December 15, 2005
Lab on a Chip
Sometimes the press hypes advances without much specificity or context. Or detail. This stuff ends up on the Internet and it is difficult to understand its significance. What's real and what's hope? Much less hype. Sometimes they say nothing at all.
When healthcare information first became available for free on the Web we used to refer to this as the Reuter's phenomenon. One could get a lot of information but it came either as the superficiality of a press release or the ponderousness of the whole textbook. So, if you had a problem with your toe, you could get a book on feet, or, alternatively, you could get a press release that there had been a toe sighting.
George Gilder is an interesting character. He speaks in a nearly unintelligible babble that is part technical, part political, part economics, and part financial. He inhabits the world of libertarianism and boundless optimism (to the point of advocacy) concerning the benefits of technology.
A company he reports on frequently, and invests in, is Cepheid (CPHD), makers of the so-called Lab on a Chip. Since my “blog role” is Health and Business, his recent posting on Cepheid caught my eye. And it illustrates the difficult road of technology transfer from the bench to the market. Multiple factors are required for ultimate success in this arena. Among these is that the technology actually brings value.
Here is an example of a Gilder update, in this case on Cepheid, written not by Gilder himself but by his disciple Charlie Burger:
“Clinical markets appear to be warming, finally, to Cepheid's lab-on-a-chip products. Cracking its shell in 3Q, clinical revenue popped its head with a 606% sequential jump off a small base to $2.5m or 13% of product sales. During the summer ASR (analyte specific reagent) products for Flu A/B, mecA, M. pneumoniae, and RSV were released to the market, increasing the number of ASR products to 12. Moving ahead, clinical trials are underway for Group B Strep on both the SmartCycler and GeneXpert systems and Enterovirus (EV) on GeneXpert. (GeneXpert adds automated sampling to SmartCycler's rapid genetic analysis.) Notably, the ASR for Flu A/B detects virus strains associated with avian flu and thus may help trace potential human infection. The USDA now routinely uses Cepheid's ASR as the lab reagent for avian flu and is making it available to a national network of labs involved in testing poultry and migratory water fowl.”
“Continuing its steady ascent, biothreat sales increased 43% to $13m or 68% of product revenue in 3Q. The postal service continues to deploy GeneXpert in its processing centers, and the state department has also begun using the product. Over a thousand GeneXpert systems have been deployed for routine use, and nearly 1.5m anthrax tests have been run by these agencies with no false positives. The post office has shown early interest in Cepheid's new 3-agent cartridge for anthrax, Y. pestis, and F. tularensis which should become available early next year.”
‘Gi git all that?
If not, wander out to the Cepheid Web site ( www.cepheid.com ). Lab on a Chip is exciting technology that uses nanotechnology, MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems), and biologics, mostly DNA and RNA, to perform diagnostic tests, largely infectious agents and cancer.
These new technologies bring improved accuracy and markedly diminished time to an answer.
The US Postal Service deployed their devices for biological screening. The answer for anthrax comes back in 30 minutes. Pretty good.
Another device is now being used to identify in real time the presence or not of Streptococcus Group B in intra-partum women. This is what is now labeled point-of-care screening. Puerperal sepsis perhaps becomes another affliction of the past. Powerful stuff.
The technology is now being widely deployed for avian flu screening in chickens and migratory birds. The results come back within the same day.
Even though these applications clearly bring value and productivity to healthcare, it still takes a lot of money, the willingness to take risk, and a helluva lot of work and personal cost to make it happen. It doesn't happen by government fiat or public wishing. And there are lots of chances for failure along the way.
I found this interface between science, technology, market, clinic, and public health interesting. Thought I'd pass it on.
Robert B. Teague is a pulmonologist and business consultant who is based in Houston, Texas. E-mail him.
Read other blogs in this series.
