Clark, Speaking of heart disease, I understand that Mr Frankel, Qdel's ceo, stated at a luncheon in San Francisco for investors late this summer that Quidel wanted to develop a "troponin" test. As I understand it, troponin is released in minutes by the heart muscle following a myocardial infarction and the detection of its presence in the blood stream through a rapid test can alert an emt or er physician that the patient doesn't merely have indigestion, but true cardiac damage. Appropriate treatment for a heart attack can be administered immediately without wasting precious minutes or even hours (what do they call that stuff Genentech makes, tpa or something??) Anyway, You are absolutely right regarding the detection of a lot of stuff besides strep a, influneza, chlamydia, h pylori, herpes, etc. Actually, I'm really looking forward to some announcement from Quidel about the feasibility study it is conducting w/ Innovative Technologies, the group affiliated w/ Cornell. I think it has broad implications.
One other thing some folks may find interesting is that John Diekman,PHD, a Quidel director,is Chairman of the Board of Affymetrix (AFFX)., a gene sequencing outfit. Check out Affx and its business for some real 21st century biotech possibilities. |
