A Better Year for Retail Clinics

Retail Clinics had an easier go of it in 2011 than in the struggling years of 2010 and 2009, where the very concept was under attack. The number of clinics is increasing, as the firm Merchant Medicine indicates: According to the report as quoted in the New York Times.

The number of retail clinics jumped 11.2 percent to 1,355 in 2011 after slow growth in 2010 and 2009, according to a report by Thomas Charland, chief executive of Merchant Medicine, which tracks the growth of retail medical care services. The number of retail clinics rose only 3 percent in 2010 and had flat growth in 2009 when the financial crisis and the related poor real estate market caused some smaller operators to close their doors. This followed several years of rapid growth.

The potential for clinics is far from tapped. Even 1,300 stores, given the retail universe of the United States, is a small amount. In Kalorama's analysis on this topic, we've indicated that the retail clinic concept proved not to be recession-proof, and that it failed to expand much beyond the drug store arena. But in that arena it is succeeding well, and corporate decisions at major chains could lead to giant increases in this market.

Kalorama has been covering retail clinics since 2007. Our report on the subject which includes not only store growth forecasts but also business projections for retail clinics and supplier selling to retail clinics can be found at the Kalorama Information website. This is an industry which many see as benefiting from healthcare reform as it offers newly insured who may not have an existing provider a convenient option for care.

Abbott's LIMS Program Nets High Profile Customer

Abbott's LIMS system has won over a client that is likely to bring it a fair amount of attention in the marketplace. According to a Chicago Sun-Times news story, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to use Abbott's STARLIMS technology.

Starlims was acquired by Abbott in 2010 for $123 million. It is built from the ground up as an entirely web based LIMS application. The system leverages XML and other advanced Internet technologies to facilitate data management and decision-making within the lab and across the enterprise. It requires no client-side installation or maintenance.

Abbott is among several clinical diagnostic companies who have also moved into LIMS:

In March 2010, Thermo Fisher launched its software-as-a-service (SaaS),
enterprise-class LIMS. Thermo Scientific LIMS-on-Demand allows organizations to
leverage the benefits of a LIMS solution without the time and cost typical of on-premise software installation. With the on-demand offering, the software can be cost-effectively delivered as a service.

Roche acquired Swisslab in 2008. Swisslab LIS together with the Lauris module is targeted to large core laboratories and specialty laboratories in areas such as microbiology, blood banking, newborn screening, pathology, histology, transfusion management, genetics and HLA typing, as well as point-of-care integration and quality management.

We expect 1 billion dollars in this market by 2015, as reported among several findings in our LIMS market research report. Kalorama Information's report on this topic.

Thousands More Vaccine Doses May Be Needed

More doses will be demanded than the vaccine industry can produce now with its current capacity. The vaccine industry produced an estimated 23 billion doses in 2010, and demand should be ready to produce another 12-15 thousand by 2015. This is the result of increased population, the popularity of adult vaccines, expected new products, and vaccines in developing nations. We detailed this in our latest report on Vaccine Production.

To produce that amount of vaccine doses, the industry must improve its process. We suspect that cell-based and plant-based forms of vaccine production will see increases. We think the existing egg-based production may have to switch to a more logistically sound method for the increased flu vaccine demand. And we suspect outsourcing will be come more common.

Five companies dominate the global market for vaccine development and production. Smaller firms are developing new vaccines and novel production technologies.
The five key vendors have the production infrastructure, regulatory knowledge and contacts, and distribution systems for global delivery of needed vaccines. All improvements in products and processes are expected to involve GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur, Merck, Pfizer, and Novartis, either as developers, partners, or acquirers. Look for them to seek more partners in the future to provide the vaccines demanded.

Gastric Banding Goes to 'Next Tier' of Patients

As covered in Healthcare Finance News, Kalorama projects an increase in the GI device market due to an increased amount of gastric bypass and gastric banding surgeries.

Of note is that surgical candidates are moving beyond the morbidly obese candidates, those over 100 pounds overweight, and moving to the 'next tier' candidates; those who persistently have trouble despite diet and exercise.

Sales of banding systems, staples, endoscopes and other devices will benefit from the trend.

Kalorama's full market research report on the topic is available on Kalorama's website.

Outsourcing Encourages New Drug Pipeline

One third of pharmaceutical clinical trials are outsourced, as referenced in a story in Pharma Times which quoted Kalorama Information's research on this topic.

This probably will not be news to employees of pharmaceutical company R&D departments, facing cost pressures and at the same time, a need to keep up with increasing demands for new products. But outside observers to pharma markets may not be aware that outsourcing is more and more common, and not just on Phase I. Phase III and post-approval phases are a growth area for outsourcing.

Internally from customers and from news media we have received the question: is outsourcing safe? Particularly where an offshore service is involved. Actually although it may appear that non-US trials are not safe for drugs entering the US market, one has to consider that nations such as Russia and India, patients are less exposed to pharmaceuticals in general and thus trial results can be more earnest and less subject to interference either from other drugs taken by the patient or by patient perception. We've also been asked: Is it only to save money? Not always. The outsourcing companies are actually getting better than branded pharmaceutical marketers in some cases at conducting a trial. Even where it's hard to measure comparative talent, there's no dispute that CROs and AMCs can handle more volume.

Kalorama's report on this topic contains more information on the the market size for contract research in clinical trials, what entities are conducting trials and what regions trials are being held.

Alere Acquires MAS; Enhances its Diagnostic IT Offering

The trend of in vitro diagnostic companies fortifying their information managment system profile continues, as more and more hospitals need lab systems that can report to an EMR.     News this month that Charlottesville-based Medical Automation Systems (MAS), a major provider of information management systems for point-of-care testing, has been acquired by Massachusetts-based Alere Inc.
 In 2010, Abbot acquired Starlims Technologies for 123 million dollars.   The companies software was already used by more than 500 labs.

Kalorama Information expects a $850 million dollar market for Lab Information Systems.  Kalorama Information's report on Laboratory Information Systems contains breakdowns of the market for LIS products by hardware and software, and discusses the major players and trends in the industry.  The report can be found on its website.

Arizona Hospital Sends Patients Home Early, With a Droid Phone

As noted in Fierce Healthcare , Flagstaff Medical Center is releasing patients with heart failure and providing them with a smartphone.  The program uses advanced 3G wireless technology and health-monitoring devices to enhance the care of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) or other related conditions.  Zephyr Technology and Verizon Wireless are partners in this effort.

FH notes that each of Flagstaff's monitoring kits include: 3G-enabled Motorola Droid X2 smart phone with a mobile application that allows patients to rapidly record and send information to the medical center via a secure Internet portal; an oxygen and pulse monitor; blood pressure cuff; and weight scale. Additional items in the kit may include an advanced Zephyr health-monitoring system to measure other vital signs such as breathing rate, skin temperature, activity and posture.

We expect programs like these to become routine.  Kalorama Information has reported on these type of applications and the growth of handheld devices in heatlhcare in its <i>Handhelds in Healthcare</i> Report.  The report includes profiles of relevant companies.