Just surfing around tonight and started looking into recent POC...

Just surfing around tonight and started looking into recent POC device articles (sad, I know).  Came across an article titled 8 Digital Health and Life Sciences Startups that Rocked SXSW.  It mentioned a coy called Accel Diagnostics and I went around to their site and found their main product, p-Screen.

According to the site, the "pScreen™ device only requires a drop of body fluid, such as blood, saliva or urine. The highly sensitive immunoassay detects and quantifies biomarkers within minutes. It provides results that are comparable in accuracy to the ELISA and other laboratory-performed tests. Severe and chronic illnesses can be identified and monitored quickly and efficiently."

So I do the obligatory LinkedIn search and of course GC is connected to their CEO & co-founder (they've only been in business for a few years it seems).  Interestingly, he was also at Thermo Fisher for a short time in 2008.

Slightly intrigued, I look around a bit more and find an article from back in September 2013 saying Accel had received a voucher from the Victorian ICT ministry in Australia for a project with MiniFAB (AUST) and Swinburne University of Technology to accelerate the development of a low-cost blood test for heart failure.

Back to LinkedIn and yep, GC is connected to MiniFab's Technical Manager.  So off to the MiniFAB website where it states: "With a focus on lab-on-chip solutions for point-of-care, laboratory, and in-field applications, MiniFAB delivers custom solutions into diverse markets including medical devices, diagnostics, food packaging and aerospace."

After all of this floundering around on the interweb it is apparent (as often noted in the ADO threads) many coy's are chasing the POC device dollar and many are getting to market now with cheap products, albeit relatively one-dimensional (Accel's p-Screen has not been FDA approved).  Philips has established international relationships in health-care and their path to market will be much easier than these start-ups, but as with the battery tech, the technology is moving so quickly now something new could make the Minicare device obsolete.  Hurry up, Philips!

What comforts me to some extent is every time I see what could be perceived as legitimate competitors to the Philips device, I have always been able to find a connection back to ADO, whether it be LinkedIn, previous articles (found Anteo & MiniFAB in an article together here), etc.  If it's out there, ADO knows about it and is likely already speaking to them about how M&G can help.

Would POC1 be huge for ADO?  Of course!  Would it kill the company if it never came about?  3 years ago I would have likely slowly nodded and thought very hard about my investment.  Now, it would just be disappointing, but I wouldn't touch the investment.

Bring on DIASource.