A compelling case29 Apr 2022 14:08
A highly knowledgeable AGL poster from another board, Sicilian_Kan, posted the following compelling read:
"Remember that Abbott Laboratories is not your normal pharma. It specialises in in "diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition and branded generic pharmaceuticals". Despite being valued at $208bn, and despite specialising in medical diagnostics and devices, you might be surprised to know that Abbott Laboratories have no real liquid biopsy foothold. If you google "liquid biopsy" and "Abbott Laboratories", the first two things that come up on the google search are the collaboration between Angle and Abbott, even without including Angle's name in the search. Next, if you look at Abbott's annual report, the words "liquid biopsy" "ctdna" AND "ctc" appear nowhere. In short, when it comes to this critical current and forward looking area of medical diagnostics and devices (liquid biopsies) Abbott is in the dark ages. In this important sector (and I do not suggest anything wider than that) Abbott are at risk of being IBM in the days of Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook and Nvidia. They are at risk of having missed the boat in one of the largest new areas of medical science. So it is no wonder that Abbott want to be involved in the liquid biopsy space and they have already collaborated with Angle on the MBC trial that is the bedrock of the FDA application. We are also being told by Berenberg and other established sources that FDA approval should kick off an "Abbott breast cancer partnership", "which should translate into a prompt monetary benefit". We also know from the Finncap report that "Although there is no commercial agreement with Abbott as yet, testing of CTCs for HER-2 could provide Abbott with a repeat test for HER-2 giving a 4x increase in use of their PathVysion test; creating a market worth c.$2bn." (note this would be an annual market) Investing in Angle by way of a partnership giving exclusivity in just one nice sector within a sector (HER-2 / FISH testing in MBC), could therefore give Abbott a very, very healthy return on their investment. But why would they want to stop there, in such a niche area?" 2/2