL) focuses on the discovery and early development of therapeutic agents that address a spectrum of unmet medical needs. The Company has an extensive portfolio of patented formulations for products that treat such disorders as urinary incontinence, allergies, benign prostatic hypertrophy, anxiety, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and herpesvirus infections.

BTL has conducted 16 successful FDA-authorized phase 2 trials and has out-licensed both technology and products.

A unique aspect of BTL is the amount of technology, and the corresponding number of indications, it owns. This level of proven capability is the result of the efforts of its founder and president, John McMichael, Ph.D., and the network of practicing physicians, medical scientists, and business people he has developed over decades of investigating Resonant Molecular Signaling therapies.

BTL is positioned to enable the discovery and early-stage development of these agents which can then be licensed to appropriate company partners who complete the required clinical and regulatory work in order to bring products to market.

History

In 1993, Dr. John McMichael, Ph.D. an immunologist and virologist, founded Milkhaus Laboratory, Inc. (MLI), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in low-dosage medicines which produce placebo-level adverse effects. MLI completed several successful FDA, USDA, and IRB-authorized clinical evaluations of products for the treatment of respiratory, urologic, and oncologic disorders.

In 1999 MLI’s patent position led to a licensing agreement with Élan Corporation, plc, a multi-national pharmaceutical company. Under that agreement, Élan obtained rights to MLI’s intellectual property relating to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Élan then embodied that technology in FDA-authorized clinical trials.

In 2003, a nutraceutical respiratory health product, Mucolyxir, was licensed to Allergy Research Group.

In 2004, after the MLI Board of Directors decided to focus the company’s efforts toward nutraceutical products of botanical origin, Dr. McMichael founded BTL in order to continue his efforts in developing a range of potential therapeutic products.

In 2016, BTL created a wholly-owned subsidiary called Resolys Bio, Inc. and licensed to Resolys Bio its patent estate for scar-associated disorders and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Resolys Bio in turn is preparing for a phase 1/2 FDA trial to evaluate oSLO for the treatment of chronic traumatic brain injury.

In 2020, a new wholly-owned subsidiary called Molecular Signals, LLC was created to sell over the counter older formulations developed by BTL.

Management

John McMichael, Ph.D., President & CEO

Dr. McMichael received his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Maine and his Ph.D. from Oregon State University in Immunology and Virology, and did his post-doctoral work at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, PA. He developed the world’s first live-virus fish vaccines for use in fish populations, and is an Alzheimer’s disease pioneer, having licensed 30+ patents to Elan Corp. plc, to support their Alzheimer’s initiative. He now holds more than 200 patents worldwide. His experience also includes:

Professor of Biology and Health Sciences, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania;
General Manager for ImmunoTherapeutics, where he licensed a veterinary anti-inflammatory product to Eudomonics, Inc., which launched and continues to sell the product;
Vice President of Molecular Rx, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on products for managing inflammatory responses;
Founder and President of Milkhaus Laboratory, Inc., a company now focused on botanical agents for nutraceutical use;
Founder and President of The Institute for Therapeutic Discovery, a not-for-profit organization focusing on the interplay between biochemistry and biophysics in the course and management of health and disease.

Thomas Hatch, MBA, Director of Business Development

Mr. Hatch received his MBA from the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia. He has served in positions of increasing responsibility during his career:

American Cyanamid Company, where Mr. Hatch served in various sales and marketing capacities in both the crop chemical and the animal health divisions of the company.
Neogen Corporation, where he first served as General Manager of Operations and then as Director of Business Development. His duties included management of regulatory affairs with the FDA, USDA and State Boards of Pharmacy.
ImmuCell Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed company where he served at President and CEO for seven years. ImmuCell achieved steady revenue growth during his tenure, during which 25 percent of revenue was spent on new product development. He initially joined ImmuCell as the Manager of Commercial Development, in which position he was able to implement stronger business systems and strategies to improve business performance.

Board of Directors

McKay Belk

As Chief Merchandising Officer since 1998, Mr. Belk has been instrumental in the notable success of Belk, Inc., the largest, privately owned, retail department chain in the United States.

A member of the Board of Directors for Belk, Inc., and Coca Cola Bottling Company Consolidated, Mr. Belk also serves on numerous educational and civic boards.

He holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Doug Hulse

Mr. Hulse is the Founding Chief Executive Officer of BCI Life Sciences. He has been a Principal and Executive Director at The Sage Group, as well as a Co-Managing Principal at Select BioVentures. He has over fifty years experience building new businesses based on new technology, either in a deal-making or operating role, in the areas of biopharmaceuticals and the chemical process industries. While an Executive Director of The Sage Group, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Hemispherx Biopharma, a public biotechnology company in Philadelphia developing novel double stranded RNA therapeutics.

Before joining the Sage Group, he built the business development activity at Enzon, Inc., an emerging biopharmaceutical company exploiting proprietary drug delivery technologies and a leading company in protein replacement therapies, as a consultant and later as Vice President of Business Development. Mr. Hulse completed over 30 deals, including the acquisition of Genex Corporation, in his last three years at Enzon.

Prior to joining Enzon, Mr. Hulse specialized in biomedical and advanced materials start-ups, serving as Founder and Chief Executive Officer for growth companies such as i-STAT Corporation, Sunstone, Inc., Envirometrics and Polycyclose Technologies, as well as an environmental process firm, SDTX Technologies.

Previously, he has been a Vice President of Engelhard Industries, a leading catalyst and environmental technology company, responsible for new ventures, diversification, and strategic planning, and a Vice President and General Manager with Halcon/SD, where he managed a $20 million catalyst division, Halcon Catalyst Industries, with full P&L responsibility and served on the Corporate Executive Committee.

As Director of Business Planning at Halcon/SD Group, the leading chemical process development firm, Mr. Hulse led the team establishing the largest chemical joint venture in Japan as well as acted as principal business negotiator in borrowing over $250 million in a project financing for a major chemical complex in Texas. He was responsible for negotiating many of the joint ventures with Arco Chemical that led to the formation of Oxirane Corporation, a $1 billion petrochemical company.

He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University in Chemistry and holds Masters Degrees in Chemical Engineering Practice and Industrial Management from MIT.

Mr. Hulse is a member of the Advisory Board of the Commercialization Center for Innovative Technology (CCIT) in New Brunswick, New Jersey as well as on the Board of NewIV Medical Devices and beech Tree Laboratories.

John McMichael, Ph.D.
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