KiwiGuy, Just to be clear $8 is at the top end of the range. The reason it is a lowish figure is firstly, they are not offering anything new, they are certainly offering better and many other benefits but not new. To varying degrees of objectivity and ease of use all of the aspects that Volpara offering can be done with other software or even by the experienced eye of the mammographer. Secondly, they are constrained to an extent by the cost of a mammogram, in the US this is about $150 per patient, so actually $8 to $10 to my mind is a decent percentage given they are not the key part of this procedure. With respect to PEB US$ 760 is at low end of the cost range and this number if only for the scale of the medicare providers. But the thing to remember here is that they are an integral new technology that can replace a Cystoscopy which is billed in the $ 2,500 to $4,000 range.
The Volpara product suite is great and has many benefits, the MRS product which they bought is nothing special and it is just a commodity. Where I think VHT has gone wrong is that they have pushed too hard to expand at all cost. I would rather have seen them move slower on the Density and Live products with the understanding that it take time to penetrate the market. The MRS acquisition was a mistake and I strongly suspect any additional acquisition will be a mistake, acquisitions are hard especially when you have no experience of them. I also think the appointment of Ms Songson was a desperate move of a company that has painted itself in to a corner and has overpromised but under delivered. The irony of course being that they did not need to do that, they would have gotten there in the end just at a slower pace and with higher credibility.
VHT Price at posting:
$1.28 Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
