BERNSTEIN

Something we continue to work on with our clients is that as they spend all of these dollars on marketing communications, they want to make sure that they follow-up on the interest that is generated, be it leads or queries. That they close the loop. We also advise them that there is a tremendous opportunity to brand the sales call. The sales force is the front line and the voice of the company and, as we often say, the first customer. It is important that sales reps know how to use marketing communications materials and understand the objectives of the marketing campaign so that the company is able to carry the campaign through, end to end.

DUNN

I think that diagnostic companies would be wise to pay more attention to what is happening in the therapeutics clinical trial arena so that if they have an appropriate product, they can try to get that product used as one of the measurements of success in the clinical trial. Roche Molecular Systems did what I think is a brilliant job with that, by having their HIV quantitative assay used as part of the clinical trials for the new protease inhibitors that were being tested. In this way Roche essentially established its product as the gold standard. Diagnostic companies have other products in development that may be able to play a similar role, but they have to work at getting themselves into the clinical loop and thus establish a place for their diagnostic product in the whole protocol.

DIAGNOSTIC INSIGHT

How do view the role of consumer activism as part of the commercialization and reimbursement process of a product?

DUNN

That is a double-edged sword. Going back again to an HIV test for example, clearly the activist and patient advocacy organizations very much wanted this test to be available, but at the same time they didn't want to pay for it. I think we are going to see this happen whenever there is a wide consumer awareness.