Mr. Debrowski most recently served as Vice President of Neighborcare, Inc., a unit of Genesis Health Ventures, and has had extensive general management experience in a 22-year career with several leading healthcare service firms. Biospherics also reported that it has no explanation for the recent increase in the trading volume of its stock. A GRAS determination can be made by the manufacturer of a product upon the recommendation of an independent expert committee. Sale of the product could then commence in the U.S. MD Foods' own review of the data obtained on tagatose by FDA-approved industrial research laboratories prompted this approach. The GRAS expert committee was commissioned last fall, and MD Foods has been putting the data into proper format and reports for publication in a juried technical journal.
Juried publication is required before the expert committee can consider the data.
MD Foods has advised Biospherics that this will impose a two month delay. In other news, Biospherics announced the promotion of James P. Saunders to Product Manager, Biotech Programs Unit. He succeeds Lee Zehner, Vice President of Science Services, who retired in January. He also works closely with the Company's D-tagatose licensee, MD Foods. The Company offers telecommunications and database management information, and proprietary food and medical innovations.