CST is an interesting example of the transition from product...

CST is an interesting example of the transition from product development to marketing success. New products entering an established market place have to compete with the existing players. Marketing becomes a process of change management and the new product must have sufficient advantages to move people from their comfort zone.

The QF1 product was good but not good enough to knock out a simple 100 year old test that generations of doctors had grown up with.

Another issue in the US is that the budgets of the 50 states have been slammed by the recession and I imagine it is difficult to maintain funding for existing systems let alone introduce a new product. The incidence of TB in the military is low so again no real rush to change testing methodology.

The real marketing success potential comes from a BCG insensitive test in a TB compromised community. Enter Japan stage left.

I bought after the SSI announcement and the anecdotal results of the testing of QF2 in an isolated out break in Sweden. I never expected QF1 to earn much and felt there would be weakness in the stock up to end 2003 subject to announcements].

The difficulty in converting products into money in the biotech area should serve as an alert to those investing in this sector.