- Disclosure: I am currently and have been a shareholder of BSD for years, never selling a single share.
As promised...
From an investment perspective with focus on the MTX-180, please feel free to add or disagree...
Positives:
1. Patented FDA approved product that meets a real need and is proven to be better than anything on the market (and the market is growing)
- A. Every study has backed the minimally invasive use of the MTX-180 to be superior in both efficacy of treating soft tissue cancers (also can treat bone cancer) and lack of destructive side effects. I could spend hours on this, some DD is going to be required here. Look at the information available from studies and initial users of the machine. Watch some of the videos of local news casts that can be found on Youtube.
- B. The MTX-180 uses disposable antennae/applicator
I. The disposables create a highly profitable ongoing revenue stream. Many make the razor blade comparison here and I believe it is accurate with the exception of the machine is not usually given away for free.
- C. The MTX-180 has a (new) table top version that allows it to be transported easily from hospital to hospital, enabling one machine to serve multiple hospitals in a given area.
2. Ease of use with trained specialist on location to properly train practitioners.
3. BSD Medical owns the manufacturing which allows them to maintain low manufacturing costs
- A. They will quickly be able to ramp up manufacturing to meet sales/distribution needs. The CEO has addressed this during CC and stated that manufacturing is faster/easier than sales, he is not worried about being able to keep up with the rising demand.
4. The company has implemented a Fee Per Use marketing strategy to overcome initial marketing troubles related to the economy.
- A. This was initially proven successful with a test market in Salt Lake City UT, the companies backyard.
- B. Then BSD proved the strategy to be successful in several large cities with the initial rollout, back to back triple digit percentage increases (391% and 586% respectively) when compared to the same quarter year over year for MTX-180 system products.
- C. Because of the aforementioned manufacturing benefits, BSD is able to recover the manufacturing cost of the MTX-180 in approximately 3 uses.
Negatives:
1. The initial introduction was very slow and BSD was forced/chose to circle the wagons and essentially start fresh with a new marketing strategy, the Fee Per Use. This is not the worst thing in the world as they may not have nailed it initially, they have clearly nailed it now.
2. The MTX-180 is a thermal ablation machine using focused microwave energy to destroy tumors. Initial machines, many years ago (not BSD and not the MTX-180) did not do an effective job and some are hesitant initially. It is not the standard of care yet. Again this is not the worst thing in the world as anyone diagnosed with cancer quickly becomes aware of how terrible the current standard care is.
3. The balance sheet is running low on cash. Again this is not terrible as there is not debt either, but I am not sure if BSD will choose to acquire financing of some sort. It is also worth noting that I (my opinion) expect profitability in short order and BSD would likely be able to make it to profitability prior to needing more money.
I have tried to provide what I feel is a general introduction and broad sweep to the positives and negatives of the MTX-180 and a little about BSD Medical. This is only intended to wet the appetite of savvy investors looking for jewel prior to buying it at cost from a jeweler down the road. I have mostly avoided the other machines (BSD 500 and 2000) because the sales of these machines are not nearly as predictable nor is the success short term going to be comparable to that of the MTX-180. Both machines are proven effective cancer fighters and both machines will have their day, but the MTX-180 success is imminent and should be the initial focus of any investor looking at BSD. I have also attempted to avoid comparing BSD Medical to other companies (especially certain drug companies), but I do plan on writing a post with some comparisons in the near future. Hopefully that will prove insightful as I find BSD (as a stock/company) much easier to compare with other companies that were successful introducing new products (of their time) than I do comparing with other cancer treatments. |
