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TWST: Could you provide our readers with an overview of Visible Genetics (Nasdaq:VGIN)?

Mr. Daly: Visible Genetics started in 1994. It was an outgrowth of a group of scientists who had developed a very thin-film DNA sequencing technology, which forms the basis of our platform technology. Over the years applications have been investigated and developed to use that in the area of clinical DNA sequencing, so that today the company is poised to be the first company to rapidly introduce sequencing technology very close to the users, meaning the patient and physician. Essentially, the company’s strategy is to decentralize sequencing technology in a clinical setting from about half a dozen key sites right now in North America, to within a year, about 200 key sites. This will be the first time that pharmacogenomic technology has really been incorporated into standards of care and treatment in the physician’s office and the clinical laboratory.

TWST: How big is this marketplace potentially?

Mr. Daly: The potential for HIV is quite large. Just in North America there are about 400,000 patients in treatment, and they change drug therapy about twice a year. We believe that at least every time they change drug therapy they’re going to need resistance test information, so that’s a market of about 800,000 tests just in North America. The potential outside North America is about another 400,000 tests per year.

TWST: Is this potentially usable for other tests as well?

Mr. Daly: Yes, it is. We have a couple of other things working right now. Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B kits are both scheduled for introduction later this year. We’re actually selling Hepatitis C now in Europe, and we also have some initial pilot work going on in the area of the multi drug resistant tuberculosis and in cancer, although the cancer project has a fairly long time frame associated with it. There are some unique issues around genotyping cancer tumors, but we’re hopeful that that will develop out over the next three years.

TWST: Who are you competing with in this space?

Mr. Daly: The major objective of the company is to get this introduced and used. It’s being used at a very low level in these centralized labs right now, so essentially we’re pioneering the market, so there is no real competition at the moment. But down the road there may be competition from people making similar systems and from core central labs doing the tests themselves. But right now, it’s an open field and we don’t really have any competition at the moment.

TWST: What is the competitive advantage? Is it time and proximity?

Mr. Daly: Yes. Essentially the advantage that our system brings is it’s a very small and inexpensive sequencing system, so it really costs us about $10,000 to install at the clinical site. Other available commercial sequencers cost about $100,000. So it’s very well suited because of the speed, the small footprint in the lab — it’s about the size of a personal computer — for decentralization. So, essentially that is what we think the revolution is going to be, a proliferation of sequencing technology using our system.

TWST: What are your strategies to get this out into the marketplace?

Mr. Daly: The core strategy is to get this initial HIV test and system through the FDA process. That’s a very, very important milestone.