Sergio, I believe it is time to add CPHD to your portfolio at $2.45..Stock has been beaten down pretty hard, this week had some major volume..Recently upgraded by UBS Warburg to a buy..As you know, the company is in the nanotech space, which appears to be attracting early speculators/venture capitalist funding..Real time PCR identification can be used for biotreat detection, not to mention the possibilites in the medical, pharm, bio and agriculture businesses..Highly specultive play..but think of the possiblities, instant cancer indentification, etc., etc.
NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART <g>...But here at $2.45..I think she is a good buy..I first bought at 3.04 and added today<g>
finance.yahoo.com
Cepheid, Inc., incorporated in 1996, develops new technology platforms that exploit the advantages of micromachining, microelectronics and microfluidic technologies to create automated, integrated, miniaturized instrument systems for life sciences research, clinical diagnostics, industrial testing and pharmacogenomics markets. Through March 31, 2000, the Company was considered to be in the development stage. During May 2000, Cepheid launched its first product, the Smart Cycler, through a distributor in the United States and recognized revenue from product sales. Consequently, the Company is no longer considered to be in the development stage.
Cepheid's I-CORE module is a low-cost, self-contained instrument for performing and continuously monitoring chemical reactions, such as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Each module can optically measure up to four separate reactions. The I-CORE module rapidly and accurately controls the heating and cooling of the sample, which allows for fast reactions and accurate results. I-CORE modules can be configured into a variety of DNA analysis instruments or can be sold to manufacturers of large clinical and research instruments for incorporation into their instrument platforms. The I-CORE module is a key component in both its Smart Cycler and GeneXpert families of products. The Company expects to incorporate its I-CORE technology into future systems.
Smart Cycler Family
Cepheid's Smart Cycler system contains 16 I-CORE modules arranged into a rapid, flexible, multi-purpose instrument capable of performing DNA amplification and detection by means of a number of available fluorescent chemical techniques. Through December 2000, the Company had sold over 200 Smart Cyclers. The Company has distribution agreements with Fisher Scientific in the United States and Canada, with Eurogentec in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and with Takara Shuzo in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Cepheid's Smart Cycler XC (eXtreme Conditions) is a portable, battery-operated version of the Smart Cycler targeted toward military, law enforcement and industrial testing markets. The Smart Cycler XC was developed under a contract from the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). In October 2000, the Company shipped four Smart Cycler XC pre-production instruments to the United States Department of Defense and the Centers for Disease Control. A timetable has not yet been established for the production scale-up of the Smart Cycler XC. Cepheid's Notebook Smart Cycler is a battery-operated prototype thermal cycler, in which two I-CORE modules have been integrated with a notebook computer to further increase portability for the point-of-use market.
One of the Company's patented reaction tubes is required for each assay run using its I-CORE or Smart Cycler family of products. Cepheid offers two types of patented reaction tubes for use with these systems. Both are designed to be disposed of after a single use and represent opportunities for recurring revenue from an installed base of instruments. The Company manufactures and sells a 25-microliter tube, typically preferred in the life sciences research market, and a 100-microliter tube, which is typical for applications that might require larger liquid reaction volumes. In 2000, the Company sold over 340,000 reaction tubes.
GeneXpert System
Cepheid's GeneXpert family of products combines sample preparation with the amplification and detection functions performed by its I-CORE module into an integrated, automated DNA analysis instrument. These products are designed to purify, concentrate, detect and identify targeted DNA sequences, from sample to result, in less than 30 minutes. Current techniques for accomplishing this same complex series of procedures require extensive manual labor by skilled technicians and can take anywhere from six hours to three days.
Cepheid's GeneXpert technology platform is designed to accept cartridges with several different internal configurations, each designed to perform a different class of assay. Each cartridge will be labeled with bar codes that instruct the instrument how to direct the fluids through the cartridge and activate the various mixing, lysing, amplification, detection and other functions as required. Furthermore, the GeneXpert system is compact, uses low power and is suitable for applications requiring portability.
Cepheid has two disposable assay cartridges under development. Its GXPT-1 cartridge will be a general-purpose device optimized for rapidly extracting, concentrating and detecting spores and bacteria from aqueous-based samples. The Company has successfully demonstrated the usefulness of this cartridge for applications, such as detecting infectious organisms in urine, bacteria from swabs and spores in environmental samples. The Company's GXPT-2 cartridge will be optimized for extracting and concentrating genomic DNA from blood or cell cultures. The ability to extract human genomic DNA from whole blood has been demonstrated using cartridge components. This cartridge will have broad applications in human leukocyte antigen (HLA) analysis, genetic analysis and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection and analysis.
In addition to its own development efforts, Cepheid is working with collaborators to co-develop the methodologies and chemistries to be used in specific assays incorporated in these cartridges. The Company is engaged in the early stage development of these additional disposable cartridges. These include the GXPT-3 cartridge, which will be used to accept nasal swab extracts or other respiratory secretions, capture the viral pathogens, lyse the viruses and perform real-time PCR, the GXPT-4 cartridge, which will be used to accept up to 10 milliliters of whole blood and extract and concentrate bacterial DNA, and the GXPT-5 cartridge, which will be used to accept up to 10 milliliters of whole blood, separate and concentrate viruses and their nucleic acids.
In February 2000, Cepheid formed Aridia Corp., a joint venture the Company owns equally with Infectio Diagnostic Inc., a Canadian diagnostic company. Aridia is developing a line of proprietary molecular diagnostic tests for the rapid, time critical identification of bacterial and fungal infections, such as group B strep, antibiotic resistant bacteria, meningitis and sepsis. The first products from this venture, a line of assays adapted to the Company's Smart Cycler system, will be directed primarily to hospital laboratories.
Cepheid competes with Applied Biosystems and Hoffmann La Roche in selling systems integrating amplification and detection to the commercial market. Organon Teknika, Promega and Qiagen are also competitors in the area of sample preparation, selling both sample preparation kits and robotic systems. The Company also competes with companies developing their own microfluidics technologies and products, such as ACLARA Biosciences, Caliper, Nanogen and Orchid Biosciences. Other companies the Company is aware of that are involved in microfluidic research include Affymetrix, Motorola, 3M and Applied Biosystems. |
