Fertile Granite

Notes from the East Woods
musings on opportunities in the life science marketplace

May 2010

Greetings!

A small crack in the granite can help us understand where the opportunities lie. Please have a read and feel free to let me know what you think.

Regards,

Paul Danis
Founder and Principal

This Month's Features

- Granite Opportunties

- Life Science Market Update

- About Us

Granite Opportunities

How does a plant grow from a rock? I was wondering this as I looked at the black birch seedling sticking out of the hunk of granite. Looking a little closer I could see that it had a toehold in a small crack, where it was able to summon the ingredients for growth. This is similar to what happens with many businesses in the life sciences. If there is a crack or gap in the business or in the customer's situation, all kind of effort will result. These cracks are the opportunities for growth.

Granted many of the gaps are self-imposed, but they are still responsible for guiding people's efforts. So let's take a quick look at a few.

Revenue gaps - If the corporate goals are on the other side of the void, then an acquisition, development of a new product, or improved sales channels will get you across. If there is a gap at that business unit level, then more near-term, tactical activities will result - increased marketing, sharpening the product strategy, or more hands in the field.

Customer gaps - When companies determine that their customers are facing a hole in their process, they have a great starting point for new product development. Often the customer has gaps in their workflow in terms of efficiency, costs, time or performance that can be addressed. Just look at your favorite new product, and it becomes obvious what gap it is trying to fill.

Organizational gap - Sometimes the gaps are internal and relate to the company's' ability to get its products completed and in the market. Or maybe they are having trouble getting to the right customers. Here they can add personnel, partner with a complementary organization, or sometimes they just stumble along, knowing they have this gap.

Though understanding the gaps in and around your organization or marketplace is not the whole picture, it is responsible for putting the fine point on many of your efforts. Here are a few recent examples

ThermoFisher acquired Proxeon to fill a gap in their offering for LC/MS, which in turn addresses the customer's gap in efficiency

BioMarker Strategies will receive $1 million from the National Cancer Institute to fill its funding gap. This will enable them to develop their live tumor cell testing system.

Ireland's National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training partnered with Waters to fill a gap in people's ability to characterize glycans. They will create a database of glycan information to help enable the production of effective and safe biotherapeutics.

So to focus your efforts, take a look at your organization and your customers to see where the cracks and gaps appear. That is where the opportunities lie, just waiting for you to take hold of them.

Life Science Market Update

Index	April Value	Change 12mo.	12 mo. High	12 mo. Low
EC BioTools	729	45%	729	502
EC BigPharma	766	26%	801	609
EC Biotech	658	39%	658	474

The Tools sector continues to be the star, outpacing Biotech and BigPharma, and up 5% over last month. BigPharma was down across the board with Baxter getting wacked 19% on news of its less than rosy outlook. Biotech was mixed with Dendreon shooting up 48% on the approval of its prostate cancer drug, Provenge.

EC BioIndex April 2010

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Many of the life science indices currently available are a mixture of various types of companies. In order to better assess the situation in the different segments, Eastwoods Consulting has created these price-weighted indices for the sectors of large pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, and life science research tools companies.

EC BioTools Index - A, ACCL, AFFX, BEC, BIO, BRKR, CALP, DNEX, HBIO, HLCS, ILMN, LIFE, LMNX, PKI, QGEN, SIAL, TMO, VARI, WAT
EC BigPharma Index - JNJ, PFE, GSK, NVS, SNY, LUN, ABT, LLY, AZN, WYE, BMY, NVO, BAX, TEVA, KG, ROG.VX
EB Biotech Index - AMGN, GENZ, BIIB, CEPH, GILD, BMRN, AMLN, IDXX, SEPR, OSIP, PDLI, CPHD, ALKS, REGN, VRTX, THRX, HGSI, SGMO, NKTR
Prices are taken at the close of each month.

About Eastwoods Consulting

Translating Innovations into Profits for the Life Science Industry^sm

Eastwoods Consulting helps life science companies grow their businesses. Please visit our web site or contact us to learn more about how we help companies succeed in competitive markets.

Copyright © 2010, Eastwoods Consulting. This publication may be freely redistributed in full or in part as long as full attribution including our contact information and web address, are included. Eastwoods is a registered servicemark of Eastwoods Consultng.