DNA Microarrays Labs Find Use But Resist New Purchases

Our Linked In site discusses the  changing use of DNA microarrays by labs.  Only a small percentage of labs will continue to purchase these systems. 

What do vendors do when customers using a product don't plan to use it much longer? In the case of   DNA Microarrays it means vendors must adapt, sell consumables, and take advantage of the installed base of market new products.

While labs are getting use out of DNA microarrays, in the future they plan to make changes. Kalorama's most recent survey of labs 'DNA Micorarray Trends' found that labs using DNA Microarray for gene expresson profiling, SNP genotyping and other tasks will for the most part keep their existing systems and not upgrade. When they do get a budget for purchasing in many cases tasks performed by the microarray system will be shifted to some of the powerful next generation sequencing products.

Our survey found that only about 10% of labs have plans to replace their microarray system and that it was more common for upgraders to desire a sequencer rather than a microarray system. Vendors have caught on. Companies have been offering trade-ins or also making hybrid systems capable of both running microarrays and sequencing.

In this, our analyst Justin Saeks sees a slight advantage for Illumina. See our Linked In site for more of the insights discovered in this DNA Microarray lab survey conducted by Kalorama Information analyst Justin Saeks.

A Mega Test Service Company in the Works?

Rumors of a Quest-LabCorp merger abound now that the CEO of Quest has resigned.   Although highly competitive in the low-growth standardized testing area,  Quest was hurrying to add new specialty test products to its portfolio to boost profits. 

Clinical lab services is a market with two large players (in the US) but then a fairly broad range of little competitors.  Often in such a market scenario that would mean that a few of the smaller competitors will gain market share, enter the top positions and the market will evolve.  In lab testing, there is still a strong regional element.  And the growth is in specialty molecular tests and in situ hybridization tests that require special knowledge, which allows niche players to thrive.  This means there might be a broad group of competitors for some time. 

Thus even though Quest and LabCorp are the largest, they still may need to join up in order to manage the threat from the many competitors offering speciality solutions. 

Will Healthcare Be Ready For New Patients...One Early Indication

As this article in American Medical Association's journal  highlights, one indication of whether the healthcare system is ready for the expected flood of new patients with insurance is the twenty-somethings on their parent's plans who are the immediate result of the legislation's passage.  They are not a perfect indicator because younger age obviously has an impact on health.  But, as this article indicates, there could be as many as 600,000 new insured patients in America and physicians must be ready for the surge.

Our report on Healthcare reform called 'Winners and Losers' highlighted the effect on primary care physicians that the legislation would have.  They unfortunately were not seen as winners from the legislation.  Because they are capitated and in many cases maxed out as to the nubmer of patients they could see, the increase in patients was a general negative for this group.  It could be a positive for RNs and PAs, in states that encourage the practicies of these professionals.

Medical Market Opportunities Among China’s Second Tier Cities

 

Companies marketing pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostic products may find the best growth opportunities in China’s second tier cities

In a recent report we note that the percentage of Chinese residing in urban healthcare markets rose from 36% to 50% between 2000 and 2010. While major urban healthcare markets – concentrated around metropolises like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing and Guangzhou – have long featured high demand for a range of pharmaceutical and medical devices, pronounced urbanization throughout China has nurtured demand in second-tier cities along China’s coastal provinces, but also in the middle and western half of the country.

   “Cities like Chengdu, Chongqing in West China; Zhengzhou and Wuhan in Central China are already the beneficiaries of MNC R&D investment,” said analyst Emil Salazar, “but are also targets for medical product sales and ideal hubs for provincial and regional distribution networks for pharmaceuticals, IVD reagents and other medical supplies.” Among other findings from Kalorama’s report, provinces of Southwestern and Central China are projected to see the greatest market growth for pharmaceuticals and medical devices over the next four year with strong demand out of their emerging regional metropolises.

The full report from Kalorama Information

China Healthcare Reform and Its Impact on IVD, Medical Device and Pharmaceutical Markets

includes breakdowns of the IVD, pharmaceutical and medical device market by regions with figures from 2004 to 2015.  More information on this report can be found at: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/China-Healthcare-Reform-6609070/

"Class" Long Term Care no longer part of Health Care Reform

 The Obama Administration has confirmed that long-term care insurance will not be part of healthcare reform, a provision that actually made the Long Term Care Industry one of the industries cited by Kalorama Information as benefiting from healthcare reform in its report. "Healthcare Reform: Winners and Losers"

One of the conditions of passage of the healthcare reform bill was that a study would be conducted to assure that long term care insurance would be available and sustainable for 75 years.  The certification could not be made, thus the provision was dropped. 

HHS stated in a recent press release that the problem has not gone away.  The industry may have expected some increase from the health care reform bill, but as previous Kalorama Information research has indicated, this is a growing industry that will continue to see revenues despite the provision's failure. 

"The Oncology Report" Cites Kalorama Cancer Rx Forecast

In the past few years, we've noticed that biotech products like  TKIs are taking market share from chemo products and espcecially hormone therapies.  This trend was reported on in the Oncology Report, citing Kalorama's market estimate by analyst Melissa Elder.  

Of course it should be clear that pricing is part of the story behind revenue growth of biological approaches to cancer. Treatments for Avastin or Herceptin can add up to scores of thousands of dollars.  Still, the success of these products commerically does indicate increasing effectiveness and acceptance by government agencies, payors, providers and patients.

FISH Can Be Utilized For Infectious Disease

Making Germs Glow - we've noticed the trend of FISH testing being used not only for its key application of cancer testing but, increasingly, for detection of infectious disease. A University of Arizona team has found that a specific type of FISH testing can reduce wait time to deliver eager patients news about bloodstream infections.

Every year, more than 875,000 patients are diagnosed with bloodstream infections in the U.S., resulting in more than 90,000 deaths and significant costs to the health-care system.  The article one company utilizing a PNA-FISH (peptide nucleic acid fluorescent in situ hybridization) technology that can provide evidence of infection in hours and not days.  FISH uses fluorescent molecules tagged to genetic sequences that match those in the microbe. When added to a dried drop of blood culture containing pathogens, sequences that find their match inside the microbe cling to the pathogens.  

These type of results will propel use of these technologies for FISH testing.  We expect competition to expand in this market as key companies like Abbott are joined by smaller concerns. 

The problem that better diagnostics can solve is not only the matter of treatment lag time and patient outcomes that one might expect - of course the patient is better served when the condition is correctly identified -but also the use of antibiotics.  In medical practice, a lag time means that more often than not, antibiotics will be prescribed, even in cases where test results might have eliminated that prescription