BLUD自动化血液监测仪无人匹敌

11/19 02:27 EST


今天我们说说市场垄断。假设一位不幸遭遇车祸的病人急需器官移植，或是贫血症的糖尿病患者急需同样血型，一旦输入血型不配对将造成严重医疗事故。Immucor(代號:BLUD) 就在这个行业处于垄断地位，公司生产并制造自动化的、能够提供精准血液分析的仪器和化学品。上个月，公司发布了自1982年成立以来最好的季报，业绩预案高于预期。公司预测09年一季度每股收益将达到0.28美元，高于共识0.05美元。本季度销售额同比上涨了15%至7320万美元。目前公司拥有 8900万美元自有现金。

在基本面方面，公司可谓是以尖端技术独占鳌头，一览众山小，行业界几乎无人匹敌。公司的产品无论在什么样的经济环境下都能够获得利润。分析师表示：“你很难在行业内再找到基本面这么优秀的公司了。”公司主要服务的客户是医院、血库和诊所实验室。Galileo和Echo系统是公司最卖座的热门产品。 Galileo主要适用于大规模的医学活动中，而Echo则使用于小型医学活动，因为Echo更加小巧和快速，极受中小型医院的青睐。公司还出售 Capture Workstation，这是一种自动化半导体手动输血测试仪。公司制造并出售此种仪器相关的试剂和药品，以及区分血液型号和组成的化学试剂。

这些拳头产品是公司业务增长的摇钱树。对于公司的产品来说，全球市场商机无限，预计总市值将达到10亿美元。公司面向自动化操作的转变是拓展全球市场的重要战略步骤。公司于1985年上市，在美国市场拥有70%的业务，其余则散布全球各地。公司主要的竞争对手是OrthoClinical Diagnostics，这是Johnson&Johnson(代號:JNJ)旗下的一个部门。分析师表示：“目前的市场是由这两家巨头操控的。”但是两家公司的技术大相径庭。两家公司都提供分析仪器和配对试剂，但是最大的不同点在于，检测的速度和容量。

分析师表示：“Immucor的仪器总是能够领先于OrthoClinical Diagnostics，主要由于公司的系统优越于后者。”因此，行业内无人匹敌的优越性意味着创新速度放缓，分析师表示，是自动化操作的核心产品使得公司拥有行业领先的地位，现在公司应当专注于研发的投入。第四杜宇公司来说，开发硬件的成本仍然是较大的障碍。并且目前的市场尚不足以吸收非常新颖的产品，市场空间有限，仅为6亿美元。“这么小的市场空间尚不足以吸引较大的市场制造商。”

公司最重要的竞争来自医院和进行血液测试的机构，主要通过旧的途径：将血液样本送到实验室进行手动式检测。目前美国约有75%的输血检验是通过手动实现的，这种现象已经存在很长时间了。分析师表示：“一旦有人出了一个错误，结果将不堪设想。”同时这种测试方法还存在价格昂贵的弊端，因为技术师的薪水要求是很高的。因此随着技术师年龄增大，此行业亟待自动化仪器来取代人工测试。公司推出的自动化实验仪器的确是一鸣惊人。分析师表示，在美国，每年有1400 万名数输血病人需要进行血液检测。而输血引发的医疗事故每年也是直线上升。因此市场对于精确的自动化血液检测仪器的需求量极大。

Thomson Reuters分析师预期公司09年每股收益将由1美元降至0.98美元，主要由于公司今年进行了收购交易。今年八月公司斥资1.17亿美元收购了 BioArray。公司主席Edward Gallup表示此项收购交易将促进公司今年每股收益增长0.17-0.18美元。BioArray还为公司带来了新颖尖端的医学技术：输血分子诊断技术。Edward Gallup表示：“我们信相信此项收购将使公司机身世界领先的输血预期制造商行列。”目前公司股价接近25美元，12月内销售达到2.71亿美元，五年内利润增长率为53% 。

Investor's Business Daily
Medical Products Maker's Blood-Testing Tools Dominate The Field
Wednesday November 19, 8:10 pm ET
Peter Benesh

Talk about a captive market. Say you're an accident victim or a transplant patient or an anemic diabetic, and you need a blood transfusion.

You want the right blood type, no ifs, ands or buts. A mismatch can be deadly.

Immucor (NasdaqGS:BLUD - News) makes machines and chemicals for automated, accurate analysis of blood for type and antibodies. Last month, the company reported its best quarter since it was founded in 1982.

It blasted past analysts' expectations, says David Turkaly, an analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, which owns Immucor shares.

The company delivered earnings of 28 cents per share in its 2009 first quarter. That beat consensus views by 5 cents.

Sales rose 15% year over year to $73.2 million for the quarter. Immucor has $89 million in cash.

Company Fundamentals

Immucor has good technology and little competition, and its products will be needed no matter what the state of the economy, Turkaly says.

"It's tough to find companies with such good fundamentals," he said.

The firm's customers are hospitals, blood banks and clinical labs. The company's top-selling instruments are its Galileo and Echo systems.

Galileo is for high-volume use. The smaller and faster Echo is for lower volumes, as in small and midsize hospitals.

Immucor also sells the Capture Workstation, which semi-automates manual lab tests of pre-transfusion blood. It makes and sells the reagents required by its devices.

Reagents are chemicals that identify blood components. They're the razor blades in Immucor's business.

The global market opportunity for all Immucor's products could be as much as $1 billion, Turkaly says. The switch to automation will expand the market.

The firm went public in 1985. It gets 70% of its business from the U.S., while the rest of the world accounts for the remainder.

Its major competitor is Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, a unit of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ - News). "It's essentially a duopoly," Turkaly said.

The two technologies are very different, says Joshua Zable, an analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder. Both companies supply the analytical equipment and matching reagents.

The big difference, Zable says, is speed and volume: "Immucor stands way above J&J with more advanced instruments with better throughput."

"You could argue," said Turkaly, "that both of Immucor's systems are better mousetraps than J&J's."

The absence of competition has meant less innovation in the automation of pre-transfusion blood, says Quintin Lai, an analyst at Robert W. Baird, which seeks Immucor's investment banking business.

Immucor has the leadership position because automation is its core business, and that's where it concentrates its R&D dollars, Lai says.

Major competition isn't likely, Zable says. That's because the cost of developing new hardware and reagents to penetrate an established duopoly is a high barrier.

And the market won't be big enough to attract a big firm with deep pockets, according to Lai. The entire world reagent market is just $600 million, "not big enough to attract a major diagnostic player," he said.

Immucor's most important competition comes from hospitals and agencies that still test blood the old-fashioned way: by sending blood samples to a lab where someone assesses each specimen by hand, one at a time.

About 75% of U.S. pre-transfusion blood testing is done manually, Turkaly says, and that takes a long time.

Human error is always a concern.

The risk is considerable, says Lai: "If you make a mistake, the result can be dramatic and sometimes fatal."

And it's expensive. Salaries are high for skilled people who can do the lab work and interpret the results, Lai says. Those with the skills are aging and leaving the work force, pushing blood banks to automate.

Using a machine that does the analysis automatically is a real cost-saver. A machine can do 20 samples in the time it takes a person to do one, Turkaly says.

Each year, more than four million Americans need blood transfusions, according to the American Association of Blood Banks. Blood banks collect 14 million pints of blood each year.

In the U.S., each unit is tested for type and for hepatitis B and C, HIV, human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 and syphilis.

The most common and deadliest risk associated with transfusion is hemolytic transfusion reaction, which can be caused by a mismatch in blood types. The reaction destroys red blood cells.

About one in 33,000 transfused units triggers this potentially deadly reaction. That's twice the rate of all the other possible infections from blood transfusions, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Thomson Reuters analysts see Immucor's 2009 per-share earnings slipping to 98 cents from $1 in 2008. Immucor's fiscal year ends in May.

New Acquisition

The reason for the decline is a recent acquisition. Immucor paid $117 million for BioArray, closing the deal in August.

Edward Gallup, Immucor's chairman, said in an October conference call that the buy would mean dilution of 17 to 18 cents in the current fiscal year. The company did not respond to requests for an interview.

BioArray gives Immucor new technology: molecular diagnostics of pre-transfusion blood. "We believe this acquisition places Immucor on the leading edge of transfusion medicine," Gallup said on the call.

With the acquisition, Immucor got 100 issued or pending patents. BioArray will retain its name and remain in Warren, N.J.

Customers are loyal, says Lai: "Once they're entrenched, the switching cost is quite high."

One cloud on the horizon: Immucor is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over possible unfair competitive practices. The company says it is cooperating fully with regulators.