DIAGNOSTIC INSIGHT

The rule of thumb is that small companies need the infrastructure of larger companies to successfully market their products. Is this still a model for 2002 and forward?

DUNN

I don't think this is necessarily the model to follow. There are some in vitro diagnostics companies with some very interesting technologies that they introduce first in a clinical research setting. The companies that do this have a much easier time moving those technologies into the clinical lab, since they have already built a skilled technologist base to facilitate that transfer to the clinical lab. So I don't necessarily believe that small companies need a big multinational company to get their products out and accepted.

BERNSTEIN

There is a lot of opportunity in very select ways to market today. The lines of competition themselves are blurring, there are many strategic partnerships forming and I see that as a tremendous benefit as we look to the future in diagnostics.

CHOW

I don't think that having a big multinational as a partner is necessarily the answer. Sometimes there are marketing efficiencies and niche market needs that are better served by a smaller company. But I would caution young companies that when they put together their own marketing and sales team, not to try to imitate the big companies. Rather they have to redefine the game and play it differently, because they can never match the resources of the big companies. I see companies that try to emulate the big ones, and it doesn't work. They have to create their own paradigm and their own unique way of servicing the customer in a way that is meaningful, then they will succeed. They have to be themselves and reinforce who they are and what they have to offer the marketplace. This is how small companies can carve out a significant share in their defined market.