How do IVD companies adapt to such changes in technologies as well as to changes in the structure of the market?
You can look at this in a number of different ways. Certainly, software has made a dramatic change in instrument technology. The capabilities of an instrument developed today compared to in the 1970s or 1980s are far greater because of software—what you are able to program and how easy it is to program, but also how you can provide new product instruction to the organization. As we identify a technology that might be better used, we acquire it, make sure we can train people on it, and then implement it where we think it is best suited within the platform. Like other companies, we want to come out with a new platform on a periodic basis. If the evolution is minor, we may install a new technology on an existing system, or upgrade the system, or we may simply save it for the next generation. A company cannot afford to make changes to analyzers on a frequent basis except to upgrade software. What sort of challenges does ensuring lot-to-lot consistency present to IVD companies in their manu
