Article here.
We would all be aware that the threat of legal liability can be a driver of change. However, the following paragraph started me thinking about this from a slightly different angle.
"The health department required those who tested positive, either with contagious or non-contagious forms of the disease, to take medication for several months to keep the potentially deadly illness under control and from spreading in the community."That requirement is quite a big burden in a jail. It means that resources must be used to provide and monitor the daily treatment of any inmate that has been diagnosed with Latent TB (as well as Active TB). In a jail, I would imagine that this would be a significant cost - perhaps more than the equivalent in the wider community. This cost could be reduced by treating only those that truly have TB - not those that are reported as false positives by the TST. That (and all the other advantages of QuantiFERON-TB Gold over the TST) should be a further driver towards the adoption of QTF in this setting.
I wonder if the CDC guidelines might finally drive some change from the defence forces?
ReplyDeleteG'day Tassie,
ReplyDeleteI'm totally confident that the CDC Guidelines will drive change in ALL parts of the potential market, INCLUDING the Defence Forces.
If you look at the recent evidence of new adopters of QuantiFERON-TB Gold (see recent posts on Sharescene) and the extremely definitive comments by TB experts (see Rogs Blog) then you would have to believe that we are very very close to that long awaited "tipping point".
Whilst the upcoming 09/10 Financials will be interesting (and hopefully encouraging), the following two half year reports will be the ones that show us the direction.
I am personally very excited about how the Company are building huge marketing momentum following the release of the CDC guidelines.
Also, don't forget that whilst current events have focussed us on the US market, we also have the Europe and Japan markets moving forward.
Add to that my hope that the Company will announce a significant new product this year and we should have a very exciting 12 months in front of us.
Appreciate your thoughts Forrest. It does highlight a glaring weakness with CST from my point of view. An announcement like the CDC guideline change should have been followed by an update research piece from CST's stockbroker analysts, highlighting the potential impact and valuation scenarios (like a normal company).I've seen nothing and it is very frustrating. Not from the point of view of getting the price up but just the continuing education of the investment community. Your missives supply the best up to date analysis and view but until your blog is published this stock will continue to be held (and priced) by a small private club.
ReplyDeletecheers
D'Lids
Hi Forrest
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts on what that significant new product might be?
Regards
Bigtosky
G'day Bigtosky,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I do not know what it may be.
HI Forest
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the CST summary and for this blog, which I read daily.
I am on the whole very confident about the CST business. However, I have a rather pessimistic outlook about the world economy. I have formed a view that USA and many of the European economies are heading towards a deep recession. I believe this could be a significant risk factor and needs to be considered when investing in CST, or for that matter any company that exports to these markets. I know that the health care budgets are not usually cut during economic slowdowns, but this may be a false assumption to make as economies enter unchartered territory.
If recessions were to eventuate in many of CST markets, what is your opinion about the possible impact this scenario will have on CST sales?
regards Babs
G'day Babs,
ReplyDeleteI have replied to you under the OPS post.