Sun Biomedical Laboratories Inc.
The use of drugs for personal non-medical use is prohibited in most countries however the global market for these illicit substances is growing at an alarming estimated 11% per annum. Impacting on global health and development, crime and personal and international security, the use of illicit substances is truly a problem with global dimensions. While law makers grapple with the means to prevent the manufacture, distribution and use of these substances the issue of personal safety is a social issue that cannot be overlooked and is increasingly being addressed through the introduction of drug screening programs both in the workplace and more recently at the roadside.
The most mature market, at least in terms of workplace testing, is the United States of America, where workplace testing has been mandated for Federal and State employees since 1988. An estimated 133 million workplace drugs screens which are mainly traditional urine tests are conducted in the US every year. The effectiveness of this workplace testing in the US has been significantly compromised by the parallel growth of an industry focused on providing employees with the knowledge and tools to avoid detection through this screening method. Coupled with the obvious complexities of obtaining a urine sample without undue invasion of privacy during the collection process, the development of the “avoidance industry” has subsequently lead to an increased demand for less invasive and more secure screening devices.
Due to significant advances in diagnostics, saliva has emerged as a next generation testing medium. Saliva being easier to access with minimal invasion of privacy rights is also far less prone to adulteration. More importantly drugs can be detected in saliva immediately after use when impairment is most likely, the principal reason for screening in the workplace and/or at the roadside. Urine testing on the other hand tests for the drug metabolites and will give positive confirmation of past drug use that is often days following any form of drug impairment.
Sun Biomedical Laboratories principal scientist and founder, Dr Ming Sun PhD, has over 20 years experience in the use of saliva as a diagnostic medium amassing a considerable portfolio of research into a variety of disease states. He has established an industry benchmark in the sensitivity of his immunoassays for illicit substances. OraLine, SBL’s premier saliva drug screening device is the only product that meets the stringent cut-off or sensitivity guidelines recommended by the US Department of Health Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA). Furthermore, the patented intellectual property embodied within the OraLine device is a key enabler to the refinement of the management of saliva that will facilitate the development of devices more appropriately configured to meet specific needs of workplace and law enforcement drug testing in a timely and cost-effective manner. With the emerging trend toward the use of saliva based screening devices Sun Biomedical Laboratories is strongly positioned to capitalise on this growth opportunity.
ShockRounds
Less-lethal Munitions
Normal handgun engagements achieve their desired effect of terminating a threat by two primary mechanisms;
· Neurological trauma that causes instant death or incapacitation,
· Anoxia due to blood loss, either cardiac failure or loss of blood volume/pressure.
Multiple gunshots are normally required to increase the effectiveness of these mechanisms. Individual bullets are evaluated in terms of their “stopping power”, which normally depends upon producing a large “wound cavity” in the person. Law enforcement office, for example, typically prefer to use hollow-point bullets that produce large wound cavities, thereby providing the greatest stopping power across anoxia due to blood loss.
These incapacitation mechanisms are brutal, crude, and frequently cause death or severe injury. Nevertheless, they have remained the standard solution for hundreds of years. Stopping power and lethality have been closely tied to each other.
There is well recognised need for a less lethal alternative that equals or increases current levels of stopping power. Military and law enforcement are not only under constant pressure of public relations, politics, litigation, and personal ethics to save as many lives as possible but often have tactical reasons for non-lethal incapacitation (e.g. anti-terrorism operations where captives are most useful alive, etc). At present, for handgun engagements, there is no truly effective alternative.
ShockRounds addresses these concerns by providing an additional incapacitation mechanism to standard physical trauma and wound channel effects. The high voltage pulse delivered to the nervous system of the individual causes temporary “shutdown” of voluntary neurological activity, enabling the authorities the opportunity to subdue the subject before the individual revives. There is a considerable body of evidence in stun gun and electric fence studies indicating that incapacitating voltages can be delivered with minimal or no long-term effects.
With ShockRounds, every shot becomes a neurological incapacitation of the threat. By reducing the number of shots expended in an engagement, you increase the survivability of the targeted personnel and reduce the risk of collateral damage or civilian casualties due to over penetration or multiple rounds in the cone of fire. Also, by being far more effective, ShockRounds can dramatically increase the level of safety for the individual enforcement officers, as, the sooner the target is incapacitated the sooner any threat of retaliation or return fire is effectively dealt with.
In an industry with a broad range of suppliers ranging from large publicly listed multinationals to small regional suppliers, reliable quantifiable data regarding market size is difficult to obtain. Nonetheless the demand is self evident and the extent of the opportunity for less-lethal munitions evident in the success of Taser International Inc, who in spite of negative publicity and litigation cases posted sales of US $47.6 million in 2005 with strong projections for growth in 2006.
Lethal Munitions
For a soldier in the field, or a law enforcement officer in the line of duty, having the most effective means of terminating a target is of the greatest concern. While decreased lethality is a highly important goal, these individuals recognise that it must not be achieved through a loss of effectiveness. ShockRounds delivers the potential to assure that the threat is removed with far more certainty than conventional rounds.
Neurological incapacitation with typical bullets requires extremely accurate shot placement, or luck, as the target area is relatively small compared to the overall target presented. Likewise anoxia depends upon accurate shot placement. In handgun engagement, it is often very difficult to place in the required precise location, given the danger, adrenaline, distance, and speed of movement involved. Nevertheless, current tactical doctrine can only emphasise shot placement in the “centre of mass” of the threat to minimise the stress effects on shot placement in multi-threat engagements, this changes with ShockRounds.
Futhermore, as numerous “after action” reports have shown, “dead threats” (individuals who have been mortally wounded with a shot to the head or the heart” can still continue to deliver effective fire for a period of up to 15 seconds before cessation of conscious function occurs. Threats under the influence of methamphetamines or extreme levels of adrenaline often have delayed reactions to wound trauma. ShockRounds offer a more rapid incapacitation effect by adding electrical charge to metal bullets.
Law enforcement and military forces, under the scrutiny of live television and real time reporting, are expected to effectively carry out their duties while at the same time being pressured with the demand for minimal deaths, injury and collateral damage. Nevertheless, both these groups encounter situations where the use of lethal force and immediate incapacitation is their only available and viable alternative
HGR
unknown
