With a US Distribution Agreement and FDA approval (MRSA) we may...

With a US Distribution Agreement and FDA approval (MRSA) we may just finally (hopefully) punch through previous resistance around the 23-25c mark.

BB re-confirmed today (Share Cafe webinar) that the distribution agreement is still on track in the next 3 weeks, noting that the distributor is a household name - which further strengthens the view it may be Thermo Fisher.

FDA approval is now largely out of the company's control but lets hope the FDA finally stick with their suggested timeline by end of Q3.

Early Plate Reading
LBT has started to produce the data which shows the technology can read plates up to ~50% earlier through the VRE poster at ECCMID (13 hour reads), whilst Chris Ramsey (US Sales Exec) suggested in his recent webinar the AMR module is showing capability of reading 6 hour plates.

During the last Quarterly, BB mentioned early plate reading capability will require a large body of work and partnering with a Media Supplier. With Thermo Fisher having 30-55% of plate sales in the US, they are a logical partner.

This may take some time to validate but would be truly disruptive. The APAS can already read a greater volume of plates and more accurately than a human, but labs ultimately still have an option (albeit less efficient and effective) to continue what they've always done - manual plate reading. If/ and once early plate reading at 6-12 hours is validated by a reputable media supplier, the value proposition should swing significantly in favour of the technology, and manual plate reading no longer be an option.

There should be significant motivation for a media supplier like Thermo to collaborate with LBT on validating this capability as 1) it would support the sales of APAS from which they would be receiving a distribution cut, and 2) increase their market share of plate sales.

Sales Pipeline
The UK and US West Coast lab trials should be about complete and so hopefully we can get through their procurement process for those sales to be announced in Q4. This would bode well with VRE and Urine CE Marking also expected in Q4. The US trial may have been with West Pacific Medical Laboratory (owned by Sonic Healthcare) - if so, further penetration is being made into their network.

Industry Expansion
Over the past 18 months LBT has been building their internal capability with the recruitment of Software Engineers, AI Specialists, Data Analysts etc (referenced by the pic below). With the number of employees, cant help but think they may be up to something else. There has previously been some loose mention of future capacity for industry expansion, but this has just started re-appearing in the past two presentations with the slide including APAS Pharma and Dairy. Perhaps some active work in expanding the technology to new industries.

Reference: LinkedIn

Reference: Presentation FNN (27.08.21)