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Biotech / Medical : Immucor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mason Barge who wrote (245)	11/7/1998 3:48:00 PM
From: Thomas Kirwin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 422

Immucor Draws Crowd at AABB Convention Immucor's open island booth #1011 along with Gamma's islands #836-936 provided maximum exposure of the ABS2000, ROSYS Plato, DIAS Plus, I-TRAC, ReACT and reagent products to nearly 7,000 attendees of the International AABB Annual Convention held in Philadelphia from October 31st till November 4th. Anyone who is someone was in attendance. Top management including Mr. Gallup, CEO/President, Mr. Steve Ramsey, CFO, Mr. Ron Andrews, VP of Marketing and a host of others were present at various times to grip and grin as well as greet current and potential clients. The convention display was very eye catching and promoted Immucor's Fab4 products very well. It appears as though a top notch marketing and advertising company was consulted or hired as all informational material promoted the automation theme which was unique, effective and distinct from the competition. Each medical device was on display for all to view as well as witness working demonstrations throughout the day. Two ABS2000's were available to insure that the crowd of visitors could get a good look at the flagship product. Sales representatives were available to answer questions and take orders on the spot. I believe that the entire sales force of 10 or so individuals was present and accounted for. At the time of my visit there was a presentation in progress at the Immucor booth. Representatives from Colchester General Hospital (CGH) located in England were giving a PowerPoint presentation on their successful experience with the ROSYS Plato system which they utilize to conduct tests. Besides an increase in accuracy and productivity I learned that the ROSYS Plato is now compliant with UK Electronic Crossmatching guidelines. Could the European market be opening up? I think so! At the close of the day a special DIAS Plus demonstration was given to blood center professionals from Canada. Later I learned that these individuals were from the Canadian Blood Service (CBS). Perhaps they are performing their do-diligence on the DIAS Plus prior to making a purchase. I asked how large is CBS, the response was - they own and operate at least (9) blood centers in the Great White North of Canada. Could a large medical instrument deal be close at hand? Don't forget those reagents! The only surprise is that I did not see the IMAGN 2000 on display or exhibit by Immucor. Later, I noticed that Biometric Imaging had its own booth #1237 to demonstrate their Leukodepletion Detection Assay. It was back in January '97 that each of these companies announced an exclusive distribution agreement for Immucor to market Biometric's proprietary cellular analysis system. Advertising copy employed by Biometric clearly exhibits Immucor's influence. Someday, if I get bored, I may explore the strategic alliance between Immucor and Biometric with a quick glance towards Biometric's Perkin-Elmer (PKN) alliance. Medical Device Sales By now I am sure that each reader is saying - that's nice Tom, glad to hear everyone had a nice time and all but what about sales levels of those damn machines and reagents. Would you believe I did not ask? Would you believe, I do not know? Would you believe, I can make some assumptions? Based on my conversations with Immucor individuals present at the convention I learned that the company is meeting the stated sales goal of selling/placing one medical device each week for the first twenty-six weeks after FDA clearance was granted which was July 6, 1998. Note - approximately 18 weeks have lapsed since FDA clearance was granted. Validation of sales and placement rate was confirmed through a conversation with one of Immucor's training professionals. As I understand it, each order includes training for one employee or technician to train others in the blood center. Immucor has held the following medical instrument classes: ABS2000 - 3 Classes ROSYS Plato - 2 Classes DIAS Plus - 2 Classes The average class size for the ABS2000 is 4 to 6 individuals while the ROSYS Plato and DIAS Plus accommodates 2 to 4. The low teacher to student ratio maintains a high level of quality training. The low teacher to student ratio maintains a high level of quality training. Utilizing the lower head count we can assume that at least 20 medical devices have been placed since approval. This beats Immucor's internal projections! Based on these assumptions my napkin math calculations conclude that booked medical device sales are now in the $1.3 to $2 million dollar range for this quarter accounting for a lease run rate of 70%. Apparently the machine sales ratio of reagent lease vs. purchase is running at 70/30%. Yes, more institutions are leasing the devices. This figure should improve as future purchases included in the budgets of prospective buyers. The big story will be the expected reagent trail sales generated by placed machines. Additional numbers are needed to arrive at some reliable estimates. Missing details such as the ratio of medical device centers that are current reagent buyers vs new reagent centers coming on line via the purchase of ABS2000, ROSYS Plato and DIAS Plus are critical to any pro-forma financial analysis. I'd also like to know if reagent sales are increasing among old customers who purchase or lease a medical device since the systems are not open and can only operate using Immucor reagents. I look forward to the November 12th annual shareholders meeting as I suspect that good news regarding Immucor's sales will be made public. Go Immucor! Tom