As easy as selling the world's most effective RAT test during a...

As easy as selling the world's most effective RAT test during a once-a-century pandemic, one might think. Or as easy as selling a diagnostic test that can detect the presence of troponin at point of care to confirm a heart attack within 15 minutes.

Once again, a couple of decades of world's best science have meant nothing without the acumen to convert commercially. The company's new chairman and sales bulldog should help change course, but as usual so much is dependent on the other parties Anteo deals with and history has shown that to be a lop-sided, soul-destroying experience. The size of the company tends to be in direct proportion to how much of a prick it's willing to be.

An appropriate allegory might be the author of 'A Confederacy of Dunces'. It's worth looking up. He committed suicide, having never been able to get his novel published. Nobody would touch it. His mother lobbied publishers after her son's death and still nobody would publish, until one academic and part-time publisher agreed to read the manuscript.

He would later write the foreword.

"...the lady was persistent, and it somehow came to pass that she stood in my office handing me the hefty manuscript. There was no getting out of it; only one hope remained—that I could read a few pages and that they would be bad enough for me, in good conscience, to read no farther. Usually I can do just that. Indeed the first paragraph often suffices. My only fear was that this one might not be bad enough, or might be just good enough, so that I would have to keep reading. In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a prickle of interest, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that it was so good."

The novel became one of the most celebrated works of fiction in 20th century American literature. It had been staring them right in the face and it couldn't get published. The counterbalance to that allegory is that eventually it was published - quality finally triumphed - but it's only matter of luck and it was damn hard to get there.

Quality is an indicator of success, but far from a guarantee. This company remains haunted by Philips, years ago, a corporate giant that preferred to go alone and fail, rather than share any of its success with a small tech company in Brisbane, Australia that could have enabled success for all - totally counter-productive to its own ends, but it was still their preferred option. These are the realistic considerations of big business and "dealing with other people" and, as it turns out, it's a hurdle Anteo has never overcome, despite the quality of its tech.

I'm not saying it will be the case (yet) again, but yin needs yang at the speculative end of the market.