from the CLRT call
Q – Raymond Myers>: My first question is regarding the lymphoma/leukemia test. Last quarter I believe it was or this quarter perhaps, we’ve launched a HemeScan product from CombiMatrix. And perhaps I missed it but did we review what -- how the launch of that is going?
<A – Ronald Andrews>: We did not specifically talk about that Ray, but let me give you a high level overview. Back in -- when we launched that test, the real goal of that test was to create two things -- one, a better cost profile for a component of a type of leukemia called COL, a test called cytogenetics that has traditionally been a loss leader in our industry. And obviously the HemeScan test was a test that allows us to move clients away from a test like cytogenetics that where we lose money to a test that is A; we believe scientifically superior and B; also allows us to change the cost profile of that test in our operation. So we did finish our validation in second quarter and we did go to a full market launch in second quarter. And we are now in the -- what we believe is going to be a fairly lengthy missionary phase of sales and marketing effort to really convince commissions. And you know this as well as anyone that the inertia to do nothing in this space at times can be a very strong force. And so our role right now is to put the missionary work out there to begin to move physicians away from traditional cytogenetics towards using the HemeScan product. We have been running clinical tests, I don’t have the number right in front of me exactly what we ran for the quarter. But we are seeing that test gain some traction and we’ll look forward to reporting on that as we see better traction and have better granularity into numbers
<Q – Raymond Myers>: Well that’s great. Help me understand Ronnie of your K-ras test, you’re up to 50 samples a week after a month.
<A – Ronald Andrews>: Right.
<Q – Raymond Myers>: Why is that such a faster ramp than the cytogenetics switch to the --?
<A – Ronald Andrews>: It’s a great question. I think it’s a good message for everyone to really understand about our business. In June at ASCO, there were a number of papers presented by pharmaceutical companies highlighting the importance of K-ras in determining patients that will or will not respond to a very popular drug called Erbitux. And so what we have done is we have capitalized on an emerging market opportunity for personalized medicine and therapeutic direction. And so when we see opportunities like that, one of the things we’ve always talked about with you and other analysts is our goal is to be in a position as a company to move very quickly and execute a launch of a test where it becomes medically necessary. So it really, the difference between the HemeScan and the ASCO is just the leverage you get -- I’m sorry, in the K-ras is the leverage you get when a test is really promoted by a pharmaceutical company.
<Q – Raymond Myers>: It was interesting that the analyst reaction to ImClone’s presentation that you needed to be K-ras wild type to benefit from their drug was generally that ImClone’s drug would be -- Erbitux wouldn’t be used much for prostate cancer. That was the reaction that I had heard from the ImClone analysts. Are you finding that a lot of doctors are ordering this test for the purposes of prescribing Erbitux in colon cancer?
<A – Ronald Andrews>: We are seeing that. I mean, our early returns from our field force is that this is a growing dynamic and that this message is getting out. In fact, there are a couple other academic as well as pharmaceutical industry groups that are preparing to present data and we suspect that K-ras will get further press in coming quarters. And so it looks like that the K-ras opportunity is going to increase. When we put our press release out, you’ll notice that we limited our total available market numbers just to the use of K-ras for colon cancer. But clearly the K-ras pathway is something that can be utilized in many other solid tumors. And so it’ll be interesting to see how this data plays out. But clearly we’re seeing a tremendous amount of interest in the marketplace in K-ras today. And our -- week over week our volumes are growing pretty significantly. And so it’ll be interesting to see over the course of second -- third quarter how this actually ramps up.
Operator: Your next question comes from
<Q>: Yes, Just wondering, now that you’ve been working with CombiMatrix for about six months and you started the program, are you looking at maybe taking on any more of their tests?
<A – Ron Andrews>: That’s a good question, I mean certainly we are very favorable with Combi and we like their technology. And as more capabilities or a need for their capability in the marketplace arises, we’ll certainly look at their gene expression platform as a future platform for us to utilize for the combination of information necessary to really draw therapeutics decisions. Mike, do you want to comment further on --
<A – Michael Pellini>: Well, I would just say we meet with CombiMatrix twice a month. And they certainly keep as breadth of their additional clinical indications. So as additional indications emerge, which are consistent with our market, we will certainly bring them online. But certainly we anticipate I think growing our offering with them over the coming quarters.
<Q>: Okay fine. Thank you. |
