Pharmaceutical

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is by far the most common cause of dementia associated with aging; it accounts for more than 60% of all dementia. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by an insidious onset and slow deterioration in cognition, functional ability (e.g., activities of daily living), behavior, and mood. In USA, AD is the 7th leading cause of mortality.
In 2010, more of 21 million people will be affected by this disease in the world. As the world population ages, this number will increase.
See also www.disease-alzheimer.com

Pharmaceutical

The global drug delivery market has grown from an estimated $26bn in 2000 to approximately $60bn in 2006.
The market has witnessed rapid expansion due to patent expiration of blockbuster drugs, stringent FDA regulations, an increased focus on the expansion of products' life-cycle, cost-effective production of neoteric delivery vehicles, and the emergence of a range of delivery solutions and hybrid platforms.

Pharmaceutical

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a significant area of unmet medical need. It is a progressive and irreversible lung disease that restricts breathing.

Daxas (Roflumilast) is a phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor that is being developed to treat the underlying inflammation in COPD and related inflammatory diseases. It could be both the first PDE4 inhibitor and the first orally administered anti-inflammatory treatment for COPD patients. As a once-daily, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory treatment, Daxas� offers the opportunity for a new approach to the treatment of COPD.

Pharmaceutical

Lupus is one of many disorders of the immune system known as autoimmune diseases. In autoimmune diseases, the immune system turns against parts of the body it is designed to protect.
This leads to inflammation and damage to various body tissues. Lupus can affect many parts of the body, including the joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels, and brain. Although people with the disease may have many different symptoms, some of the most common ones include extreme fatigue, painful or swollen joints (arthritis), unexplained fever, skin rashes, and kidney problems.

Pharmaceutical

Wegener's granulomatosis is a necrotizing granulomatous vasculitis with the prevalence of 3 in 100 000. The disease was first described in 1931 by a medical student in Germany named Heinz Klinger. Afterwards, in 1936 Dr. Wegener a young German pathologist gave a detailed explanation regarding three patients suffering from this disease.Although it is an uncommon disease, if not diagnosed and treated in-time my cause renal failure and severe pulmonary complications including diffuse pulmonary hemorrhage. Therefore, timely diagnosis and treatment is important in preventing related morbidity and mortality. Pulmonary involvement is the most common form of the disease manifested in 95% of cases but onset of the disease with rare symptoms such as proptosis (in 2% of the cases) and hyperthyroidism (in 1% of the cases) has been reported as well.

Diagnostics

Cepheid (NASDAQ: CPHD) is a leading nucleic acid (NA) testing company based in Sunnyvale, CA. Founded in 1996, the company develops, manufactures, and markets fully-integrated systems and tests for genetic analysis in the clinical, industrial and biothreat markets.

Diagnostics

Qiagen develops and markets biological sample preparation and analysis products for academic, biopharmaceutical and molecular diagnostics companies. These products are considered standards by these customers.
Qiagen has experienced impressive double-digit revenue growth over the last few years, in part driven by increased exposure to MDx.
Over the last few years, Qiagen has started a transition from life science research tools to molecular diagnostic(MDx),triggered by the strategic acquisition of Digene. This transaction reflects the increasing interest research tools companies have for the attractive MDx market, a ~$4B market that is experiencing double digit growth.

Diagnostics

Molecular diagnostics (MDx) is the fastest growing segment of the in vitro diagnostics industry (IVD). With a market size of ~$4B in 2009, and a double digit growth rate, this attractive segment continues to be a major contributor in the evolution of the healthcare landscape.

MDx involves platforms and assays that leverage multiple technologies to identify genetic variations in individual patients. These technologies offer significant advantages such as time-to-result and cost-effectiveness over culture-based or immune-based techniques.

This report reviews the market size, growth, segments and trends of the MDx industry from 2006 to 2012. The market is segmented to provide insights on specific growth opportunities by therapeutic areas, analytes tested (i.e., plex level), test rationale, test location and geography.

Major competitors are reviewed along with their key platforms. Competitors shaping the industry include BioPharma (e.g., Abbott, Roche), IVD/MDx pure-play companies (e.g., BioMerieux, Cepheid, Gen-probe) or research tool companies (e.g., Illumina, Life Technologies).

Healthcare

Durable medical equipment (DME) is defined as instruments and products used for medical purposes and that can withstand repeated usage. DME is used primarily to help improve the quality of life of patients with injuries or illnesses.

Different stakeholders segment DME in different ways, making the market more or less inclusive. For the purpose of this report, we divided the DME market in six therapeutic segments: Home respiratory therapy, Home infusions, Diabetes supplies, Patient positioning, Patient mobility, Other equipment.

Using this segmentation, we estimate that the U.S. DME market reached ~$27B in 2009. We expect this market to grow 6% per annum to $34B by 2013, with various segments growing in the mid- to high- single-digits. We review the factors that will be driving and moderating this growth, such as patient satisfaction,outcome and cost.
DME products are distributed primarily by national and local providers; other channels, such as 3rd party distributors or mail-in orders exist for some channels.

Life Science

Fluidigm is a life science company that develops and distributes instruments and chips for genomic analysis and X-ray crystallography applications. The company owns a disruptive and scalable integrated fluidic circuits (IFC) technology.

This technology enables the execution of thousands of experiments in parallel in nanoliter volumes, and facilitates implementation of experiments with a complex design.

Since its inception in 1999, Fluidigm has incurred >$150M in operating losses. While profitability in the next 1-2 years is unlikely, Fluidigm has strong revenue potential given its deep intellectual property portfolio and growth of its targetmarkets.