X-Message-Number: 325
From att!garnet.berkeley.edu!quaife Thu May 9 20:02:51 PDT 1991
Date: Thu, 9 May 91 20:02:51 PDT
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Subject: #321, #322
cryolist.asc
5/9/91
Reply to #321, questions of Hal Finney
1. The company was incorporated in November, 1987 as
TRANS TIME MEDICAL PRODUCTS, as a spinoff from TRANS TIME.
About 4 months later, they changed their name to Cryomedical
Sciences.
2. Trans Time and Cryomedical are separate companies.
Trans Time owned stock in Cryomedical, and our researchers
Drs. Paul Segall, Hal Sternberg, and Harold Waitz were also
the principal researchers in Cryomedical. But there came a
shifting of goals in Cryomedical, and the researchers were
being hampered in their continued efforts to develop the blood
substitute for which we are famous. So we negotiated the
agreement whereby Cryomedical bought back all of Trans Time's
stock for $560,000, and bought back our researcher's stock for
seven figure amounts.
3. Cryomedical raised money first by a private placement,
next by a public offering, and latest by calling outstanding warrants.
They have raised about $13,000,000 so far. Their two principal
products under development are the blood substitute developed by
our researchers, and a cryoprobe for use in surgery that was
developed by other researchers.
I am amazed at what Trans Time and colleagues have been
able to achieve in the past, starting from a shoestring bedroom
operations of 20 years ago. But we still need hundreds of millions
of dollars for research in perfecting cryonic suspension techniques.
I believe we -- with our colleagues in BioTime -- are on the best
track toward raising that magnitude of money. Indeed, our recent
triumphs have already demonstrated that.
-----------------------------
Reply to #322, Simon
In the year and a half I have been on this mailing list, most
of the postings have concerned Alcor. But Alcor is NOT the only
cryonics organization around. TRANS TIME's history goes back as far as
theirs does. Indeed, back around 1976, we bought our Alcor's
compatriot profit-oriented organization Manrise Corp., then headed by
the most energetic and talented Fred and Linda Chamberlain,
and merged it into Trans Time. I have personally been actively
involved in cryonics since the end of 1964.
Surely there is space on this bulletin board to hear other
viewpoints than Alcor's. While in many ways they are going great
guns, I think they are hooked into the wrong (non-profit) model,
and they will watch with wonder as the commercial organizations
(Trans Time and BioTime) raise huge amounts of money for research
to perfect suspension procedures -- while providing a return to
their investors.
As to Simon's concern for media attention to cryonics:
Trans Time has been covered in the press for 19 years. It has been rare
that the media has done a hatchet job on us. We have almost always
been taken seriously, in part because of the credentials of our
scientific staff (all Ph.D's, for starters).
The worst cryonics publicity that has been generated in the past
decade concerned the Dora Kent affair, and that was all Alcor's doing.
The macabre spectacle of the ghouls sawing off her head,
while she was still alive, with her son urging them on,
shocked many people. (I am NOT NOT NOT saying that was the reality
of what happened, but that is initially what the media reported).
Surely the fact that Mrs. Kent was a neuro case was a major cause
of that publicity disaster.
Trans Time does not promote or emphasize neuropreservation
(although we have done it in the past and will honor contract requests
that we do it again). And yes, at present no-one can offer a
definitive argument that will terminate the debate over neuropreservation.
May we all be around for the eternity it will take to terminate the debate!
And I will buy a round of drinks for all who are there at the conclusion.
Art Quaife, President
Trans Time, Inc.
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